Feature Request: Make Relevanssi Custom Post Excerpts work with Elementor Posts Widget

[ur-krostitzer]

Prerequisites

• I have searched for similar feature requests in both open and closed discussions and cannot find an existing request.
• I have verified that the feature is still missing from the latest stable versions of Elementor or Elementor Pro.

What problem is your feature request going to solve? Please describe..

Hi, I am using Relevanssi as search plugin for my website. I have built a search results template using Elementor Pro which contains a "Posts" Widget to display the search results. Relevanssi handles the sorting by relevance and it works really well. The only thing that is missing now is the custom excerpt which highlights the search terms (and also adjusts the content displayed - the post excerpt - in the excerpt to include the search term at all times).

AFAIK Relevanssi overrides the excerpt / post_excerpt attribute in the WP_Query object. Therefore calling the_excerpt() should theoretically work.
In the source code (/modules/posts/skins/skin-base.php) starting at line 994 the_excerpt() is invoked if the apply_to_custom_excerpt control is disabled (tried enabling and disabling but the result was identical).

protected function render_excerpt() {
	add_filter( 'excerpt_more', [ $this, 'filter_excerpt_more' ], 20 );
	add_filter( 'excerpt_length', [ $this, 'filter_excerpt_length' ], 20 );

	if ( ! $this->get_instance_value( 'show_excerpt' ) ) {
		return;
	}

	add_filter( 'excerpt_more', [ $this, 'filter_excerpt_more' ], 20 );
	add_filter( 'excerpt_length', [ $this, 'filter_excerpt_length' ], 20 );

	?>
	<div class="elementor-post__excerpt">
		<?php
		global $post;
		$apply_to_custom_excerpt = $this->get_instance_value( 'apply_to_custom_excerpt' );

		// Force the manually-generated Excerpt length as well if the user chose to enable 'apply_to_custom_excerpt'.
		if ( 'yes' === $apply_to_custom_excerpt && ! empty( $post->post_excerpt ) ) {
			$max_length = (int) $this->get_instance_value( 'excerpt_length' );
			$excerpt = apply_filters( 'the_excerpt', get_the_excerpt() );
			$excerpt = ProUtils::trim_words( $excerpt, $max_length );
			echo wp_kses_post( $excerpt );
		} else {
			the_excerpt();
		}
		?>
	</div>
	<?php

	remove_filter( 'excerpt_length', [ $this, 'filter_excerpt_length' ], 20 );
	remove_filter( 'excerpt_more', [ $this, 'filter_excerpt_more' ], 20 );
}

I have further tested the issue on an empty site with only Elementor (Pro) and Relevanssi installed to exclude other plugins or custom code causing the issue.

Describe the solution you'd like.

A way to replace the excerpt in the posts widget with a custom one (maybe even from a dynamic tag) would be super awesome.

Describe alternatives you've considered.

I have tried the Posts Archive widget as well as creating a Loop Grid with a Loop Item Template but I couldnt make either of those attempts work as intended.

Also I considered removing the Elementor Search Results Template and styling the default WP / Hello Theme Search Results Template with Custom Code CSS but it is a) a hassle and b) has to be kept an eye on in case some change caused by an update is breaking the layout.

Am I missing something? I have done hours of research on this topic but could not find other users that have solved this problem. If others that had the same issue would chime in I would be forever grateful as I am unsure if this is a Elementor or Relevanssi issue (I have contacted the Relevanssi dev as well).

Thanks for your time.

Additional context

No response

Agreement

• I agree that my request may be closed without action if it doesn't meet all the requirements.