Extending when you can't hook

[MarkE]

Does anyone have any views on the merits of extending another module when you can't hook the required methods? I came across this recently with ImportPagesCSV. I wanted to restrict the target template and parent and then make the module accessible to a certain role (less than superuser). The buildForm1 and processForm1 methods are not hookable. Even if they were, I would have to re-use most of the code in the hook and replace the $event->return, which seems a bit messy. I guess I could hook the whole execute method, but that would be messier still. Also, the module has no permission set. Alternatively, I could suggest some additional features to @ryan, but that might take a little while to resolve. 

So my solution was just to extend the module with my own module - 3 methods and done. It also meant I could rename the setup page to something more specific.

I've not done this before, but was very easy and seems to work well. Are there any downsides? I guess the obvious one is if some incompatible change was made to the original module and I update it, but that seems unlikely and would also affect the 'messy' hook. It seems better than hacking the original module 🙂 

[netcarver]

Would there be any merit in submitting your changes as a PR against the original, maybe with some suitable config settings to allow control of target templates/roles etc?

[MarkE]

1 hour ago, netcarver said:

PR against the original, maybe with some suitable config settings to allow control of target templates/roles etc?

I considered that, but my use case does not really need it to be configurable. I could allow superuser to configure template and parent in the module settings, but I would then need a more generic title for the setup page (presently it is “Import members from csv” so it refers to the specific context so as to be more meaningful to the user). If others wanted a configurable module, then it would not be too hard to do.