In website content operations, page description (DescriptionThe importance of the field is self-evident.It is not only one of the key pieces of information that search engines use to crawl and understand page content, but also a window through which users can initially understand the theme of the page in search results.A clear, concise, and non-redundant description that can effectively increase click-through rate and have a direct impact on SEO performance.

However, in actual operation, we sometimes find that even if the page description is carefully written in the background, it may unexpectedly bring forward and backward line breaks when output in the front-end template.\n）or tab（\t）etc. invisible characters. Although these characters do not directly affect the content, they may cause in the page source code,meta descriptionTagscontentThere are extra blank lines or irregular spacing in the attribute value, which may even affect the display of the abstract in the search results, making it look unprofessional or incomplete.

The issue at hand: Troublesome invisible spaces

There are many sources for these whitespace characters, such as when content editors paste text in the background, they may inadvertently introduce formats outside of the editor; or in some special content import or automatic generation scenarios, the data itself contains these extra characters. When these contain leading or trailing whitespace characters, DescriptionValue directly output to by AnQiCMS templatemetaWhen labeling or displaying areas, although the naked eye may not notice them, they indeed exist in the HTML source code and may be parsed by search engines or browsers, leading to:

  1. Search results summary is not aesthetically pleasing:Search engines may include these whitespace characters in the calculation when displaying page summaries, which can lead to compressed actual text display or unexpected layout issues.
  2. HTML structure redundancy:InmetaTagscontentExcessive line breaks or tab characters in attributes, although they do not affect functionality, they increase the redundancy of the source code.
  3. Layout misalignment risk:IfDescriptionThe content is output in other places on the page (such as list summaries, card descriptions), and excessive whitespace may cause abnormal spacing between elements, affecting the visual effect of the page layout.

In AnQiCMS, whether it is the document description of the article detail page (viaarchiveDetailclassification page classification brief (viacategoryDetailLabel retrieval), or a single-page description (via)pageDetailLabel retrieval) as well as the description of Tag details (via)tagDetailTag acquisition), they may face this problem, especially when they are universal TDK tags.tdkCalling tometa descriptionit, it is even more important to maintain the purity of the content.

Solution: Flexible use.trimFilter

AnQiCMS's template system is based on Django style, providing a very practical 'filter' (filters) feature, allowing us to process data in various ways when outputting variables. In response to the need to remove whitespace characters such as newline and tab at the beginning and end of strings, trimThe filter is our powerful assistant.

trimThe filter is specifically used to remove whitespace characters from the beginning and end of a string, including spaces, newline characters,\ntabs (\t）et al. Its usage is very concise and intuitive, just add it after the variable you need to process.|trim.

Basic usage example:

Suppose we want to output the article'sDescriptionField, and ensure that there are no extra spaces before and after it, you can do it like this:

<meta name="description" content="{% tdk seoDescription with name="Description" %}{{seoDescription|trim}}">

In this example,tdkThe tag is used to get the page description and assign it toseoDescriptionthe variable. Then,{{seoDescription|trim}}this part of the code willseoDescriptionThe value of the variable is passed totrimThe filter processes to ensure that the final output tocontentThe description in the attribute is clean, without leading or trailing newlines and tabs.

Similarly, this method applies to all scenarios that need to clearDescriptionfields with whitespace.

Apply in different tagstrimFilter:

  1. Article details page (archiveDetailTag to get document description):

    {% archiveDetail archiveDescription with name="Description" %}
<p>文档描述：{{archiveDescription|trim}}</p>

  2. Category details page (categoryDetailTag to get category description):

    {% categoryDetail categoryDescription with name="Description" %}
<div>分类简介：{{categoryDescription|trim}}</div>

  3. Single page detail page (pageDetailGet single page description):

    {% pageDetail pageDescription with name="Description" %}
<span>单页描述：{{pageDescription|trim}}</span>

  4. Tag detail page (tagDetailGet tag description):

    {% tagDetail tagDescription with name="Description" %}
<span>Tag描述：{{tagDescription|trim}}</span>

If you need more fine-grained control, such as only removing leading whitespace, or only removing trailing whitespace, AnQiCMS also provides the corresponding filters:

  • |trimLeft：Only remove whitespace characters from the left (beginning) of the string.
  • |trimRight：Only remove whitespace characters from the right (end) of the string.

But in most cases, forDescriptionThis kind of text needs to be tidy as a whole,|trimwhich is enough to meet the needs.

WhytrimIs a **choice?

In AnQiCMS, in addition to thetrimthere is alsoreplaceThe filter can replace specific characters in a string. For example, theoretically, we could use{{变量|replace:"\n",""}}to remove line breaks. However,replaceto replace characters in a stringallThe matched characters, including newline characters in the middle of the content.DescriptionThe field may contain line breaks in the middle, which are intentionally added to maintain readability in certain display scenarios (although it is usually not recommended).meta descriptionIt is usually not recommended).

trimThe filter is different, it only focuses on the string'sends, precisely addressing the leading and trailing whitespace issues without affecting any characters in the middle, making it suitable for processingDescriptionA field blank space **and the safest tool.

Implementation steps and precautions

Implementing this optimization is very simple:

  1. LocateDescriptionOutput position:Find your AnQiCMS template file where it usesDescriptionthe field, for example<head>the areameta name="description"the tag, or the display area for articles/list summaries.
  2. Add|trimFilter:when outputtingDescriptionThe place of variables, directly add after the variable name|trim.
  3. Save and test:Save the template file, then refresh your website page, and check the page source or actual display effect to confirm that the extra whitespace has been successfully removed.

This tiny optimization can help your website do better in the details, whether it's improving SEO friendliness or enhancing user experience, it will bring a positive impact.

Common Questions (FAQ)

Q:|trimThe filter will removeDescriptionthe middle newline or tab?

Answer:No.trimThe filter will only handle whitespace characters that start and end with * (including spaces, newlines, tabs). IfDescriptionThe content contains line breaks or tab characters, which will be preserved. If you really need to remove whitespace in the middle of the content, you might consider combining with methods such as|replace:"\n"," "or|replace:"\t"," "etc., but this is usually not recommended formeta description[en] Because this may change the original meaning or readability of the text.

[en] Q: What is AnQiCMS?remove[en] Tag({%- -%}) andtrimWhat are the differences between filters?

Answer: remove[en] Tag (such as{%- if ... -%}It is mainly used to control the blank lines produced by the *logical tags* of the template itself. For example, conditional statements or loop tags may introduce extra blank lines before or after rendering.removeTags are passed through by adding hyphens on both sides of the tag to inform the template engine to remove these blank lines.-And, which fields are also recommended to be usedtrimThe filter is to process the content of *variable outputs* and remove the whitespace characters before and after the string value.They handle objects and purposes completely differently; one is a blank for controlling the rendering of template structures, and the other is a blank for handling data content.

Question: BesidesDescription|trimFilter?

Answer: