Ограничить число выводимых символов - Joomla 3.x: Общие вопросы

<li<?php echo strlen($item->custom_tags)? ' class="'.$item->custom_tags.'"' : ''; ?> data-sp11-item>
	<div class="sp-item" data-sp11-content>
		<?php echo $item->custom_ordering_items; ?>
		<div class="sp1-padding">
			<?php if ($item->getPrimaryImage()) :?>
			<div class="sp-image-container">
				<?php if ($item->getPrimaryLink()) : ?><a href="<?php echo $item->getPrimaryLink()->getUrl(); ?>"><?php endif; ?>
				<img src="<?php echo $item->getPrimaryImage()->getSource(); ?>" alt="<?php echo $item->getPrimaryImage()->getAlttext(); ?>" class="sp-image" />
				<?php if ($item->getPrimaryLink()) : ?>
					<span class="sp-hover"></span>
					<span class="sp-hovercontent"><span>+</span><?php rc_e('READ_MORE'); ?></span>
				</a>
				<?php endif; ?>
			</div>
			<?php endif; ?>

			<div class="sp-head">
				<?php if ($item->getTitle()): ?>
				<h2 class="sp-title">
					<?php if ($item->getPrimaryLink()): ?><a href="<?php echo $item->getPrimaryLink()->getUrl(); ?>"><?php endif; ?>
						<?php echo $item->getTitle();?>
					<?php if ($item->getPrimaryLink()): ?></a><?php endif; ?>
				</h2>
				<?php endif; ?>

				<?php if ($parameters->get('sp11_article_details')): ?>
				<div class="sp-infos">
					<?php if (($parameters->get('sp11_article_details')=='1') or ($parameters->get('sp11_article_details') == 'author')): ?>
					By 	<span class="author"><?php echo $item->getAuthor(); ?></span>
					<?php endif; ?>
					<?php if ($parameters->get('sp11_article_details')=="1"): ?> / <?php endif; ?>
					<?php if (($parameters->get('sp11_article_details')=="1") or ($parameters->get('sp11_article_details') == 'date')): ?>
					<span class="date"><?php echo $item->getDate();?></span>
					<?php endif; ?>
				</div>
				<?php endif; ?>
			</div>

			<div class="sp-text">
				 <?php echo $item->getText(); ?> 
			</div>

			<?php if ($item->getPrimaryLink()) : ?>
			<a href="<?php echo $item->getPrimaryLink()->getUrl(); ?>" class="sp1-readmore"><span><?php rc_e('Подробнее...'); ?></span></a>
			<?php endif; ?>

			<?php if (count($item->custom_tags_list)) : ?>
				<ul class="sp-tags">
				<?php
					foreach($item->custom_tags_list as $key => $name){
				 		echo ' <li class="sp1-tags-'.$key.'">'.$name.'</li>';
					}
				?>
				</ul>
			<?php endif; ?>
		</div>
	</div>
</li>

<div class="sp-text">
				 <?php echo $item->getText(); ?> 
			</div>

JString::substr($item->getText(), 0, 80);

function maxsite_str_word($text, $counttext = 10, $sep = ' ') {
    $words = split($sep, $text);
    if ( count($words) > $counttext )
        $text = join($sep, array_slice($words, 0, $counttext));
    return $text;
}

$string = substr($string, 0, strrpos($string, ' '));
echo $string."… ";

$string = substr($string, 0, 200);

$string = strip_tags($string);
$string = substr($string, 0, 200);
$string = rtrim($string, "!,.-");
$string = substr($string, 0, strrpos($string, ' '));
echo $string." Читать далее ... ";

$string = substr($string, 0, strrpos($string, ' '));
echo $string."… ";

<div class="item-title">
   <a href="<?php echo $curr->link?>" <?php echo SjProducts::parseTarget($options->target);?>><?php echo $curr->name?></a>
</div>