Setting dynamic author_id on Safecracker form as non Super Admin group

Question

I have a project where I need a member group called Staff Admin (slightly less privileges than Super Admin) to be able to public entry data on behalf of a site Member via a Safecracker form. Now I am able to successfully set an 'author_id' on the form (using a hidden input) and a user logged in under the Super Admin group can successfully publish the new entry and have the specified author_id set on the entry.

The problem is that even though I have the 'Staff Admin' group settings allow to edit and change authors on entries, I'm unable to do it on a Safecracker form and the specified 'author_id' is ignored and I'm getting an error triggered for 'invalid_author' (The selected author is invalid.)

Think the line in the Api_channel_entries.php is around 1246 (under EE 2.4) where it’s looking to authenticate against Super Admin group only as the exception:

if ($data['author_id'] != $this->EE->session->userdata('member_id') && $this->EE->session->userdata('group_id') != 1)

Any ideas how I might circumvent this problem I have?

Answer 1

That error is being triggered because the author ID that you're trying to reassign the entry to is not one of the designated valid authors for the channel. To fix this you'll need to edit the member group (of the user you're trying to assign the entry to) and enable the 'Include Members in PUBLISH page multi-author list?' setting.

You may also need to enable that setting for each individual user via Member Administration > Edit Member > Member Preferences > "Include user in PUBLISH page multi-author list?"