Plugins never seem to do *exactly* what you want. Best way to modify?

CMS & WordPress
1

There are some extremely helpful plugins out there and we use them to save us from developing them ourselves, or we are only theme developers and dont have the ability to create our own (certainly true in my case).

However when a plugin needs slight modification, what is the best way to do it and to avoid updates from overwriting your changes?

  1. Copy the plugin and rename it as my own?

  2. Set the version to something really high so that it is very unlikely to detect an update?

2

I’ve written several plugins. The ones for my own personal use are less “polished” than the ones I published to the Extend Repository.

As for hacking other’s plugins, once I figure out what to change I add the info to an “edits” file that I use after upgrades.

Some require a lot of work, some less, and some become obsolete with time.

A bit of a PITA but possible.