From f25ee52a8bc9cc9b84dfaa3882a7ed3cacd79bc8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jamie Hurst <jamie@jamiehurst.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2025 10:52:56 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Configurable excerpt through environment variables for index
 page

---
 README.md                            |  1 +
 internal/app/app.go                  |  6 ++++++
 internal/app/controller/web/index.go |  5 +++++
 internal/app/model/journal.go        | 25 +++----------------------
 internal/app/model/journal_test.go   | 24 ++++++++++++------------
 web/templates/index.html.tmpl        |  2 +-
 6 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 35 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2b817fb..c52f8e8 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ The application uses environment variables to configure all aspects.
 * `J_DB_PATH` - Path to SQLite DB - default is `$GOPATH/data/journal.db`
 * `J_DESCRIPTION` - Set the HTML description of the Journal
 * `J_EDIT` - Set to `0` to disable article modification
+* `J_EXCERPT_WORDS` - The length of the article shown as a preview/excerpt in the index, default `50`
 * `J_GA_CODE` - Google Analytics tag value, starts with `UA-`, or ignore to disable Google Analytics
 * `J_PORT` - Port to expose over HTTP, default is `3000`
 * `J_THEME` - Theme to use from within the _web/themes_ folder, defaults to `default`
diff --git a/internal/app/app.go b/internal/app/app.go
index 2e583bc..6fabe83 100644
--- a/internal/app/app.go
+++ b/internal/app/app.go
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ type Configuration struct {
 	Description         string
 	EnableCreate        bool
 	EnableEdit          bool
+	ExcerptWords        int
 	GoogleAnalyticsCode string
 	Port                string
 	SSLCertificate      string
@@ -55,6 +56,7 @@ func DefaultConfiguration() Configuration {
 		Description:         "A private journal containing Jamie's innermost thoughts",
 		EnableCreate:        true,
 		EnableEdit:          true,
+		ExcerptWords:        50,
 		GoogleAnalyticsCode: "",
 		Port:                "3000",
 		SSLCertificate:      "",
@@ -88,6 +90,10 @@ func ApplyEnvConfiguration(config *Configuration) {
 	if enableEdit == "0" {
 		config.EnableEdit = false
 	}
+	excerptWords, _ := strconv.Atoi(os.Getenv("J_EXCERPT_WORDS"))
+	if excerptWords > 0 {
+		config.ExcerptWords = excerptWords
+	}
 	config.GoogleAnalyticsCode = os.Getenv("J_GA_CODE")
 	port := os.Getenv("J_PORT")
 	if port != "" {
diff --git a/internal/app/controller/web/index.go b/internal/app/controller/web/index.go
index e134ee4..052c967 100644
--- a/internal/app/controller/web/index.go
+++ b/internal/app/controller/web/index.go
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ type Index struct {
 
 type indexTemplateData struct {
 	Container  interface{}
+	Excerpt    func(model.Journal) string
 	Journals   []model.Journal
 	Pages      []int
 	Pagination database.PaginationDisplay
@@ -49,6 +50,10 @@ func (c *Index) Run(response http.ResponseWriter, request *http.Request) {
 		i++
 	}
 
+	data.Excerpt = func(j model.Journal) string {
+		return j.GetHTMLExcerpt(container.Configuration.ExcerptWords)
+	}
+
 	c.SaveSession(response)
 	template, _ := template.ParseFiles(
 		"./web/templates/_layout/default.html.tmpl",
diff --git a/internal/app/model/journal.go b/internal/app/model/journal.go
index 4d52b87..a13fb33 100644
--- a/internal/app/model/journal.go
+++ b/internal/app/model/journal.go
@@ -52,27 +52,8 @@ func (j Journal) GetEditableDate() string {
 	return re.FindString(j.Date)
 }
 
-// GetExcerpt returns a small extract of the entry as plain text
-func (j Journal) GetExcerpt() string {
-	strip := regexp.MustCompile("\b+")
-	// Markdown handling - replace newlines with spaces
-	text := strings.ReplaceAll(j.Content, "\n", " ")
-	text = strip.ReplaceAllString(text, " ")
-
-	// Clean up multiple spaces
-	spaceRegex := regexp.MustCompile(`\s+`)
-	text = spaceRegex.ReplaceAllString(text, " ")
-
-	words := strings.Split(text, " ")
-
-	if len(words) > 50 {
-		return strings.Join(words[:50], " ") + "..."
-	}
-	return strings.TrimSpace(strings.Join(words, " "))
-}
-
 // GetHTMLExcerpt returns a small extract of the entry rendered as HTML
-func (j Journal) GetHTMLExcerpt() string {
+func (j Journal) GetHTMLExcerpt(maxWords int) string {
 	if j.Content == "" {
 		return ""
 	}
@@ -86,7 +67,7 @@ func (j Journal) GetHTMLExcerpt() string {
 
 	for _, paragraph := range paragraphs {
 		// Skip if we've already got 50+ words
-		if wordCount >= 50 {
+		if wordCount >= maxWords {
 			break
 		}
 
