This is a howto for wrapping a div around a few of your view fields (and not others). This is useful, for instance, for being able to group all one's content so that it floats left but does not float around an image.
EDIT: This technique is a good intro to views templates, however, an easier way exists which seems a little hackish, but would work for many use cases. Thanks to Sr. or Sra. Anonymous [13].
EDIT #2: Another way to create this effect is to use the "Table" layout under "Style" settings for your view. Everyone loves to hate on tables, but they get the job done.
Just use one "Global:Custom" field with a single div tag in it. See screenshot [14]. It will span from that element until the last field in the view row. You can insert another "Global:Custom" field which can be nested inside the previous. However, I do not see a way to use this to create two sibling field groupings, so this post is still useful for learning about views templating and will give you you complete control over your markup.
Carry on.
First, create a template for your view.
Create a template file in your theme directory with the same name as the views and paste the code from the level of specificity that you desire. For more information, read this introduction to views template files [15].
Here is the code from the stock Row Style Output:
// $Id: views-view-fields.tpl.php,v 1.6 2008/09/24 22:48:21 merlinofchaos Exp $
/**
* @file views-view-fields.tpl.php
* Default simple view template to all the fields as a row.
*
* - $view: The view in use.
* - $fields: an array of $field objects. Each one contains:
* - $field->content: The output of the field.
* - $field->raw: The raw data for the field, if it exists. This is NOT output safe.
* - $field->class: The safe class id to use.
* - $field->handler: The Views field handler object controlling this field. Do not use
* var_export to dump this object, as it can't handle the recursion.
* - $field->inline: Whether or not the field should be inline.
* - $field->inline_html: either div or span based on the above flag.
* - $field->separator: an optional separator that may appear before a field.
* - $row: The raw result object from the query, with all data it fetched.
*
* @ingroup views_templates
*/
?>
<?php foreach ($fields as $id => $field): ?>
<?php if (!empty [16]($field->separator)): ?>
<?php print [17] $field->separator; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<<?php print [17] $field->inline_html;?> class="views-field-<?php print $field->class; ?>">
<?php if ($field->label): ?>
<label class="views-label-<?php print $field->class; ?>">
<?php print [17] $field->label; ?>:
</label>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php
// $field->element_type is either SPAN or DIV depending upon whether or not
// the field is a 'block' element type or 'inline' element type.
?>
<<?php print [17] $field->element_type; ?> class="field-content"><?php print [17] $field->content; ?></<?php print [17] $field->element_type; ?>>
</<?php print [17] $field->inline_html;?>>
<?php endforeach; ?>
Now, what you'll eventually do is take the $id variable and print opening or closing tags based upon it's value. The $id variable represents the field that the view is currently printing.
So, right at the top, above the foreach(), insert a dpm statement so you can find the $id for your field. If you don't have the devel module [18] enabled, install it or use a print_r statement instead.
<?php foreach ($fields as $id => $field): ?>
<?php if (!empty [16]($field->separator)): ?>
<?php print [17] $field->separator; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
....
You'll see the names of your fields when you refresh the view. I want to group together the following fields:
$id are the names listed. So I will insert these two snippets of code:
</div>
<?php endif; ?>
and
<div class="grouping_field">
<?php endif; ?>
If you examine the code below you will see them in context.
// $Id: views-view-fields.tpl.php,v 1.6 2008/09/24 22:48:21 merlinofchaos Exp $
/**
* @file views-view-fields.tpl.php
* Default simple view template to all the fields as a row.
*
* - $view: The view in use.
* - $fields: an array of $field objects. Each one contains:
* - $field->content: The output of the field.
* - $field->raw: The raw data for the field, if it exists. This is NOT output safe.
* - $field->class: The safe class id to use.
* - $field->handler: The Views field handler object controlling this field. Do not use
* var_export to dump this object, as it can't handle the recursion.
* - $field->inline: Whether or not the field should be inline.
* - $field->inline_html: either div or span based on the above flag.
* - $field->separator: an optional separator that may appear before a field.
* - $row: The raw result object from the query, with all data it fetched.
*
* @ingroup views_templates
*/
?>
<?php dpm($fields);?>
<?php foreach ($fields as $id => $field): ?>
<?php if ($id == title): ?>
<div class="grouping_field">
<?php endif; ?>
<?php if (!empty [16]($field->separator)): ?>
<?php print [17] $field->separator; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<<?php print [17] $field->inline_html;?> class="views-field-<?php print $field->class; ?>">
<?php if ($field->label): ?>
<label class="views-label-<?php print $field->class; ?>">
<?php print [17] $field->label; ?>:
</label>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php
// $field->element_type is either SPAN or DIV depending upon whether or not
// the field is a 'block' element type or 'inline' element type.
?>
<<?php print [17] $field->element_type; ?> class="field-content"><?php print [17] $field->content; ?></<?php print [17] $field->element_type; ?>>
</<?php print [17] $field->inline_html;?>>
<?php if ($id == 'field_editors_value'): ?>
</div>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endforeach; ?>