I need to use the image resulting from a view as the background image to a div in my page.tpl.php.
I am able to render the page title with the view below it using:
<div class="container-inner clearfix">
<h1 id="page-title">
<span><?php print $title ?></span>
</h1>
<?php $views = views_embed_view('photos', 'block'); print render($views);?>
</div>
However, is there a way that I can pull the image from the view, and use it as the background image for container-inner?
Sure. Just look at what's inside $views and grab the path/url of the image there and stuff that into $background_image and then do something like:
<div class="container-inner clearfix" style="background: url(<?php print $background_image; ?>)">
Sidenote: it might be better to this in a preprocess hook and pass in this as a variable instead of putting this logic in your page.tpl.php file, eg, something like:
function my_module_or_theme_preprocess_page(&$vars) {
// $views=views_embed_view('photos', 'block');
$views=views_get_view_result('photo', 'block'); // appears to work easier :)
$background_image=// however you get the url/path to the image from $views;
$vars['background_image']=$background_image;
}
which will create a $background_image variable that is now available inside page.tpl.php.
hook_views_pre_render and the like apply to a view that is already being used on the page.
dpm($view) it utilizes the view currently displayed on the page. But if there is no view on the page (being rendered as a block or a views pages) then there is nothing to print. In my situation, no actual view will be used on the page itself, because all that I need is the image being called by this function. It doesn't need to display anywhere else. Is there a way to force call the correct view within the preprocess hook?
$view variable in almost every single template it touches. But in your example you were setting a $views variable yourself inside your page.tpl.php and not relying upon $view being there already hence my confusion. But either way, you can call views_embed_view() or views_get_view_result() from just about anywhere you like and use the results equally any way you like.
Commented
Nov 6, 2013 at 1:09
views_get_view_result() in order for this to work. When using views_embed_view(), dpm($views) simply returned the raw html for the view as if it were to be embedded somewhere. views_get_view_result() gave me access to the variables. Not sure if you want to should edit your answer accordingly or not. Thanks for the help!
Make sure to have a look at Background Images Formatter. It allows you to define a background-image (and size) for any given CSS-selector, as specified in your view (using an image field).
