As I explain here, you can practically use Toolset GUI features only; you do not need to use PHP.
https://toolset.com/forums/topic/marker-list/#post-621674
Unless in specific cases, Toolset is built to be used so to avoid PHP.
I will explain below the steps to take related to my previous explanation, using another example.
1. Create a Custom Field in Toolset > Post Fields (it can be a single line, or a radio, or similar, call it "paid user")
2. In your posts, you will know which posts are made by authors who "paid" and not. For each post by such a "paid" user, you save this Custom Field (let's say with value "paid-user").
3. In a View query the posts you use so you can later display them as markers (in a list, or however you like).
4. Add an "Order by" by the above-created custom field (paid-user) you created, in the view.
5. Then, on the secondary ordering, you choose for example the Post Date.
In the Views Loop later you apply HTML conditional to assign different classes to a DIV that is holding the Post Information.
This means you will call specific CSS Classes conditionally and hence, see the posts with your unique style if the field we created above is "paid-user".
An example:
[wpv-conditional if="( $(wpcf-paid-user) eq 'paid-user' )"]<div class="paid">[/wpv-conditional]
[wpv-conditional if="( $(wpcf-paid-user) ne 'paid-user' )"]<div class="another-class">[/wpv-conditional]
content
</div>
With these classes then you can add CSS conditionally.
If you want to get the results of a view by PHP, you can refer to this Document, where we explain how to do that:
To get Types Fields data: https://toolset.com/documentation/customizing-sites-using-php/functions/
To get Views Data: https://toolset.com/documentation/programmer-reference/views-api/
To manipulate Views Data: https://toolset.com/documentation/programmer-reference/views-filters/
You can already output lists in a View, hence it should not be necessary to do that with PHP.
If you want to build your own output, sometimes it is better to directly access the WP_Query, because Toolset Views is just a wrapper for the native WP_Query.
If you plan to build your output with PHP but take the input from Views, it is likely to just add a step that is unnecessary, since your code would be faster if you directly access the WP_Query.
Our Views Plugin does basically provide a GUI for this WP_QUery, so you can build your own searches in minutes, instead of programming them.
And, you can concentrate on HTML, CSS and JS instead of coding PHP templates.
If you need to get data from Views with PHP and return it styled, it usually means you could already get it from the WP_Query, and you could avoid an extra step by simply accessing the WP_Query class:
https://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query
Let me know if I can help further.
