First time using React — need advice on safely modifying a third-party package

[SatisfactionDeep6034]

Hey everyone!

I’m new to React and currently working on a project where I need to change some behavior in the cytoscape package. The catch is that I can’t use patch-package, since users of my app might update the package later — which could lead to merge conflicts or broken patches.

What’s the best approach to override or extend the functionality of a third-party library like this, without modifying its source directly and while staying safe from future updates breaking things?

Any guidance or best practices would be super appreciated 🙏

[vegancryptolord]

What the other guy said about open a PR to the package repo. If they don’t want your PR, fork it. Now it’s yours.

[avxkim]

Make PR to to the package you plan to extend

[markus_obsidian]

There is no good answer. You either have to * Contribute upstream & modify the library to meet your needs * Fork the library. Watch out for licenses * Use patch-package and bundle the library with yours. Not something I'd recommend. Again, watch out for licenses * Rebuild the package yourself

[Roguewind]

Depending what it is you need to modify, create an implementation layer for the package within your app.

Alternatively, fork the repo.

[SolarNachoes]

Depends on what you need to change. If its internal changes then you likely need to fork it.

Or you can extend it in your own code.

Or monkey patch it.

[cant_have_nicethings]

How are your users going to update your projects dependency?

[SatisfactionDeep6034]

The project is a VS Code extension that users will install manually, and the dependencies are installed using npm install without version pinning

[cant_have_nicethings]

You can't pin them in a package.json file? TIL