Get excerpt using get_the_excerpt outside a loop

Question

I have a code that call get_the_title() and it works, but get_the_excerpt() return empty. How can i make it work?

This code is inside a plugin called "WP Facebook Open Graph protocol". Here's the part i want to change:

if (is_singular('post')) {
  if (has_excerpt($post->ID)) {
    echo "\t<meta property='og:description' content='".esc_attr(strip_tags(get_the_excerpt($post->ID)))."' />\n";
  }else{
    echo "\t<meta property='og:description' content='". [?] ."' />\n";
  }
}else{
  echo "\t<meta property='og:description' content='".get_bloginfo('description')."' />\n";
}

Here, has_excerpt always fail, and get_the_excerpt($post->ID) don't work anymore (deprecated).

So, how can i display the excerpt there?

ps: I'm using "Advanced Excerpt" plugin as well

Answer 1

I found this question when looking how to do this without the post object.

My additional research turned up this slick technique:

$text = apply_filters('the_excerpt', get_post_field('post_excerpt', $post_id));

Answer 2

Since it seems you already have the post object you need the excerpt for, you can just force things to work:

setup_postdata( $post );
$excerpt = get_the_excerpt();

The setup_postdata() function will globalize the $post object and make it available for regular old loop function. When you're inside the loop, you call the_post() and it sets things up for you ... outside of the loop you need to force it manually.

Answer 3

Try this:

Create a new function in functions.php and then call it from wherever.

function get_excerpt_by_id($post_id){
    $the_post = get_post($post_id); //Gets post ID
    $the_excerpt = $the_post->post_content; //Gets post_content to be used as a basis for the excerpt
    $excerpt_length = 35; //Sets excerpt length by word count
    $the_excerpt = strip_tags(strip_shortcodes($the_excerpt)); //Strips tags and images
    $words = explode(' ', $the_excerpt, $excerpt_length + 1);

    if(count($words) > $excerpt_length) :
        array_pop($words);
        array_push($words, '…');
        $the_excerpt = implode(' ', $words);
    endif;

    $the_excerpt = '<p>' . $the_excerpt . '</p>';

    return $the_excerpt;
}

Here's a post describing the code.

Answer 4

Now you can simply use the get_the_excerpt( $postID ) function. Since: WordPress 4.5.0 introduced the $post parameter.

Answer 5

got it using my_excerpt($post->post_content, get_the_excerpt()) and using the my_excerpt() function from Using wp_trim_excerpt to get the_excerpt() outside the loop

Answer 6

In case you don't have the post object, here's a short function like the one from Withers.

function get_excerpt_by_id($post_id){
    $the_post = get_post($post_id);
    $the_excerpt = $the_post->post_excerpt; 
    return $the_excerpt;
}

Answer 7

This is for when you want to use get_the_excerpt() outside the loop:

function custom_get_excerpt($post_id) {
    $temp = $post;
    $post = get_post($post_id);
    setup_postdata($post);

    $excerpt = get_the_excerpt();

    wp_reset_postdata();
    $post = $temp;

    return $excerpt;
}

Answer 8

If you'd like to generate the excerpt automatically from the content in one line - you can use wp_trim_words function like this:

// 30 is the number of words ehere
$excerpt = wp_trim_words(get_post_field('post_content', $post_id), 30);

Answer 9

$trimexcerpt = get_the_content();
$shortexcerpt = wp_trim_words( $trimexcerpt, $num_words = 18, $more = '… ' ); 
echo $shortexcerpt;