WordPress - Automatically generate meta description from content

auto-description-tag-wp

function create_meta_desc() {
    global $post;
if (!is_single()) { return; }
    $meta = strip_tags($post->post_content);
    $meta = strip_shortcodes($post->post_content);
    $meta = str_replace(array("\n", "\r", "\t"), ' ', $meta);
    $meta = substr($meta, 0, 125);
    echo "<meta name='description' content='$meta' />";
}
add_action('wp_head', 'create_meta_desc');

Hi, I am new at this and I need your help please. I would like all my WordPress posts and pages to have individual meta titles and descriptions, from what the page or post says on it, so where can I input this code to make sure that all my posts and pages in my site has Automatically generate meta description from content and if possible Automatically generate meta Titles from content.

I just don't know where I need to install this code and if it will work for meta titles also?

Thank you

Also, Can I use your code with this plugin to allow me to have automatically generated meta description from content?

Please see this plugin: https://en-ca.wordpress.org/plugins/head-meta-data/

Can I use your code in this plugin you think?

What would be the exact markup code for this and do I put this in the head:

function create_meta_desc() {
global $post;
if (!is_single()) { return; }
$meta = strip_tags($post->post_content);
$meta = strip_shortcodes($post->post_content);
$meta = str_replace(array("\n", "\r", "\t"), ' ', $meta);
$meta = substr($meta, 0, 125);
echo "";
}
add_action('wp_head', 'create_meta_desc');

This is a really handy gist! I made some modifications to allow it to use the post_excerpt for a meta description if it existed, and generate a description for posts types without an excerpt, such as pages.

I also always have problems with strip_shortcodes() stripping out all my content, so I ran the content filter before strip_tags and strip_shortcodes .

function create_meta_desc() {
    global $post;
	if (!is_singular()) {return; }
	elseif(!empty( $post->post_excerpt)) {
		echo "<meta name='description' content='$post->post_excerpt' />";
	}
	else{
		$meta = apply_filters('the_content', $post->post_content);
		$meta = strip_tags($meta);
		$meta = strip_shortcodes($meta );
		$meta = str_replace(array("\n", "\r", "\t"), ' ', $meta);
		$meta = substr($meta, 0, 400);
		echo "<meta name='description' content='$meta' />";
	}
}
add_action('wp_head', 'create_meta_desc');

Thanks for this gist, but it need little update for people who migrate from classic editor to Gutenberg.

You must add"<!-- wp:paragraph -->", "<p>"to str_replace, in Gutenberg all paragraphs are begining (and ending) with <!-- wp:paragraph --> also sometimes Gutenberg add <p> to html.

// $meta = str_replace( array("\n", "\r", "\t", "<!-- wp:paragraph -->", "<p>", "<!--nextpage-->"), ' ', $meta );