usergroupid variable not working on profile.php page

[keith1995]

What we are trying to accomplish is that our client has some members of their site that are Advisory board members that do not have the necessary credentials/information to fill out the required member filters of the profile. These members should still have to fill in the standard required fields of name, email, etc but they should not be forced to fill out any of the member filters.

We've been able to edit the global.php file to include this code:

PHP Code:

// #############################################################################
// check required profile fields
if ($vbulletin->session->vars['profileupdate'] AND THIS_SCRIPT != 'login' AND THIS_SCRIPT != 'profile')
{
 $vbulletin->options['useforumjump'] = 0;
 
 if ($vbulletin->userinfo['usergroupid'] == '9') {
  if (empty($vbulletin->userinfo['field6']) OR empty($vbulletin->userinfo['field7']) OR empty($vbulletin->userinfo['field9']) OR empty($vbulletin->userinfo['field12'])) {
  eval(standard_error(fetch_error('updateprofilefields', $vbulletin->session->vars['sessionurl'])));
  }
 }
 
 else {
 eval(standard_error(fetch_error('updateprofilefields', $vbulletin->session->vars['sessionurl'])));
 }
} 


This has allowed us to create a new usergroup which we will use for those members that have the okay to bypass the member filters in the user profile however it will require them to fill in a value for First Name ('field6'), Last Name ('field7'), Firm Name ('field9') and Chapter ('field12').

The problem I have run into is centered around the profile.php page. With the various member filters being required fields, if one of these users tries to edit their profile vBulletin won't let them as it will detect required fields as not being filled out. I thought I'd be able to use code similar to the above to bypass the profile.php page's required field check which appears to be housed inside the class_dm_user.php page. I've tried to use this code:

PHP Code:

// check for empty required fields
   if (($profilefield['required'] == 1 OR $profilefield['required'] == 3) AND $value === false AND $verify)
   {
    if ($vbulletin->userinfo['usergroupid'] == '9') {
    }
    
    else {
    $this->error('required_field_x_missing_or_invalid', $profilefield['title']); }
   }
   $this->setfields["$varname"] = true;
   $this->userfield["$varname"] = htmlspecialchars_uni($value);
  }
  $this->dbobject->free_result($profilefields);
  return $customfields;
 } 


The problem is that I can't get the profile.php?do=updateprofile action to recognize the 'usergroupid' variable. I've tried all types of different calls and have tried to print each variable to this page without any luck.

Can anyone assist me or has anyone already put together a mod that accomplishes what we are trying to do here?