I have a question about printing fields out in views templates.

Here is what I get in my overall view template for defined variables, when I have a row style of fields, I don't see a 'fields' variable at all.

Array
(
    [0] => template_file
    [1] => variables
    [2] => template_files
    [3] => view
    [4] => zebra
    [5] => id
    [6] => directory
    [7] => is_admin
    [8] => is_front
    [9] => logged_in
    [10] => db_is_active
    [11] => user
    [12] => rows
    [13] => css_name
    [14] => name
    [15] => display_id
    [16] => empty
    [17] => exposed
    [18] => header
    [19] => footer
    [20] => more
    [21] => feed_icon
    [22] => attachment_before
    [23] => attachment_after
    [24] => pager
    [25] => admin_links_raw
    [26] => admin_links
    [27] => dom_id
)
     

this is from the core fields template in views, in the video was it a node style view?

// $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
 */

Based on your web site sample:

If you set up a view that is row style 'node', then what you get in your view is a complete list of nodes, with all the data for each node. Then, you can create your own node template for your content type. So, lets say you create a content type called 'news'. You can create a template called node-news.tpl.php. This will then handle the output for your 'news' nodes. And, in this template, you can actually have a section of code to handle output for a list of nodes, and a section of code to handle viewing one single node. I would recommend locating your node.tpl.php file for the theme you are using then just making a copy, naming it according to your content type.

Inside this node template, there is a variable called $page. If this value is 0, it means you are NOT viewing a single page for a node, you are on a list type page, so you can do this

if($page == 0){
// your php / html goes here to style the output of each node in your list
} else {

// your php  / html for viewing a single node goes here

}

Goal:
Print individual fields in an Views template file (e.g. views-view-fields--today.tpl.php) at the Row Style level to give greater control over theme'ing. The purpose of this is to wrap each individual field in your own custom classes using a single template file for all of your rows.

First... Get your field IDs
This is just a quick and easy way to see what your fields are (they are different between, node, cck, taxonomy, etc. I tend to forget the syntax/which vocabulary ids so I do it this way).

<?php foreach($fields as $id => $field): ?>
  <?php print $id;
<?php endforeach; ?>

In your browser this will generate output similar to this: title field_flyer_fid field_date_value tid_3 tid_4 tid tid_2 tid_1 tid_5 . These are the IDs in your view and what you are going to be comparing against.

Secondly... Write if statements to evaluate which field is being printed.
This is a pretty straight-forward string comparison. It's a bit of extra code, but sense you can't just print $fields['field_name']->content in the row style output template... this is my work-around.

<?php foreach($fields as $id => $field): ?>
  <?php // print $id;

  <?php if ($id == 'field_flyer_fid'): ?>
    <div class="flyer"><?php print $field->content?></div><!-- flyer -->
  <?php endif; ?>
  
  <?php if ($id == 'title'): ?>
    <h2><?php print $field->content; ?></h2>
  <?php endif; ?>

  <?php if ($id == 'field_date_value'): ?>
    <div class="date">Date: <?php print $field->content; ?></div><!-- date -->
  <?php endif; ?>

  <?php // So on and so forth for all of your IDs ?>

<?php endforeach; ?>

To take it one step further
The only reasons I've even done this in the first place (instead of just styling the views classes as is) are: One, I want all my classes to be consistent across the website (views and non-views). More importantly, I wanted to wrap fields in groups to make left and right columns. Something to this effect... .views-left-column: field 1, field 2, field 3 ... .views-right-column: field 4, field 5, field 6.

This involved a bit of creative thinking... Here is an example of how this works:

<?php foreach($fields as $id => $field): ?>
  <?php // print $id;

  <?php if ($id == 'field_name'): ?>  
    <div class="views-left-column"><?php // open left column ------------------------------------ ?>
    <div class="category field_name"><?php print $field->content?></div><!-- flyer -->
  <?php endif; ?>

  <?php if ($id == 'field_name'): ?>
    <div class="category field_name"><?php print $field->content?></div><!-- flyer -->
  <?php endif; ?>

  <?php if ($id == 'field_name'): ?>
    <div class="category field_name"><?php print $field->content?></div><!-- flyer -->

    <div class="clear"></div><!-- clear -->
    </div>!-- views-left-column --><?php // close left column ------------------------------------ ?>
  <?php endif; ?>

  <?php if ($id == 'field_name'): ?>
    <div class="views-right-column"><?php // open right column ----------------------------------- ?>
    <div class="category field_name"><?php print $field->content?></div><!-- flyer -->
  <?php endif; ?>

  <?php if ($id == 'field_name'): ?>
    <div class="category field_name"><?php print $field->content?></div><!-- flyer -->
  <?php endif; ?>

  <?php if ($id == 'field_name'): ?>
    <div class="category field_name"><?php print $field->content?></div><!-- flyer -->

    <div class="clear"></div><!-- clear -->
    </div>!-- views-right-column --><?php // close right column ----------------------------------- ?>
  <?php endif; ?> 

  <?php // So on and so forth for all of your IDs ?>

<?php endforeach; ?>

What I've done is open the column when it detects the correct field name and than close the column when it detects the correct field name; telling it to open and close at the appropriate fields. I than clear to make sure the columns are equal heights (CSS, not Drupal).

Finally...
Note that you'll automatically get the zebra odd/even effect from the Views display output template file. The above code will be wrapped .views-rows-odd, than .views-row-even...

The only last important thing to note about using this method is that... It doesn't matter in what order you put your fields in the template! Huh? Remember how we printed the IDs? title field_flyer_fid field_date_value tid_3 tid_4 tid tid_2 tid_1 tid_5. This is the order that your fields are going to be printed in, no matter what order you put your if statements... All we are doing is seeing what field and printing it. To adjust the order, do this directly in your Views UI.