How do I override a fields output in a Views template?

Question

I have a field, foo, set to "Exclude from display", and output later in a "Global: Custom text".

I need to control the rendering of this field based on a different value on the same node. I thought I could just implement a template file like:

function THEME_views_view_field__VIEWNAME__DISPLAYNAME__FIELDNAME($view, $field, $row) {
  $output = isset($bar) ? $foo : $baz;
  return $output;
}

But as soon as I add this function to my template.php file, I loose all output instead. No matter what I return, I get nothing. I tried trivial things like

return 'AAAAA';

to no avail. I'm probably doing something very simple wrong, but looking at my own previous attempts to do similar things in the same template file, I can't see what's wrong. Yes, I've cleared the cache numerous times.

Answer 1

I don't know if this is the answer you wanted, but I template the individual fields by templating the custom:global, and accessing the individual pieces through the $view object.

Answer 2

Is that in your template.php? Why not just override the tpl.php file being used to generate the output and do it there.

Answer 3

If you use Display suite module, you can write php code in "Global: Custom text". Perhaps, it will help you.

Answer 4

I thought that I was doing something fundamentally wrong here, and my question was generally asking "How do I do this right". I'm not what changed, but simply messing with a few Views settings and reverting them, fixed the issue. My best guess is that at some point, Views accidentally saved "bad" data, which caused it not to pick up the right templates.

I was recommended by a moderator to accept this as my own answer, but I will up-vote the others, as all suggestions were helpful. :)