Content Options: Ensure excerpt_length is an int to prevent fatal errors

[coder-karen]

Proposed changes:

• This PR ensures $excerpt_length is cast to an int if it is not already an int, to prevent fatal errors. We first check if it's numeric though, as casting a string such as 'Hello' to int will return 0, which isn't ideal for an excerpt length. If it isn't numeric, we'll use the default 55.
• One occurrence was reported internally - see p1732862467954599-slack-C034JEXD1RD - possibly due to a custom filter hooking into excerpt_length and returning a string.

Other information:

• Have you written new tests for your changes, if applicable?
• Have you checked the E2E test CI results, and verified that your changes do not break them?
• Have you tested your changes on WordPress.com, if applicable (if so, you'll see a generated comment below with a script to run)?

Jetpack product discussion

p1732862467954599-slack-C034JEXD1RD

Does this pull request change what data or activity we track or use?

No.

Testing instructions:

• I'm unsure how to replicate the issue in practice, but to test Content Options generally to ensure no issues are introduced you can add the Dara theme to a test site. Open up the customizer and select Content Options. Ensure you don't have a post excerpt set on at least one post.
• It is however to test $excerpt_length as a string by adding $excerpt_length = 'Test'; underneath the apply_filter line.

[github-actions]

Are you an Automattician? Please test your changes on all WordPress.com environments to help mitigate accidental explosions.

• To test on WoA, go to the Plugins menu on a WordPress.com Simple site. Click on the "Upload" button and follow the upgrade flow to be able to upload, install, and activate the Jetpack Beta plugin. Once the plugin is active, go to Jetpack > Jetpack Beta, select your plugin, and enable the fix/content-options-excerpt-length-cast branch.

  • For jetpack-mu-wpcom changes, also add define( 'JETPACK_MU_WPCOM_LOAD_VIA_BETA_PLUGIN', true ); to your wp-config.php file.

• To test on Simple, run the following command on your sandbox:

  bin/jetpack-downloader test jetpack fix/content-options-excerpt-length-cast
  

  bin/jetpack-downloader test jetpack-mu-wpcom-plugin fix/content-options-excerpt-length-cast
  

Interested in more tips and information?

• In your local development environment, use the jetpack rsync command to sync your changes to a WoA dev blog.
• Read more about our development workflow here: PCYsg-eg0-p2
• Figure out when your changes will be shipped to customers here: PCYsg-eg5-p2

[github-actions]

Thank you for your PR!

When contributing to Jetpack, we have a few suggestions that can help us test and review your patch:

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[fgiannar]

LGTM! Many thanks for the fix, Karen!