Setting post meta data to random value during post status transition / on publish

Question

Upon publishing an unpublished draft, I'd like the custom meta value "post views count" to be set to a random variable between 829 and 1013.

I am using the code below, which doesn't always work. It works when I create a test draft and publish it immediately, but not when I save a post for a few days or assign it to another writer it doesn't work.

NOTE: I don't want to create a new custom field. I just want to update the existing field, which is called post_views_count.

function wpse_custom_field_on_publish( $new, $old, $post ) {
  if ( $new == 'publish' && $old != 'publish' && !get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'post_views_count', true ) ) {
    update_post_meta( $post->ID, 'post_views_count', rand(829, 1013), true );
  }
}
add_action( 'transition_post_status', 'wpse_custom_field_on_publish', 10, 3 );

Answer 1

Slight change in your code,

function wpse_custom_field_on_publish( $new, $old, $post ) {
    // Only run on "from X > to publish"-transitions
    if ( $new === 'publish' && $old !== 'publish') { 
        $page_views = get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'post_views_count', true );
        // Only set 'post_views_count' post meta value if there is none so far
        if ( empty( $page_views ) )
             update_post_meta( $post->ID, 'post_views_count', rand( 829, 1013 ) ); 
    }
} 
add_action( 'transition_post_status', 'wpse_custom_field_on_publish', 10, 3 );