How to update Created By Author field in list SharePoint 2013 JavaScript Client Object Model

Question

Just wanting to know how to update a user field, like CreatedBy or Author based on a users name e.g. steven.martin? I seem to have it working fine, from a user id, but not from a user name.

get user fields by id

var context = new SP.ClientContext();
var user = context.get_web().getUserById(30); // e.g. user id = 30
context.load(user);
context.executeQueryAsync( 
  function () {
    console.log(user.get_email());
    var userField = user.get_id() + ";#" + user.get_loginName();
    updateUser(userField);
   },
   function (sender, args) {
     console.log('Error retrieving user properties');
   }
);

update user/ author field

function updateUser(userField) {
  var clientContext = new SP.ClientContext("/");
  var list = clientContext.get_web().get_lists().getByTitle("Announcments");
  var listItem = {};
  listItem = list.addItem(new SP.ListItemCreationInformation());
  listItem.set_item('Title', "My Announcement");
  listItem.set_item("Author", userField);
  listItem.update();                

  clientContext.executeQueryAsync( 
    function (sender, args) {
      console.log('successfully updated');
    }, 
    function (sender, args) {
      console.log('Request failed, adding new list item');                  
    }
  );

}

Answer 1

Updating this field requires the UpdateOverwriteVersion method when working on the server side (see sample). Since this method (or the SystemUpdate method) is not available in the client OM, I am a bit sceptic that you can achieve your goal.

It's not clear, what you would like to achieve with this code:

var userField = user.get_id() + ";#" + user.get_loginName() + ";" + user.get_id() + ";#" + user.get_loginName();

Is it a copy-paste failure, or you would like to store the same user twice in the same single user field?

why not simply:

var userField = user.get_id() + ";#" + user.get_loginName();

Answer 2

You could utilize SP.FieldUserValue.fromUser Method for that purpose, for example:

var authorVal = SP.FieldUserValue.fromUser(userName);
listItem.set_item('Author', authorVal); 

Complete example

var properties = {};
properties['Title'] = 'Request N#789';
properties['Author'] = SP.FieldUserValue.fromUser('i:0#.f|membership|[email protected]');



createListItem('Requests',properties,
     function(item) {
          console.log('Request has been created');        
     },
     function logError(sender, args) {
        console.log(args.get_message());
     }
   );

where

function createListItem(listTitle,itemProperties,success,error)
{
    var context = SP.ClientContext.get_current();
    var list = context.get_web().get_lists().getByTitle(listTitle);
    var itemCreateInfo = new SP.ListItemCreationInformation();
    var listItem = list.addItem(itemCreateInfo);
    for(var propName in itemProperties) {
       listItem.set_item(propName, itemProperties[propName]) 
    }
    listItem.update();
    context.executeQueryAsync(
      function() {
          success(listItem);
      },
      error);
} 

Answer 3

In the end I did it like this, although I think Vadim's approach may also be correct, I couldn't get it to work myself.

get user id by name

function getUserId = function (userName) {              

  var clientContext = SP.ClientContext.get_current();
  var web = clientContext.get_web();
  var currentUser = web.ensureUser(userName);
  clientContext.load(web);
  clientContext.load(currentUser);
  clientContext.executeQueryAsync(function () {
    var userid = currentUser.get_id();
      // now you have the id, get the user field to update author
      getUserById(userid);
    }, function (sender, args) {
      console.log('failed to get the current user');
    }); 
}

get user fields by id

function getUserById(userid) {
  var context = new SP.ClientContext();
  var user = context.get_web().getUserById(30); // e.g. user id = 30
  context.load(user);
  context.executeQueryAsync( 
    function () {
      // now you have the user id and correct login name, update author
      var userField = user.get_id() + ";#" + user.get_loginName();
      updateUser(userField);
     },
     function (sender, args) {
       console.log('Error retrieving user properties');
     }
  );
}

update user/ author field

function updateUser(userField) {
  var clientContext = new SP.ClientContext("/");
  var list = clientContext.get_web().get_lists().getByTitle("Announcments");
  var listItem = {};
  listItem = list.addItem(new SP.ListItemCreationInformation());
  listItem.set_item('Title', "My Announcement");
  listItem.set_item("Author", userField);
  listItem.update();                

  clientContext.executeQueryAsync( 
    function (sender, args) {
      console.log('successfully updated');
    }, 
    function (sender, args) {
      console.log('Request failed, adding new list item');                  
    }
  );

}

So calling getUserId("steven.martin") will update in this case the list item with the author field, rather than giving the author who actually created the item.

Note: I actually passed in a callback function to getUserId and getUserById so I could call the function and on success get the user field which I can use to update the list item. So I can call a general getUser function like this getUser("steven.martin", function () { /* update list item */})