Set Post Author from Custom Field Value

• mywebdesigns

• March 21, 2023 at 5:32 pm

I would like to set/ save Post Author using custom field/ meta value related to another custom post type.

Custom Post Type #1 = “Projects” with various custom fields: including “Project Owner” which is an ACF Post Object (single value) field for “Members” CPT.

Custom Post Type #2 = “Members” with various custom fields: including “User Link” using ACF User field type (set to User ID return value). Post Author of each “Member” is also set to the corresponding member/ user.

So I see 2 potential options here:
1. Maybe I can use “Project Owner” CF to pull Post Author ID from related “Member” post – and use that data for Post Author of “Project” CPT.
2. Alternatively, maybe I can use “Project Owner” CF to pull meta values from “User Link” and related “Member” post – including “Member Profile Name” CF to display member’s name.

It would seem that I need to use ACF Action acf/save_post in order to set/ save Post Author, so I tried modifying some code I found below:

function my_acf_save_post( $post_id ) {
    // get new value
    $user = get_field( 'project_owner', $post_id );
	if( $user ) {
		wp_update_post( array( 'ID'=>$post_id, 'post_author'=>$user['ID']) ); 
	}
}
add_action('acf/save_post', 'my_acf_save_post', 20);

But this did not work – likely because not showing relational post object among other issues.

I also tried using this code:

function my_acf_save_post( $post_id ) {
	$related_author_id = get_field('project_owner', $post_object->ID);
	$value = array(
	'ID' => $post_id,
	'post_author' => $related_author_id
	);
	wp_update_post( $value );
}
add_action('acf/save_post', 'my_acf_save_post', 20);

But that was no good either.

Is it even possible to set/ save Post Author from custom field of a related post and/ or pull meta values from this data to populate Post Author values?

• mywebdesigns

• April 8, 2023 at 5:57 pm

Figured it out, adding the code that worked for me in case this can help someone else.

/**
 * Use ACF custom field to set post author for Project CPT
 */
add_action( 'acf/save_post', 'project_author_save_post', 20 );

function project_author_save_post( $post_id ) {
	$project_owner = get_field( 'project_owner', $post_id );
	if($project_owner) {
	$link = get_post_meta( $project_owner->ID, 'user_link', true );
	}
	if($link) {
		wp_update_post( array( 'ID'=>$post_id, 'post_author'=>$link['ID']));
	}
}