How to update list item with lookup (People and Group) column using REST post method

Question

I want to update a list item with People and Group column.

The list has 4 columns:

• Title
• Description
• ProsessOwner
• ProsessContributer

I am not able to add/update through a REST POST method, since I am getting an error on these two columns: ProsessOwner, ProsessContributer. If i remove them both from the query string, the rest query works.

This is the returned error:

A node of type 'PrimitiveValue' was read from the JSON reader when trying to read the entries of a feed. A 'StartObject' or 'EndArray' node was expected.

And my code :

 $scope.saveNewPage = function () {
        var err = false;
        var title = $scope.newPage.title;
        var descr = $scope.newPage.description;
        var pOwnerID = { 'results': [processOwnerID,11] };
        var pContrID = { 'results': [processContributerID,11] };
        var data = { "Title": title, "Description": descr, "ProsessOwner": pOwnerID, "ProcessContributer": pContrID };

        ppService.addnewPage(data).then(function (data) {
            close(data.d.Id);
        }, function (error) {
            console.log('Feilet med å opprette ny Side');
        });

    }

var addnewPage = function (data) {
        var addData = {
            __metadata: { 'type': 'SP.Data.GNPagesListItem' },
            Title: data.Title,
            Description: data.Description,
            ProsessOwner: data.ProsessOwner,
            ProcessContributer: data.ProcessContributer
        };

        var url = listEndPoint + "/GetByTitle('GNPages')/Items";
        return baseSvc.postRequest(addData, url);
    };

        var postRequest = function (data, url) {
        var deferred = $q.defer();
        $http({
            url: baseUrl + url,
            method: "POST",
            headers: {
                "content-Type": "application/json;odata=verbose",
                "accept": "application/json;odata=verbose",
                "X-RequestDigest": document.getElementById("__REQUESTDIGEST").value,
            },
            data: JSON.stringify(data)
        })
            .success(function (result) {
                deferred.resolve(result);
            })
            .error(function (result, status) {
                deferred.reject(status);
                console.log(result)
            });
        return deferred.promise;
    };

Edit

I just edited my list "Person or Group" column setting to only allow only single value selection and the REST query worked fine with the code below:

 var addnewPage = function (data) {
        var addData = {
            __metadata: { 'type': 'SP.Data.GNPagesListItem' },
            Title: data.Title,
            Description: data.Description,
            ProsessOwnerId: 10,
            ProcessContributerId: 11
        };

        var url = listEndPoint + "/GetByTitle('GNPages')/Items";
        return baseSvc.postRequest(addData, url);
    };

But as soon as I changed column back to the previous setting ( allow multiple selections), and change the REST query to send an array of id's like [10,11], I get the same error:

A node of type 'PrimitiveValue' was read from the JSON reader when trying to read the entries of a feed. A 'StartObject' or 'EndArray' node was expected.

Answer 1

I guess you are missing something in this step.

var addData = {
__metadata: { 'type': 'SP.Data.GNPagesListItem' },
Title: data.Title,
Description: data.Description,
ProsessOwnerId: data.ProsessOwner,
ProcessContributerId: data.ProcessContributer
};

To update a people or group field, instead of ProsessOwner or ProcessContributer the nomenclature should be ProsessOwnerId and ProcessContributerId. Most of us will miss the suffix 'Id' with the internal name while updating a people or group filed. And the value for the field should be User Id of the user in the Site.

Answer 2

Seems like there is some mismatch in your JSON or data variable.

Please check whether for "data.ProsessOwner" and "data.ProcessContributer" you are getting correct ID's.

please refer this answer - Updating Lookup Values with the REST API

Answer 3

here is a solution for you, in scenarios you want to update a people column [mypeoplecol] through rest / spfx:

• Single value people column: [mypeoplecol]Id = X, where X is a [number] type value.
• Multiple value people column: [mypeoplecol]Id = {results:[X, Y, ...]}, where X, Y, ... are [number] type value.

Take into account that you may need to leverage the ensureUser service, in order to ensure the target(s) user(s) do have and ID on that site.