views_handler_field_counter::render() ignores $values so $view->render_field('counter', $row) always returns last row count

Oh, I forgot to say, I already tried the dev version hoping it was fixed, and got the same problem but with the count decreased by 1.

So, in 6.x-2.6 my thumbnails read "1 2 3" as they should.
In 6.x-2.7 they read "3 3 3."
In the current 6.x-2.x-dev they read "2 2 2."

Here you go:

$view = new view;
$view->name = 'featured_content';
$view->description = 'Featured content cycler';
$view->tag = '';
$view->view_php = '';
$view->base_table = 'node';
$view->is_cacheable = FALSE;
$view->api_version = 2;
$view->disabled = FALSE; /* Edit this to true to make a default view disabled initially */
$handler = $view->new_display('default', 'Defaults', 'default');
$handler->override_option('fields', array(
  'counter' => array(
    'label' => '',
    'alter' => array(
      'alter_text' => 0,
      'text' => '',
      'make_link' => 0,
      'path' => '',
      'link_class' => '',
      'alt' => '',
      'prefix' => '',
      'suffix' => '',
      'target' => '',
      'help' => '',
      'trim' => 0,
      'max_length' => '',
      'word_boundary' => 1,
      'ellipsis' => 1,
      'strip_tags' => 0,
      'html' => 0,
    ),
    'empty' => '',
    'hide_empty' => 0,
    'empty_zero' => 0,
    'counter_start' => '0',
    'exclude' => 1,
    'id' => 'counter',
    'table' => 'views',
    'field' => 'counter',
    'relationship' => 'none',
  ),
  'field_news_picture_fid' => array(
    'label' => '',
    'alter' => array(
      'alter_text' => 0,
      'text' => '',
      'make_link' => 0,
      'path' => '',
      'link_class' => '',
      'alt' => '',
      'prefix' => '',
      'suffix' => '',
      'help' => '',
      'trim' => 0,
      'max_length' => '',
      'word_boundary' => 1,
      'ellipsis' => 1,
      'strip_tags' => 0,
      'html' => 0,
    ),
    'link_to_node' => 1,
    'label_type' => 'none',
    'format' => 'Features_linked',
    'multiple' => array(
      'group' => TRUE,
      'multiple_number' => '',
      'multiple_from' => '',
      'multiple_reversed' => FALSE,
    ),
    'exclude' => 0,
    'id' => 'field_news_picture_fid',
    'table' => 'node_data_field_news_picture',
    'field' => 'field_news_picture_fid',
    'relationship' => 'none',
  ),
  'title' => array(
    'label' => '',
    'alter' => array(
      'alter_text' => 1,
      'text' => '<h3>[title]</h3>',
      'make_link' => 0,
      'path' => '',
      'link_class' => '',
      'alt' => '',
      'prefix' => '',
      'suffix' => '',
      'help' => '',
      'trim' => 0,
      'max_length' => '',
      'word_boundary' => 1,
      'ellipsis' => 1,
      'strip_tags' => 0,
      'html' => 0,
    ),
    'link_to_node' => 1,
    'exclude' => 0,
    'id' => 'title',
    'table' => 'node',
    'field' => 'title',
    'relationship' => 'none',
  ),
  'teaser' => array(
    'label' => '',
    'alter' => array(
      'alter_text' => 0,
      'text' => '',
      'make_link' => 0,
      'path' => '',
      'link_class' => '',
      'alt' => '',
      'prefix' => '',
      'suffix' => '',
      'help' => '',
      'trim' => 0,
      'max_length' => '',
      'word_boundary' => 1,
      'ellipsis' => 1,
      'strip_tags' => 0,
      'html' => 0,
    ),
    'exclude' => 0,
    'id' => 'teaser',
    'table' => 'node_revisions',
    'field' => 'teaser',
    'relationship' => 'none',
  ),
));
$handler->override_option('filters', array(
  'field_feature_value_many_to_one' => array(
    'operator' => 'or',
    'value' => array(
      '1' => '1',
    ),
    'group' => '0',
    'exposed' => FALSE,
    'expose' => array(
      'operator' => FALSE,
      'label' => '',
    ),
    'id' => 'field_feature_value_many_to_one',
    'table' => 'node_data_field_feature',
    'field' => 'field_feature_value_many_to_one',
    'relationship' => 'none',
    'reduce_duplicates' => 0,
  ),
  'picg' => array(
    'operator' => '=',
    'value' => '',
    'group' => '0',
    'exposed' => FALSE,
    'expose' => array(
      'operator' => FALSE,
      'label' => '',
    ),
    'id' => 'picg',
    'table' => 'og_ancestry',
    'field' => 'picg',
    'relationship' => 'none',
  ),
  'type' => array(
    'operator' => 'in',
    'value' => array(
      'group_news' => 'group_news',
    ),
    'group' => '0',
    'exposed' => FALSE,
    'expose' => array(
      'operator' => FALSE,
      'label' => '',
    ),
    'id' => 'type',
    'table' => 'node',
    'field' => 'type',
    'relationship' => 'none',
  ),
));
$handler->override_option('access', array(
  'type' => 'none',
));
$handler->override_option('cache', array(
  'type' => 'none',
));
$handler->override_option('use_ajax', TRUE);
$handler->override_option('use_pager', '0');
$handler->override_option('use_more', 0);
$handler->override_option('use_more_text', 'more...');
$handler->override_option('style_plugin', 'cycle');
$handler->override_option('style_options', array(
  'type' => 'ul',
  'skin' => 'sidelist_bottom',
  'thumbnail_field' => 'counter',
  'pager' => array(
    'event' => 'click',
  ),
  'params' => array(
    'fx' => 'fade',
    'timeout' => '10000',
  ),
  'skin_info' => array(
    'title' => 'Side list (bottom)',
    'pager_location' => 'after',
    'stylesheets' => array(
      '0' => 'views_cycle_sidelist_bottom.css',
    ),
    'module' => 'views_cycle',
    'path' => '',
  ),
));
$handler->override_option('row_options', array(
  'inline' => array(
    'title' => 'title',
    'teaser' => 'teaser',
  ),
  'separator' => '',
));
$handler = $view->new_display('block', 'Block', 'block_1');
$handler->override_option('block_description', '');
$handler->override_option('block_caching', -1);

Sorry. Please forgive me if I am misunderstanding the way the issues tracking system works, as I have never reported a bug before, but why move this to the views_cycle queue?

Both the global results counter field and the render_field() function are components of views. views_cycle merely makes a call to render_field() which works perfectly when passed any field name, except the global counter which stopped working with the latest release of views, when I believe a patch to views_handler_field_counter.inc was committed.

If the bug is in views, how will moving the bug report to views_cycle help fix it?

Also, I'm already using the latest dev version of views_cycle as suggested. Indeed, I notice the views_cycle CVS message: Switch from ->theme() to $view->render_field() in the preprocess function, per recommendation from merlinofchaos so it's not like views_cycle shouldn't be using render_field(). The combination of render_field('counter', $row) is just broken.

Do correct me if I'm looking at this the wrong way, of course.

I see the root cause of this now. The render() function in views_handler_field_counter.inc does absolutely nothing with objects passed to it, so it is seemingly impossible to request the count for any specific row.

The count gets incremented when views builds each row, and once the last row has been built the count remains at that final value. Thus, other modules can only get the count for the last row.