Temporarily Override Vendor Classes to Fix Beta Feature Bugs

When working with beta features in Laravel, you might encounter bugs in framework code that block your progress. Instead of waiting for an official fix, you can temporarily override the problematic vendor class while maintaining upgrade compatibility.

Copy the vendor class to your app directory with the same structure, extend the original class, and override only the specific method causing issues. For example, if you’re experiencing duplicate entries with a new resource feature:

// app/Http/Resources/CustomResource.php
namespace App\Http\Resources;

use Illuminate\Http\Resources\VendorResource as BaseResource;

class CustomResource extends BaseResource
{
    protected function resolveItems($collection)
    {
        // Your fixed implementation
        $uniqueKey = fn($item) => $item->id . ':' . $item->type;
        return collect($collection)->unique($uniqueKey)->values();
    }
}

Then update your resources to extend your custom class instead of the vendor class:

// app/Http/Resources/ProductResource.php
namespace App\Http\Resources;

class ProductResource extends CustomResource
{
    public function toArray($request)
    {
        return [
            'id' => $this->id,
            'name' => $this->name,
            'price' => $this->price,
        ];
    }
}

This approach lets you fix blocking bugs immediately while keeping the door open for removing your override once the official fix lands. When Laravel releases a patch, you can simply delete your custom class and revert your resources to extend the framework class directly.

The key is to extend the original class rather than copying its entire implementation. This way, you only override the broken method while inheriting all other functionality, making it easy to track what you’ve changed and why.