reading time php (little help if possible)

Hi there,

I suggest doing a var_dump($content) first and see if it's actually showing the proper content to be divided by your wpm. It may not be the one you want to divide.

You can try this one.

    global $post;
    $content = $post->post_content;
    $wpm = 250; // How many words per minute.
    $clean_content = strip_shortcodes( $content );
    $clean_content = strip_tags( $clean_content );
    $word_count = str_word_count( $clean_content );
    $time = ceil( $word_count / $wpm );

Thank you for the tips!

I tried var_dump($content); and it is returning the content!!

I also tried your code and it still gives me 1 min unfortunately...

Maybe i need to refresh the outcome somehow on already published posts?

Hi there,

have you tried the function Tom wrote here:

https://generatepress.com/forums/topic/read-time-for-a-blog-post/page/2/#post-1968767

I tried it just now again, with $wpm = 1; // How many words per minute.
to test it...

and i get 15 minutes...

so i guess the function only counts 15 words.... :/

Something must be interfering with that function.
I use the same method on a few sites.

Try including var_dump($word_count); in your shortcode like so:

function tu_estimated_reading_time() {
    ob_start();
    $post = get_post();
    $content = $post->post_content;
    $wpm = 300; // How many words per minute.

    $clean_content = strip_shortcodes( $content );
    $clean_content = strip_tags( $clean_content );
    $word_count = str_word_count( $clean_content );
    $time ='<div class="read-time"><span class="gp-icon">•</span>Reading time: '. ceil( $word_count / $wpm ) . ' minutes'. '</div>';
    var_dump($word_count);
    return  $time; 
    return ob_get_clean();
}

add_shortcode('tu_reading_time', 'tu_estimated_reading_time');

i tried it, i think the output of the var_dump is
int(15)

you can check it in my page if you want...

Can you try this one?

function tu_estimated_reading_time() {
    ob_start();
    $raw_content = get_the_content( get_the_ID() );
    $decode_content = html_entity_decode( $raw_content );
    $filter_shortcode = do_shortcode( $decode_content );
    $strip_tags = wp_strip_all_tags( $filter_shortcode, true );
    $count = str_word_count( $strip_tags );
    $wpm = 250;
    $readtime = ceil( $count / $wpm );
    $time ='<div class="read-time"><span class="gp-icon">•</span>Reading time: '. $readtime . ' minutes'. '</div>';
    return  $time; 
    return ob_get_clean();
}

add_shortcode('tu_reading_time', 'tu_estimated_reading_time');

I tried it. Check it bellow.
If you search the read-time element you will see that it is still 1 minute, unfortunately...

Strange,

I wonder if it has something to do w/ the language characters used as I've tried my suggestion and David's on a sandbox site and they were both working.

But the tests were both for english contents using latin characters.

Any chance you can try making an english content and see if it works there? You can try making dummy english posts using FakerPress plugin.

i think you are right! check the link in the private info

it shows 6 minutes...

How could i overcome this... or research for this somehow?

Thank you for all the help isolating this matter

Not sure but maybe instead of using str_word_count - this method which counts spaces would work:

https://coderedirect.com/questions/5941/str-word-count-for-non-latin-words

Should i use it like this?

function tu_estimated_reading_time() {
ob_start();
$raw_content = get_the_content( get_the_ID() );
$decode_content = html_entity_decode( $raw_content, ENT_COMPAT, 'ISO-8859-7' );
$filter_shortcode = do_shortcode( $decode_content );
$strip_tags = wp_strip_all_tags( $filter_shortcode, true );
$count = array_count_values( $strip_tags );
$wpm = 250;
$readtime = ceil( $count / $wpm );
$time ='

';
return $time;
return ob_get_clean();
}

add_shortcode('tu_reading_time', 'tu_estimated_reading_time');`

You can try that or do str_word_count as David suggested for the striped tagged content which is $strip_tags and do a var_dump of just to know if it actually does what's intended.

I'd consider doing a var_dump for all variables to be sure where the issue starts.

I tried

function tu_estimated_reading_time() {
ob_start();
$raw_content = get_the_content( get_the_ID() );
$decode_content = html_entity_decode( $raw_content, ENT_COMPAT, ‘ISO-8859-7′ );
$filter_shortcode = do_shortcode( $decode_content );
$strip_tags = wp_strip_all_tags( $filter_shortcode, true );
$count = array_count_values( $strip_tags );
$wpm = 250;
$readtime = ceil( $count / $wpm );
$time =’

‘. $readtime . ‘ min’. ‘
‘;
return $time;
return ob_get_clean();
}

add_shortcode(‘tu_reading_time’, ‘tu_estimated_reading_time’);

but i got 0 minutes as a result.

and i tried changing the code to this also

function tu_estimated_reading_time() {
    ob_start();
    $raw_content = get_the_content( get_the_ID() );
    $decode_content = html_entity_decode( $raw_content );
    $filter_shortcode = do_shortcode( $decode_content );
    $strip_tags = wp_strip_all_tags( $filter_shortcode, true );
    $count = str_word_count( $strip_tags );
    $wpm = 250;
    $readtime = ceil( $count / $wpm );
    $time ='<div class="reading-time">'. $readtime . ' min'. '</div>';
    return  $time; 
    return ob_get_clean();
}

add_shortcode('tu_reading_time', 'tu_estimated_reading_time');

but i got 1 minute again...

Lastly i did var_dump for all variables.
in this order

function tu_estimated_reading_time() {
    ob_start();
    $raw_content = get_the_content( get_the_ID() );
    $decode_content = html_entity_decode( $raw_content );
    $filter_shortcode = do_shortcode( $decode_content );
    $strip_tags = wp_strip_all_tags( $filter_shortcode, true );
    $count = str_word_count( $strip_tags );
    $wpm = 250;
    $readtime = ceil( $count / $wpm );
    $time ='<div class="reading-time">'. $readtime . ' min'. '</div>';
	var_dump($wpm);
	var_dump($raw_content);
    var_dump($decode_content);
    var_dump($filter_shortcode);
    var_dump($strip_tags);
    var_dump($count);
	
    return  $time; 
    return ob_get_clean();
}

add_shortcode('tu_reading_time', 'tu_estimated_reading_time');

and you can see the result in my link in the before_footer section, i added the shortcode only there, with a hook, so it will be easily visible for you.

In my first try i dint find anything, i will try looking again to understand.

Please if you take a look also though, i would really appreciate it!