Generate excerpt from html (trim, replace) as string

Generate excerpt from html

(function($) { 
    // jQuery function to set a maximum length or characters for a page element it can handle mutiple elements
        $.fn.createExcerpts = function(elems,length,more_txt) {
        $.each($(elems), function() { 
            var item_html = $(this).html(); //
            item_html = item_html.replace(/< /?[^>]+>/gi, ''); //replace html tags
            item_html = jQuery.trim(item_html);  //trim whitespace
            $(this).html(item_html.substring(0,length)+more_txt);  //update the html on page
        });
        return this; //allow jQuery chaining 
    }
})(jQuery); 

//example call
$().createExcerpts('.blogpost',280,'...'); 

// http://www.sitepoint.com/jquery-create-excerpts-text-elements/