How I use fields on a custom template?

Question

I'm attempting to build custom template for specific content type. So, I created node--my-content-type.tpl.php and tried to write some text: it works! Ok, now I want to render my fields. I have $content['field_title'], field_author, field_cast (is a field collection) etc.

I need values of these fields, so I tried to assign some variables: $title = $content['field_title']['value'] etc, but it doesn't seem to work. I can only call render function to render these fields, but I want to format page in custom mode.

How can I get field info in order to use correct values? Thanks!

Answer 1

Download and enable the devel module to use dpm() on $content. This will show you the proper structure of the $content array. Sometimes entities and fields will have different structures depending on their type or how they're being implemented for that content type.