How to programmatically set node field values.

Question

I have a content type. I have firstname, lastname and email address fields. I need the default value for each field to be the firstname, lastname and email address of the user profile. Also, I need to prevent the user from modifying these values. The user should be able to see the values by default, but the user shouldn't be able to edit them.

Answer 1

You can create a custom module and add use hook_form_alter to change the default_value of your field and change them to #disabled => true. Here is an example. Don't forget to chage modulename to the name of your module and form-id to the id of your form :-).

function modulename_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id) {
    global $user;
    if ($form['#id'] == 'form-id') {
        $form['field_name'] = array(
            '#disabled' => TRUE,
            '#default_value' => $user->name
        );
    }
}

Answer 2

This code works for me:

function test_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id){
global $user;
    if($form_id == 'story_node_form' ){
    if ($user->uid) {
profile_load_profile($user);
        $form['field_first_name'] = array(
            '#type' => 'textfield',
            '#title' => 'First name',
           '#default_value' => $user->profile_first_name,
            '#disabled'=> 'TRUE'            
        );
        $form['#submit'][] = 'test_field_first_name_submit';
    }
     }
}