Support different abbreviation characters

[lennartkoopmann]

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Currently, the abbreviate() function takes two parameters:

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
value	String	x	The string to abbreviate
width	Long	x	The maximum number of characters including the '...' (at least 4)

I suggest adding a new parameter that controls which characters are appended and let it default to .... The reason is, that some users want to change it to something like [abbreviated because message is too long] or [message too long. open log file X on source server] etc.

[joschi]

@lennartkoopmann I think the abbreviate() function should really just abbreviate the input string and not replace it entirely.

Would it help to have a str_length() function which returns the length of a string so that users could write the following rule?

rule "replace-long-string"
when
  str_length(to_string($message.some_field)) > 40
then
  set_field("some_field", "[message too long. open log file X on source server]");
end