Is there a right (or wrong!) way to fork a module that's already in use?

[Michael Lenaghan]

I've been using `FieldtypeMapMarker`.

I'd like to fork it.

Is there a right way to fork a module that's already in use?

Is there a wrong way? ?

If I just modify the files in place without doing anything else they could get overwritten by the `ProcessWireUpgrade` module if the upstream module ever changes.

If there's no right way, I presume I have to: copy the directory, change some names, install the new module manually, copy all of the old module fields to the new module fields, uninstall the old module... something like that?

[adrian]

https://processwire.com/blog/posts/processwire-core-updates-2.5.14/#multiple-copies-of-the-same-module

 

[Michael Lenaghan]

Yes, thanks, I knew about that.

It works in one sense:

but not in another:

It lets you choose one version of the files or another, but it knows they're both actually `TextformatterHannaCode`. So if `TextformatterHannaCode` were ever updated, and if I or someone else clicked the "upgrade" link, maybe the update would overwrite my changes.***

That seems kind of obvious, so just to clarify: what I was hoping was that I could break the link between the name and the repository. You could imagine that might work if, for example, there was a GitHub URL stored in the module config; I'd change the URL to point to, say, a fork of the original repository. 

But in fact I think the name is used to look up the module in the module directory — and *that* is where the GitHub URL is; for example:

• https://modules.processwire.com/export-json/?apikey=pw301&class_name=TextformatterHannaCode

So: I think that to *actually* fork a module you have to change its name everywhere.

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***I'll see if I can figure out if that's true. Maybe, for example, the upgrade link uses the *original* module directory name?

[Michael Lenaghan]

Quote

Maybe, for example, the upgrade link uses the *original* module directory name?

It does.

To test I:

• Renamed the module directory
• Changed the version number in the module files to force an update
• Updated the module

The update used the original module directory name, and didn't overwrite my changes in the renamed directory.

So: renaming the module directory might work. It's slightly wonky — there were some issues — but it might work.

Thanks, @adrian, for nudging me in the right direction; I knew about the mechanism, but thought it was only for forking core modules!