@@ -98,7 +79,7 @@ func (j Journal) GetHTMLExcerpt() string {
 			lineWords := strings.Fields(line)
 
 			// Calculate how many words we can take from this line
-			wordsToTake := 50 - wordCount
+			wordsToTake := maxWords - wordCount
 			if wordsToTake <= 0 {
 				break
 			}
diff --git a/internal/app/model/journal_test.go b/internal/app/model/journal_test.go
index 748dde6..11274d9 100644
--- a/internal/app/model/journal_test.go
+++ b/internal/app/model/journal_test.go
@@ -49,42 +49,42 @@ func TestJournal_GetEditableDate(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-func TestJournal_GetExcerpt(t *testing.T) {
+func TestJournal_GetHTMLExcerpt(t *testing.T) {
 	tables := []struct {
 		input  string
 		output string
 	}{
-		{"Some simple text", "Some simple text"},
-		{"Multiple\n\nparagraphs, some with\n\nmultiple words", "Multiple paragraphs, some with multiple words"},
+		{"Some **bold** text", "<p>Some <strong>bold</strong> text</p>\n"},
+		{"Multiple\n\nparagraphs", "<p>Multiple</p>\n\n<p>paragraphs</p>\n"},
 		{"", ""},
-		{"\n\n", ""},
-		{"a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z", "a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x..."},
+		{"*Italic* and **bold**", "<p><em>Italic</em> and <strong>bold</strong></p>\n"},
+		{"Line 1\nLine 2\nLine 3", "<p>Line 1\nLine 2\nLine 3</p>\n"},
 	}
 
 	for _, table := range tables {
 		j := Journal{Content: table.input}
-		actual := j.GetExcerpt()
+		actual := j.GetHTMLExcerpt(50)
 		if actual != table.output {
-			t.Errorf("Expected GetExcerpt() to produce result of '%s', got '%s'", table.output, actual)
+			t.Errorf("Expected GetHTMLExcerpt() to produce result of '%s', got '%s'", table.output, actual)
 		}
 	}
 }
 
-func TestJournal_GetHTMLExcerpt(t *testing.T) {
+func TestJournal_GetHTMLExcerpt_ShortWords(t *testing.T) {
 	tables := []struct {
 		input  string
 		output string
 	}{
-		{"Some **bold** text", "<p>Some <strong>bold</strong> text</p>\n"},
+		{"Some **bold** text", "<p>Some <strong>bold</strong>&hellip;</p>\n"},
 		{"Multiple\n\nparagraphs", "<p>Multiple</p>\n\n<p>paragraphs</p>\n"},
 		{"", ""},
-		{"*Italic* and **bold**", "<p><em>Italic</em> and <strong>bold</strong></p>\n"},
-		{"Line 1\nLine 2\nLine 3", "<p>Line 1\nLine 2\nLine 3</p>\n"},
+		{"*Italic* and **bold**", "<p><em>Italic</em> and&hellip;</p>\n"},
+		{"Line 1\nLine 2\nLine 3", "<p>Line 1</p>\n"},
 	}
 
 	for _, table := range tables {
 		j := Journal{Content: table.input}
-		actual := j.GetHTMLExcerpt()
+		actual := j.GetHTMLExcerpt(2)
 		if actual != table.output {
 			t.Errorf("Expected GetHTMLExcerpt() to produce result of '%s', got '%s'", table.output, actual)
 		}
diff --git a/web/templates/index.html.tmpl b/web/templates/index.html.tmpl
index 36d35c1..4229f72 100644
--- a/web/templates/index.html.tmpl
+++ b/web/templates/index.html.tmpl
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
             {{.GetDate}}
         </p>
         <div class="summary">
-            {{.GetHTMLExcerpt}}
+            {{call $.Excerpt . }}
             {{if $enableEdit}}<span class="float-right"><a href="/{{.Slug}}/edit" class="button button-outline">Edit</a></span>{{end}}
             <p><a href="/{{.Slug}}">Read More</a></p>
         </div>