I would like to create a customized view and search page by writing my own module because I believe that Views is unable to do what I want. This requires me to write my own SQL queries, as well. Is there an API call I can use to get all the data and values about a specific node? For example, if I had a content type that asked for your first name and last name:
$values = get_node($nid)
and $values would end up looking something like:
$values['first_name'];
$values['last_name'];
Right now, it seems that all the fields and values are in their own tables, which makes it a nightmare in writing my SQL query to gather all data about the particular node.