How to distinguish on hook profile_update user registering, user resetting password or user updating profile?

Question

The hook

 profile_update

gets fired in case the user updates his profile, that is also when he reset the first time his password after registration and when he register.

How do I distinguish between the three cases?

EDIT: There are, at least, 3 cases to distinguish, in which that hook is called.

1. user's first registration step
   • The user fills email and username and save (profile_update gets called here), being presented the request to check email for the verification process
2. user reset password after registration
   • The user checks his mail, follow the suggested url, reset the password and save (profile_update gets called here)
3. user updates his profile
   • The user log in and update some data within his profile and save (profile_update gets called here)

I think it is possible to distinguish case 3, verifying if someone his currently logged in calling

is_user_logged_in()

Still there is the problem to distinguish case 2 from 1. As s_ha_dum points out there is the possibility to check the user_activation_key. If the key is created not at the time 1 but a time 2, the 3 cases are distinguishable. (Even if I personally believe the hook covers too much cases and shouldn't).

Answer 1

Technically, you can't. That filter doesn't pass in any data that will specifically allow you to distinguish between those two cases.

2086                    /**
2087                     * Fires immediately after an existing user is updated.
2088                     *
2089                     * @since 2.0.0
2090                     *
2091                     * @param int    $user_id       User ID.
2092                     * @param object $old_user_data Object containing user's data prior to update.
2093                     */
2094                    do_action( 'profile_update', $user_id, $old_user_data );

You notice that the filter does pass through $old_user_data so you could check the user_activation_key in the *_users table. That should get you close, however, I think that that field is populated when a user resets the password, and not just when the account is created.

To be absolutely sure you'd probably need to set a user meta value on first login then check that for subsequent logins.

Answer 2

In order, to distinguish case 1 and 3 i actually used:

add_action( 'profile_update', 'when_profile_update', 10, 2 );
function when_profile_update( $user_id, $old_user_data ) {
    if (is_user_logged_in()) { 
        // Updating profile info when logged in 
    }else{ 
        if (empty($old_user_data->user_activation_key)) { 
              // Registering
        }
    }
}

At this time, in my site profile_update is not fired for password reset, so case 2 is not happening.