Opening view that uses a function - empty column

Two step inquiry:

1) I have created a function that will parse a value out of XML stored in the pg_largeobject table using xpath, like so:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION extract_from_extended(text, bigint)
RETURNS text AS
$BODY$
select translate( xpath(...) );
$BODY$
LANGUAGE sql VOLATILE
COST 100;

2) I then created a view that calls this function as part of the query, like so:

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW encounter AS
SELECT md.account_id, extract_from_extended('externalEncounterID'::text, md.id) AS external_id...
FROM app.menu_data md, app.menu_structure ms
WHERE...;

When I open this view via JDBC, there is no data in the column that is filled by the function call.

Any thoughts?
TIA,
BRady