class HerdStringUtils {

    public static String getShortDescription(String description, Integer shortDescMaxLength)
    {
        // Parse out only html tags, truncate and return
        // Do a partial HTML parse just in case there are some elements that don't have ending tags or the like
        String toParse = description != null ? description : "";
        return StringUtils.left(stripHtml(toParse), shortDescMaxLength);
    }

}