Reply To: How to set default custom field value on new posts for a specific user

• Keith Lock

• October 7, 2017 at 8:19 am

Here is a simple example of how I went about assigning a value to a custom field automatically.

Notes:

+ I used the https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/resources/acf-prepare_field/ prepare_field filter to accomplish this.

+ I set a Rule for the Field Group so that the field only gets displayed to the User *after* the Post is Published. This satisfies the criteria for: “default value couldn’t be changed by that user when creating new posts” (I also included an optional “read only” line of code to prevent any manual editing of the field – readonly can be set conditionally as well)

+ I also used the “field key” within the filter call. You can expose the “key” from the Screen Options tab at the top of the Edit Fields page.

+ Further criteria: Only update if the field doesn’t already have a value, and only update it for a specific User.

Here’s the code to store the IP Address of the User in a custom field on-the-fly (not overly useful, but serves as an example):

<?php
function my_acf_prepare_field( $field ) {
  $field['readonly'] = true; // optionally make the field read-only
  if ( $field['value'] ) { return $field; } // bail if field has a value already
  $for_user = 2;
  $current_user_id = (int)get_current_user_id();
  if ( $current_user_id != $for_user ) { return $field; } // bail if not specified user
  $ip = my_get_ip_function();
  if ( $ip ) {
    $field['value'] = $ip;
  }
  return $field;
}
add_filter('acf/prepare_field/key=field_59d7dc6ac103a', 'my_acf_prepare_field');

// this functions gets the IP Address
function my_get_ip_function() {
  if ( !empty( $_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'] ) ) {
    $ip_address = $_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'];
  } else if ( !empty( $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'] ) ) {
    $ip_address = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'];
  } else {
    $ip_address = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
  }
  return $ip_address;
}
?>