# How can I force users to fill in a custom field when it’s empty
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-can-i-force-users-to-fill-in-a-custom-field-when-it-s-empty/225929
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [May 2, 2022, 10:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-can-i-force-users-to-fill-in-a-custom-field-when-it-s-empty/225929 "2022-05-02T22:11:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jacky2](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jacky2)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2022, 10:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-can-i-force-users-to-fill-in-a-custom-field-when-it-s-empty/225929/1 "2022-05-02T22:11:40Z")
Hello Discourse community!
I’m new to Discourse and trying to use my few ruby knowledge. Thanks for your help !
Here is my project :
I created custom fields to get to know a new user better and now I want to update the custom field for old users.
I want to display my question at login if the field is empty.
If I understand Discourse correctly, I need to code a plugin.
Do you have a tip or an example in mind for this first challenge?
Thanks in advance !
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### Author:  [@Jacky2](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jacky2)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2022, 10:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-can-i-force-users-to-fill-in-a-custom-field-when-it-s-empty/225929/2 "2022-05-02T22:32:02Z")
In rails console, i use
```plaintext
UserCustomField.where.not(value: [nil])
```
to find users who have already replied but for the rest I dry…
How to get users who haven’t answered the question?
Guess I’ll need to figure this out later.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2022, 11:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-can-i-force-users-to-fill-in-a-custom-field-when-it-s-empty/225929/3 "2022-05-02T23:20:49Z")
Two suggestions:
- Consider asking how to solve your problem (getting users to fill the in the field). The user wizard plugin might be a solution?
- Move this to #Development and ask there. I think that it might be possible with a theme component if the values are in serializer.
For either, change he subject to something like “how can I force users to fill in a custom field when it’s empty”
I don’t have a very good answer, though. 🤷
---
### Author:  [@Simon\_Manning](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Simon_Manning)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2022, 11:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-can-i-force-users-to-fill-in-a-custom-field-when-it-s-empty/225929/4 "2022-05-02T23:28:02Z")
> [@Jacky2](#):
>
> How to get users who haven’t answered the question?
To that specific question, assuming that an unanswered question will be NULL in the database, you can just replace `where.not(value: [nil])` with `where(value: nil)`.
You can also use `where(value: [nil, ""])`, which is equivalent to `WHERE (something.value IS NULL OR something.value = "")` in SQL, to search for an empty string or NULL. I’m not sure which it’s likely to be or if it’s likely to change (from NULL to “”) if a user submits an empty field.
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### Author:  [@Jacky2](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jacky2)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2022, 7:05am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-can-i-force-users-to-fill-in-a-custom-field-when-it-s-empty/225929/5 "2022-05-03T07:05:18Z")
Thanks @pfaffman. I will follow your advice. 👍
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### Author:  [@Jacky2](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jacky2)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2022, 7:07am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-can-i-force-users-to-fill-in-a-custom-field-when-it-s-empty/225929/6 "2022-05-03T07:07:01Z")
Thanks @Simon_Manning for this precision. That will help me a lot !
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### Author:  [@Jacky2](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jacky2)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 6:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-can-i-force-users-to-fill-in-a-custom-field-when-it-s-empty/225929/7 "2022-05-04T18:00:25Z")
This plugin is great. Thanks @pfaffman
---
### Author:  [@Jacky2](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jacky2)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2022, 8:12am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-can-i-force-users-to-fill-in-a-custom-field-when-it-s-empty/225929/8 "2022-05-06T08:12:48Z")
Thanks again guys. Custom wizard plugin works very well 👍