I am using AntonioRiveiro/Tracker repo for my laravel app. I would like to add some more functionality to it that it doesn't have out of the box.
But I can't find where its instance gets created, or how to access the Tracker object in my Controllers.
Or how do I extend the tracker object?
So I think the easiest way for you to go about this is the following:
First, make your own ServiceProvider
php artisan make:provider CustomTrackerServiceProvider
Now open up that file, we'll need to make some modifications.
Firstly, we'll need to extend the ServiceProvider that Tracker provides.
use PragmaRX\Tracker\Vendor\Laravel\ServiceProvider as TrackerServiceProvider
class CustomTrackerServiceProvider extends TrackerServiceProvider
The use alias above is not required, but I prefer it for clarity given the similar naming convention to the core framework.
Now you'll need to replace your usage of the PragmaRX\Tracker\Vendor\Laravel\ServiceProvider in your config/app.php file under the providers array
config/app.php
'providers' => [
//other providers and what have you
App\Http\Providers\CustomTrackerServiceProvider::class
]
Now you have the ability to make changes. You can override the default functionality of the core class as long as it's member is not private.
Have a look at the vendor provided file and identify a similar architecture pattern to the vendor maintainer, and you'll be good to go.
The answer to this question provides a solution for (2), I found the answer to (1) here.
To access the tracker object you need to include:
use PragmaRX\Tracker\Vendor\Laravel\Facade as tracker;
Then you'll do something like:
$visitor = Tracker::currentSession();
as described in the documentation.