How can I search for a user id in a custom field in my entries loop?

Question

In my template I have the user id variable pulled out of the URL and then I want to search through my entries for posts where that user id is included in a custom field with a users field type as well as the default "author" field.

Here's what I've got working for the author field, and I just want to include my custom "coAuthors" field type as well...

With a url like "/author/joyce"

{% set username = craft.request.segment(2) %}
{% set author = craft.users.username(username).first() %}
{% set entries = craft.entries.section('blog').authorId(author.id) %}

That works great, but how can I also include entries where that author id is set in the coAuthors custom field?

I can't even seem to find it separately. This turns up nothing

{% set entries = craft.entries.section('blog').search('coAuthors.username:author.id') %}

Answer 1

You would want to use the relatedTo() method of elementCriteriaModel.

{% set username = craft.request.segment(2) %}
{% set author = craft.users.username(username).first() %}
{% set entries = craft.entries.section('blog').relatedTo(author) %}

If you need both then you may need to merge the results.

{% set username = craft.request.segment(2) %}
{% set author = craft.users.username(username).first() %}
{% set authorEntries = craft.entries.section('blog').authorId(author.id).find() %}
{% set coAuthorEntries = craft.entries.section('blog').relatedTo(author).find() %}

{# merge authorEntries and coAuthorEntries #}
{% set entries = authorEntries|merge(coAuthorEntries) %}

Not tested. But should be close. Update: added .find() which will convert the elementCriteriaModel to an array so that the merge filter works properly.