Hook right before user’s profile & custom field update?

Hi,

I want to use the power of UM custom fields to centralize the management of some settings on the UM profile, instead of the WP profile.

For example: I have a website where the Asgaros forum is installed.
Asgaros install 1 isolated setting asgarosforum_mention_notify in user’s WP profile.
I don’t want users going to their WP profile just for that. I want to give them access to this setting in their UM profile.

For that:
– I’ve created a checkbox custom field in the UM profile
– I’ve used the “um_user_after_updating_profile” hook to check what was the value set for the field after updating the UM profile and update accordingly the WP profile; align the 2 settings

But… I now need to do the same thing BEFORE viewing or opening the UM profile: make sure I align the UM profile on the WP profile in case the setting has been changed on the WP profile.

So what I need is to find:

2/ the proper way to update a UM custom field value

For this 2nd issue, I’ve found this…
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/what-is-the-php-function-to-save-fields-in-um_user/#post-10965068
…but so far it’s not working and it’s still not 100% clear to me.

@wptechnology, I reply to your topic in mine as yours is closed.

You suggest…

global $ultimatemember;
$user_id = um_user('ID');
um_fetch_user($user_id);
$toupdate[] = array('name_of_field' => 'its_value');
UM()->user()->update_profile($toupdate);
update_user_meta($user_id, 'name_of_field','its_value');

In my context, 1 checkbox (value = ‘enable’) to update before the profile is viewed or created, I think it would become this (in functions.php – and I will already have the $user_id via the hook)…

um_fetch_user($user_id);
$toUpdate[] = array('profile_notif_new_mention' => 'enable');
UM()->user()->update_profile($toUpdate);

update_user_meta($user_id, 'profile_notif_new_post', 'enable');

But I have several questions:

1/ Is global $ultimatemember; still required in my case?

2/ What’s the differences in between the UM()->user()->update_profile() and the update_user_meta() updates? What does UM()->user()->update_profile() updates that update_user_meta() does not?

3/ How do we update checkboxes via UM()->user()->update_profile()? Do we really set the value in plain text or via an array like this array (0 => 'value')?

4/ Same question for update_user_meta(). How do we update checkboxes to respect the UM format? Plain text or by an array like array (0 => 'value')? And do we have to use the [] after the meta_key, like profile_notif_new_post[]?

I ask you those questions as something must be wrong. I have no error but it’s not working, the checkbox is not ticked in the user’s profile.

Thanks!