[SOLVED] Limiting # of chars displayed for a text field in list view

Hi,

I have a field say 'description' defined of type text area where members can describe themselves as sort of introduction.

Now, I have setup a CB list that displays members and each row shows the fields for their username, country and description.

I'd like to do so that in the CB list view, only the first 100 characters this description field are displayed. And when a visitor then clicks on the entry and goes to the user's profile page, there he can read the entire length of the description field.

How would I go about setting this up?

I've see in the CB Field manager -> my 'description' field -> Parameters tab -> Layout tab that there is a 'Userlist Value Layout' box. I read this enables 'substitution supported value layout' but I am not sure if / how this could be used to somehow show only the first 100 characters (perhaps followed by '...')

Could you advise on how I could achieve my goal of a field preview in the CB list?

Thank you!

There's no substitution IF statement to count the number of characters nor a substitution to cut it short. Best I can suggest is to use CSS and text-overflow or using a CB Query Field to query for a limited number of characters from the description field column. The CSS example is as follows.


It works by forcing the text to single line display, setting the max width so it won't overflow its container, then adding overflow handling. You can't really specify how many characters it'll be but it's better than it filling up the page with a very long description.

Another alternative is to use jQuery/JS to modify the DOM after page load. The JS could be added to the page using CB Auto Actions and its Code action.

Thank you very much1