Editing a users custom fields from a plugin action Craft 3

Question

Does anyone know if there is a block on updating users form an action?

Trying to update a users custom field in craft 3 via plugin in the admin. The admin template calls an ajax call to the action when a drop-down is changed.

This works ok in the base of the plugin, but not in an action.

    public function actionUpdateuser()
    {
        // Update user data
        $userId = 67852;
        $user = Craft::$app->users->getUserById($userId);
        $user->setFieldValue('userCompanyName', 'New Name 2'); 
        $result = Craft::$app->elements->saveElement($user);

        return $result;
    }

The action fires ok and can return other things just does not update the user.

Answer 1

You should just reference the field as an object property of the user instead of using setFieldValue. I also use the getElements function instead of using the property, but I don't think that makes much difference. The code below should work.

public function actionUpdateuser() {
    // Update user data
    $userId = 67852;
    $user = Craft::$app->users->getUserById($userId);
    $user->userCompanyName = 'New Name 2'; 
    $result = Craft::$app->getElements()->saveElement($user);

    return $result;
}

Also make sure to add the Craft Users class at the top of the page with:

use craft\elements\User;

Answer 2

The way we ended up getting this working is below. Seems you need to send a title or set the flag to false for validation - if you do that it then set a default title.

Ensuring the element has a title if its type has titles, and giving it a default title in the event that $validateContent is set to false

https://docs.craftcms.com/api/v3/craft-services-elements.html#method-saveelement

//User id
$userId = 7780;
$user = Craft::$app->users->getUserById($userId);

//Could also get the users form something like the below:
//$user = Craft::$app->users->getUserByUsernameOrEmail($usersEmail);//users email
//$user = Craft::$app->users->getUserById($userId);//users ID
//$user = Craft::$app->getUser()->getIdentity();//curent user

//Set the new data to be saved:
$user->setFieldValue('userCompanyName', 'update text here');

//Save:
$save = Craft::$app->getElements()->saveElement($user, false);