ruby strip_tags and text_trim

helpers.rb

  def strip_tags(text)
    return text.gsub(/<\/?[^>]*>/, "") 
  end 

  def text_trim(text, len, trail = '...')
    if len < text.size then
      text.scan(/.{1,#{len}} /) do |match|
        return match.rstrip + trail
      break
      end 
    else
      return text
    end 
  end