Character limit for summary?

You could change the summary field in the database from a text field to varchar(255).  That would be a very short summary.  Anything else would be a pretty involved mod.

Thanks for the info.

I have a feeling that our users would riot if we had such a short summary limit. However, if some PHP genius feels like taking the task on, we're willing to fork over some $$$ for the effort.

I'm not sure just changing the SQL database table would be satisfactory (no matter what length you decide).  Wouldn't that just throw up a SQL error if the the summary was too small and fail the story add?

After a little bit of Googlefu, I found two different javascripts that might be useful, if you can rewrite either of them and add them to the includes/storyform.php.

http://www.reconn.us/content/view/34/46/  (This looks promising as it is short.)

http://www.hscripts.com/scripts/JavaScript/character-count.php

And, no, not angling for the job (grin).

No, it won't throw an error.  It'll just cut the text off at the limit.  That's why I suggested that as the only easy way to do it.  You'd have to use a combination of javascript and checks within the php (to catch people using FF and other extensions).