Retrieving Author ID in wp-admin area

Question

Currently able to display the post author ID on the frontend with no difficulties. Returning the ID in /wp-admin when editing a post is proving to be tricky. Here's what I have so far:

$current_user_id = get_current_user_id(); // Get the current users ID
$author_id = get_post_field ('post_author', $post_id); // Get the author ID

if( is_user_logged_in() && $current_user_id == $author_id ) { 
    // wp-dashboard script
}

I've tried a handful of other methods for getting the user ID with no success. Displaying $current_user_id through the theme's functions.php file worked without issues along with other PHP code. Perhaps the ID isn't being loaded when functions.php loads?

Answer 1

It can be done like this without having to rely on the $post global.

if ( is_admin() ) {
    if( isset( $_GET['post'] ) && isset( $_GET['action'] ) && $_GET['action'] === 'edit' ) {
        $post_id = $_GET['post'];
        $current_post = get_post($post_id);
        $author_id = $current_post->post_author;
    } 
}

The query string variable post is always the post_id you are editing and additionally you need to check if the action query variable is set and it equals to edit.

Additionally you can explore the get_current_screen() function to setup more advanced conditionals for better security.