Dealing with Long Taxonomy Descriptions in the WordPress Administration Panels

If you’re like me, you try to take full advantage of the taxonomy system the the latest version of WordPress. Unfortunately, the taxonomy administration panels tend to get quickly bloated where terms have descriptions that are longer than a few words. Here is a quick and easy method to help put an end to long descriptions messing with your work flow.

Shorten the Term Descriptions

/**
 * Create actions for all taxonomies.
 *
 * @return    void
 *
 * @since     2010-05-31
 * @alter     2011-01-09
 */
function mfields_taxonomy_description_add_actions() {
	global $wp_taxonomies;
	foreach ( $wp_taxonomies as $taxonomy => $taxonomies ) {
		add_action( 'manage_' . $taxonomy . '_custom_column', 'mfields_taxonomy_description_rows', 10, 3 );
		add_action( 'manage_edit-' . $taxonomy . '_columns',  'mfields_taxonomy_description_columns' );
	}
}
add_action( 'admin_init', 'mfields_taxonomy_description_add_actions' );

/**
 * Filter the taxonomy tables columns.
 *
 * Remove the default "Description" column.
 * Add a custom "Short Description" column.
 *
 * @param     array     Unfiltered columns for the taxonomy's edit screen.
 * @return    array     Modified columns for the taxonomy's edit screen.
 *
 * @since     2010-05-31
 * @alter     2011-01-09
 */
function mfields_taxonomy_description_columns( $c ) {
	unset( $c['description'] );
	$c['short_description'] = 'Description';
	return $c;
}

/**
 * Display the shortened description in each row's custom column.
 *
 * @param     string    Should be empty.
 * @return    string    Name of the column.
 * @return    string    Term id. Integer represented as string.
 *
 * @since     2010-05-31
 * @alter     2011-01-09
 */
function mfields_taxonomy_description_rows( $string, $column_name, $term ) {
	$description = '';
	if ( 'short_description' == $column_name ) {
		global $taxonomy;
		$description = term_description( $term, $taxonomy );
	}
	return $string . mfields_shorten( $description, 40 );
}

/**
 * Shorten a string to a given length.
 *
 * @param     string    The string to shorten.
 * @return    int       Number of characters allowed in $string. Defaults value is 23.
 * @return    string    Text to append to the shortened string.
 *
 * @since     2010-05-31
 * @alter     2011-01-09
 */
function mfields_shorten( $string, $length = 23, $append = '...' ) {
	$string = strip_tags( $string );
	$string = trim( $string );
	$string = html_entity_decode( $string, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8' );
	$string = rtrim( $string, '-' );
	return ( strlen( $string ) > absint( $length ) ) ? substr_replace( $string, $append, absint( $length ) ) : $string;
}

Hope someone finds this useful.