Combining imagecache with views (to create output for looped slider jcarousel in this example)

I recently wanted to create a loopedslider jcarousel and wanted to select the images from a view rather than hard coding them.

I thought this snippet of code might help anyone else trying to select images from views and output them at fixed sizes with imagecache.
(yes I know the output needs tidying up, and similar can be done with views theme, but in this case I wanted a self contained easy to move block)

Steps
1)Create a view with your image and any other fields you need (title and caption in my case)

2)Grab an array containg your view results (my view was named header_images)
$headerimages = views_get_view_result('header_view');

3)Find out your views field name by looking at the preview sql on the views page (node_data_field_main_image_field_main_image_fid in my case)

4)Select the image from its fid
$file = field_file_load($headerimage->node_data_field_main_image_field_main_image_fid);

5)Determine the file path
$filepath = $file['filepath'];

6)Generate image html with imagecache (replace banner_l with the name of your thumbnail)
$img = theme('imagecache', 'banner_thumb', $filepath);

Voila, full messy code below, for anyone struggling to achieve something similar

Jon

$headerimages = views_get_view_result('header_view');
$output = '<div id="loopedSlider">';
// Loop through the results and fill the options
// array with the province id and name.
// Thumnails
$output .= '<div class="jcarousel-skin-tango"> <div class="jcarousel-clip jcarousel-clip-vertical pagination"> <ul class="jcarousel-list jcarousel-list-vertical" id="third-carousel">';
foreach ($headerimages as $headerimage) {
// $node = node_load($headerimage->nid);
$file = field_file_load($headerimage->node_data_field_main_image_field_main_image_fid);
$filepath = $file['filepath'];
$img = theme('imagecache', 'banner_thumb', $filepath);
$output .= '<li><a href="#">'.$img.'</a>'."</li>";
};
$output .= '</ul></div></div>';

//big images

$output .= '<div class="container"><div class="slides">';

foreach ($headerimages as $headerimage) {
// $node = node_load($headerimage->nid);
$file = field_file_load($headerimage->node_data_field_main_image_field_main_image_fid);
$filepath = $file['filepath'];
$img = theme('imagecache', 'banner_l', $filepath);
$output .= '<div class="blocks">';
$output .= '<div class="img-big"><a href="#">'.$img.'</a>'.'</div>';
$output .= '<div class="title-gallery">';
$output .= '<h1>'.$headerimage->node_title.'</h1>';
$output .= '</div>';
$output .= '<div class="text-gallery">';
$output .= '<p>'.$headerimage->node_data_field_main_image_field_caption_value.'</p>';
$output .= '</div>';
$output .= '</div>';
};

$output .= '</div></div>';
$output .= '</div>';