User Reference field with full list of users, but with current user as default selected value

Question

Whether I'm using User Reference module or Entity Reference module, I can't seem to create a drop-down list of all users, where the current user is selected by default.

So all users will be in the list, but I just want to the default selection to be the current user. How can I do this?

Answer 1

Using hook_form_alter():

function example_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id) {
    global $user;
    if ($form_id === 'my_form') {
        $form['field_user']['#default_value'] = array($user->uid => $user->name);
    }
}

Not tested, but it's the idea.

Answer 2

This is a bit of a stretch, but you could set up a dummy user called 'current user' and set it as the default user for your field. Then, use Rules to target all User entity reference fields (whenever a new node is saved) and change 'current user' to the currently logged in user.

Answer 3

If someone is still looking for a programmatic answer, I got the following to work with my code.

$form['field_user']['und']['#default_value'] = (string)$user->uid;

You must cast the $user->uid to a string because this is what the options array is expecting. I am not certain why I had to use the ['und'], but it wouldn't work for me without it. I would try it without the ['und'] if it isn't working for you the way it is.

Answer 4

For a user reference autocomplete field, I did the following:

if ($form_id === 'my_node_form') {
  global $user;
  if (empty($form['field_my_field'][LANGUAGE_NONE][0]['uid']['#default_value'])) {
    $form['field_my_field'][LANGUAGE_NONE][0]['uid']['#default_value'] = $user->uid;
  }
}

I tested if the value is empty first, so I don't overwrite an existing value when editing the content.