How to extend a Laravel vendor package - php

Question

I am trying to extend Kryptonit3/Counter. Particularly, I need to overwrite one private function inside the class Counter.php to retrieve only hits for the last 24 hours.
Counter.php private function:
private static function countHits($page)
{
$page_record = self::createPageIfNotPresent($page);
return number_format($page_record->visitors->count());
}
The function I need:
private static function countHits($page)
{
$page_record = self::createPageIfNotPresent($page);
return number_format($page_record->visitors()->where('created_at', '>=', Carbon::now()->subDay())->count());
}
Therefore, I am looking for the right way to overwrite this package.
Approach 1: Should I create my own class extending Counter.php and including my custom function in this class? If so, what happens with the private classes included in the original class? Should I create a service provider? How this service provider would look like?
Approach 2: Should I fork the vendor package and update this package to my own need?
I already looked at all stackoverflow questions related to this topic but they are not clear enough.
UPDATE:
This is what I did so far:
Create MyCounter class:
<?php
namespace App\Helpers\Counter;
use Kryptonit3\Counter\Counter;
class MyCounter extends Counter
{
}
Create MyCounterServiceProvider:
<?php
namespace App\Providers;
use App\Helpers\MyCounter;
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;
class MyCounterServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
/**
* Bootstrap the application services.
*
* #return void
*/
public function boot()
{
//
}
/**
* Register the application services.
*
* #return void
*/
public function register()
{
$this->app['counter'] = $this->app->share(function($app)
{
$visitor = $app['visitor'];
return new MyCounter($visitor);
});
}
}
Create MyCounterFacade:
<?php
namespace App\Helpers\Counter;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Facade;
class MyCounterFacade extends Facade
{
protected static function getFacadeAccessor() { return 'mycounter'; }
}
Include the provider and the alias inside config/app.php:
App\Providers\MyCounterServiceProvider::class,
and
'MyCounter' => App\Helpers\Counter\MyCounterFacade::class,

Answer 1

Problem was related with MyCounterServiceProvider. The next piece of code solved the problem.
public function register()
{
$this->app->singleton('mycounter', function() {
return $this->app->make('App\Helpers\Counter\MyCounter');
});
}

Answer 2

Static methods cannot be overriden statically but you can use __callstatic to override them dinamically:
Route::get('/override', function() {
$b = new ClassB();
dd($b::originalMethod());
});
class ClassA {
private static function originalMethod() {
return 'Original value from ClassA';
}
public function callingOriginalMethodMethod()
{
return static::originalMethod();
}
}
class ClassB {
public static function __callStatic($name, $arguments) {
if ($name == 'originalMethod') {
return static::overloadedMethod();
}
return forward_static_call_array(array(ClassA::class, $name), $arguments);
}
protected static function overloadedMethod() {
return 'Overloaded value from ClassB';
}
}
Hit /override and you should see
Overloaded value from ClassB
That being said, what you could do:
Create an override for that class:
<?php
namespace App\Helpers;
use Kryptonit3\Counter\Counter;
class MyCounter extends Counter
{
public static function __callStatic($name, $arguments) {
if ($name == 'countHits') {
return static::myCountHits($page);
}
return forward_static_call_array(array(Counter::class, $name), $arguments);
}
protected static function myCountHits($page) {
return 'whatever';
}
}
Then you just have to override the original instance of counter.
app()->singleton('counter', function() {
return app()->make(MyCounter::class);
});