[xgarb]

There's a guide here for making your own output filter.. http://kb.x-cart.com/display/XDD/Flexy+Guide

I found this method easier...

create a file called ShortenText.php in your View folder of your theme classes like this...

<?php

namespace XLite\Module\Customer\CustomerTheme\View; 

/**
 * Abstract widget
 */
abstract class ShortenText extends \XLite\View\AView implements \XLite\Base\IDecorator
{
    protected function flexyModifierShortenText($string)
    {
 
		$string = substr($string, 0, strrpos(substr($string, 0, 200), ' '));
		return $string."...";
    }
}

Then create a copy of the template you want to add the filter to and put it in your template theme folder ie skins/Customer/CustomerTheme/en/modules/XC/News/top_news_messages/list/parts/

I'm adding the filter to the news summary to show the same number of characters. My template looks like this...

{**
 * @ListChild (list="itemsList.newsMessages.customer.top.row", weight="250")
 *}

<span class='brief'>{model.brief_description:ShortenText}</span> <a href="{buildURL(#news_message#,##,_ARRAY_(#id#^model.id))}">Read more</a>

to give something like this on the page...

<snip>
they buy and... Read more

It all works well but... how do I make so I can choose the number of characters to show from the template? IE something like {model.brief_description:ShortenText(100)} to show 100 characters.