Add a line break to the site description in Genesis

For a client’s site I need the site description to break on to a second line at a specific point.

I tried putting a <br /> where I wanted the line break in Settings  > General > Tagline but this outputs the characters <br /> rather than the line break. This is because the genesis_seo_site_description function in genesis/lib/structure/header.php (line 983) uses an esc_html on the get_bloginfo( ‘description’ ) – rightly so.

After looking at a few options like restricting the width of the .site-description class in style.css I realised I had another option. I can use the genesis_seo_description filter that is made available just before the site description is echoed.

I first wrote the function below and set it to convert any – (single dash) to a line break. But because the particular site description I was working with had the word ‘Award-winning’ in it I realised the error of my ways and set it to convert ‘ — ‘ instead (space dash dash space).

You can use whatever characters you wish instead of the “space dash dash space”, as long as they are not escaped by esc_html.

You can view this code on github.

add_filter( 'genesis_seo_description', 'jmw_site_description', 10, 3 );
/**
 * Add line break to site description at "--" in Genesis child themes
 * @link http://www.jowaltham.com/line-break-site-description-genesis
 *
 * @param string $description The html string that is output as the site description
 * @param string $inside The site description in General Settings
 * @param string $wrap The html string to wrap around the site description 
 *
 * @return string Modified description
 */
function jmw_site_description( $description, $inside, $wrap ) {
	$inside = str_replace( '--', '<br />', $inside );
	$description  = sprintf( "<{$wrap} %s>", genesis_attr( 'site-description' ) );
	$description .=  "{$inside}</{$wrap}>";
	return $description;
}

I imagine if you wanted to you could employ a similar technique to the genesis_seo_title to add a line break the site title if you wish.

Featured Image: Photo by Cody Davis on Unsplash