Can I natively define a default value for a custom field?

Question

I have a channel for events, which includes the time, date and city that the event is in. In approximately 80% of cases, the event's city will be Sydney.

Is it possible for me to define Sydney as the default value so that it's pre-filled when a user creates a new entry? I'm sure there's a relatively easy way to do this using a fieldtype or extension, however I would prefer to have this functionality natively.

Also, I guess you could do this on templates, using code such as:

{exp:channel:entries channel="events" dynamic="no"}
  {if city}
    {city}
  {if:else}
    Sydney
  {/if}
{/exp:channel:entries}

but then I would have to remember to do this for every template that it occurs on, which is not ideal.

Cheers, for any help

Answer 1

Not natively but you could throw a little JS into the field instructions as per this question.

<script>
  $(function(){
    if (document.location.href.indexOf("entry_id") == -1) { // if it's a new entry
      var field = $("#field_id_15");
      if (field.val() == "") { field.val("Sydney"); }
    }
  });
</script>

Obviously just replace that with the appropriate ID of your field.

Answer 2

What kind of fieldtype are using for cities? If it is a select fieldtype, you just need to put Sydney at the top of all options.

Answer 3

If the fieldtype for city is simply a text field, one option would be to split it in two and use the awesome entry type add-on to hide a custom field for an "other" city assignment. So in the entry type field, you would have two values - "Sydney" and "Other". When Other is selected, a new text field would appear that would accept the other city value as a text field. Or at least that's how you CAN set it up. Then you would have a conditional very similar to what you're looking for. Something like:

{exp:channel:entries channel="events" dynamic="no"}
  {if city == "Other"}
    {other_city}
  {if:else}
    {city}
  {/if}
{/exp:channel:entries}

Wherein the default value of {city} would be "Sydney", and {other_city} would come into play only if the value of {city} was selected to be "Other". The entry type field can be radio button or dropdown list - and so dropdown list, with Sydney as the first option, would be a simple way to achieve what you're looking to do - and have it be quite user friendly to the site admins.

Hope that helps.