Custom page throwing: Unable to add cookies, header already sent

[fviper]

Hey All,
I am trying to write a custom PHP / MySQL-driven page that will live underneath the /forums path, but should (would like it to...) be able to access the VBulletin group membership info ($vbulletin->userinfo[usergroupid]).

I have made several previous pages from templating found at : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=62164 - thank you, btw Gary! However, using templates with what I am trying to make just won't do what I want it to do, so I have reverted to making my own custom pages and creating a separate folder underneath the /forums path.

When I call global.php from a :

 require_once("../global.php")

since it's up one directory, it initially looks to be ok. Give it a few minutes (not normal session timeout - 3-4 minutes, tops), and I get the "Unable to add cookies, header already sent" if I refresh, or try to update info on the page. If I navigate back to the main forums page, and refresh, then navigate back to the custom page and refresh - it's fine for a few more minutes - until it once again decides to try to resend cookies (apparently). That line of code is the very first line after the <?PHP tag - so nothing comes before it - no sessions, no variable declarations, nothing.

After deeper research, I saw someone mention that I might have a space somewhere in the code after <?PHP or before ?> I picked through my code, and even put it through validator.w3.org until I had absolutely nothing it could complain about. I even removed all comments I had in the code (not that that should have had any bearing, but hey).

All I need is something along the lines of :

 if (($vbulletin->userinfo[usergroupid] == 6) || ($vbulletin->userinfo[usergroupid] == 10))
{
echo '<p><center><a href="cataloot.php">Update Loot</a></center><br />';
}

on the main, public page, and another similar group check on the backend, admin piece. What I have actually works, and works well for my needs - save the oddball "Unable to add cookies" error. Can anyone offer some friendly advice on how best to approach this without using the templates - I have a number of MySQL / Ajax-driven tables that just don't seem to work with Gary's original template suggestions. As a side note, I am using a separate database outside of the vBulletin db to drive these pages. I granted the vb account full privs to my external database - just as a test with no joy.

BTW, I am running VB 3.6.8, PHP 5.2.4, MySQL 5.1.52 - if that helps you look in a particular direction.

Absolutely any constructive comments / suggestions are very much welcome. Security through obscurity just isn't my thing lol. If anyone has any suggestions for mods to that template that would enable to be able to do sql queries as well as PHP code (from what I have read, it's not designed to do this anyways - one reason I abandoned it for this purpose) - I would definitely love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks, in advance!