This Rails plugin adds a helper called #summarizer which reduces a html fragment to a few words of text.  This is intended for short post summaries.  Not perfect, but much better than the truncate / strip_tags methods used in the rest of the Rails world.

Usage:

  In a view:

    <%= summarizer html %>

  Input example:

    "<p><i>(This has been sitting as a draft for a while, time to release it to the world.)</i></p>\r\n\r\n<p><strong>SEVEN THINGS YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT AN ACTIVERAIN DEVELOPER BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK</strong></p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n  <li>Video game fanatic.  Just about weekly for the past 10 years, I've purchased a video game, and then grown tired of it in days.  Only a select few have retained my interest for years (like Team Fortress 2 and Dwarf Fortress.)"

  Output example:

    "(This has been sitting as a draft for a while, time to release it to the world.) SEVEN THINGS YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT AN ActiveRain DEVELOPER BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK Video game fanatic. Just about weekly for the past 10 years, I've purchased a video game, and then grown tired of it in days. Only a select few have retained my interest for years (like Team Fortress 2 and Dwarf Fortress.)"

Installation:

  Install the plugin into vendor/plugins/summarizer

  In app/helpers/application_helper.rb add:
 
    include SummarizerHelper



    Description:	Rails plugin that adds a helper which reduces an html fragment to a few words of text. Intended for short post summaries. Not perfect, but better than the truncate / strip_tags methods used in the rest of the Rails world