How to change authoring information with Rules?

Question

I'm trying to create a rule that fires upon saving a node with a few conditions. The rule takes the current author, and sets it in a field called "field_original_author" and after that changes the value of the current author information to a particular author.

It does the first bit but not the second. Even if I only use the second part, it still doesn't change the author information into the other author that I specified.

What gives?

Answer 1

I can't remember exactly, but you can create an action "Fetch entity by ID". Add user as the entity type, and create another action "Set a data value" with selected data [node:author]

Answer 2

Have a look at this custom rule, which should answer the "...after that changes the value of the current author information to a particular author" part of your question:

{ "rules_optionally_change_node_author" : {
    "LABEL" : "Optionally hide change author",
    "PLUGIN" : "reaction rule",
    "OWNER" : "rules",
    "REQUIRES" : [ "rules" ],
    "ON" : { "node_presave" : [] },
    "IF" : [
      { "node_is_of_type" : {
          "node" : [ "node" ],
          "type" : { "value" : {
              "article" : "article"
            }
          }
        }
      },
      { "entity_has_field" : { "entity" : [ "node" ], "field" : "field_optionlist" } },
      { "data_is" : { "data" : [ "node:field-optionlist" ], "value" : "C" } }
    ],
    "DO" : [
      { "entity_fetch" : {
          "USING" : { "type" : "user", "id" : "68" },
          "PROVIDE" : { "entity_fetched" : { "user_fetched" : "Fetched user" } }
        }
      },
      { "data_set" : { "data" : [ "node:author" ], "value" : [ "user-fetched" ] } }
    ]
  }
}

Some more details about this rule:

• The rule checks that the content type is "Article" (adapt to fit your needs, or just omit it if you want this logic to be applied for any content type).
• I added 2 extra Rules Conditions to verify that the field with machine name "field_optionslist" has a value of "C" (adapt to fit your needs).
• In the Rules Action, it fetches the user with uid=68 (replace 68 in it by the uid that matches your particular author).

PS: I'm assuming this question is about D7.