Altering Drupal Views Footer Content Dynamically

This is an example of dynamically altering a view's footer content hook_views_pre_view(). This won't work in hooks_views_pre_render(). I don't know why yet.

Note, I'm doing this from within a custom module and using a custom class to manage the transformation within MYMODULE_views_pre_view(). This is because this code is part of a larger project better managed under OOP. You can move all the transformation code into MYMODULE_views_pre_view() if you prefer.

<?php 
/**
 * @file MYMODULE.module
 */
function MYMODULE_views_pre_view(&$view, &$display_id, &$args) {

  // Customize footer content.
  if ($view->name === 'VIEW_NAME' && $view->current_display === 'VIEW_DISPLAY') {
    $footer = 'MY CUSTOM FOOTER CONTENT';
    $Alter = new ViewsPreViewAlter($view);
    $Alter->footerAlterContent($footer);
  }
}

/**
 * A class for performing generic transformations in hook_views_pre_view().
 */
class ViewsPreViewAlter {

  public $view;

  /**
   * Import the $view object.
   */
  public function __construct(&$view) {
    $this->view = $view;
  }

  /**
   * Override footer content.
   */
  protected function footerAlterContent($content) {
    $options = $this->view->display_handler->get_option('footer');
    $options['area']['content'] = $content;
    $this->view->display_handler->set_option('footer', $options);
  }
}