How can I use node_load and render contextual links - php

Question

I have an array of node IDs with which loop through and run node_load($nid) to retrieve the data for each of those nodes. Take for example the below code- that's roughly how it works at the moment.
foreach( $node->field_flights['und'] as $flight ):
$flightNode = node_load($flight['nid']);
echo $flightNode->title;
What I want to achieve is to load the node, then be able to do something along the lines of echo render($flightNode); so that it loads the template file for that node and I can render the $title_suffix variable in the node template which has been loaded.
I've tried the following to no avail. Nothing is output at all.
$flightNode = node_load($flight['nid']);
$builtFlightNode = node_build_content( $flightNode );
echo render( $builtFlightNode );
Would anyone provide some insight?

Answer 1

You can use node_view() to prepare the render array. For performance it might be wise to consider using node_load_multiple() (and it's counterpart node_view_multiple()) like this:
$nids = array();
foreach($node->field_flights['und'] as $flight):
$nids[] = $flight['nid'];
endforeach;
$flight_nodes = node_load_multiple($nids);
$view_mode = 'teaser'; // could also be 'full'
$views = node_view_multiple($flight_nodes, $view_mode);
// Renders all nodes in one go
echo render($views);
If that doesn't fit in with what you're doing though this should work on a node by node basis:
foreach($node->field_flights['und'] as $flight):
$flight_node = node_load($flight['nid']);
$view = node_view($flight_node, $view_mode);
echo render($view);
endforeach;
If you need to modify the content before it's rendered, you can just step through the $views or $view arrays and change what you need to before running it through render(). If you just want a particular part of the node content rendered, again just step through the array and apply render to the particular sub-array you're interested in.