Hi @Alan Trafford,
In such situations, we use local workbench and target requests to SharePoint REST Proxy.
This allows request real SharePoint data within local workbench without publishing app to app catalog.
I'm going to write a detailed blog post how this can be done (UPD: Here is the link to the article.). Meanwhile in a few words:
1. Install SharePoint REST Proxy in SPFx solution project
npm install sp-rest-proxy --save-dev
2. Create `proxy.js` file in a root or wherever in the project with the following content:
const CertificateStore = require('@microsoft/gulp-core-build-serve/lib/CertificateStore');
const RestProxy = require('sp-rest-proxy');
const settings = {
configPath: './config/private.json',
port: 4323,
protocol: 'https',
ssl: {
cert: CertificateStore.default.instance.certificateData,
key: CertificateStore.default.instance.keyData
}
};
const restProxy = new RestProxy(settings);
restProxy.serve();
3. Create `npm` task to execute, e.g. `"proxy": "node ./proxy"`
4. Run and configure proxy's connection to the environment by `npm run proxy`
5. Configure a task to start proxy and `gulp serve` at the same time, e.g. using `concurrently` or `npm-run-all`
6. In SPFx webpart use detection of a local mode with:
import { Environment, EnvironmentType } from '@microsoft/sp-core-library';
if (Environment.type === EnvironmentType.Local) {
// Local mode
}
7. If local mode, target request to proxy's endpoint
Example for `sp-pnp-js`:
if (Environment.type === EnvironmentType.Local) {
this.web = new pnp.Web('https://localhost:4323/sites/site/web');
} else {
pnp.setup({ spfxContext: this.context });
this.web = new pnp.Web(this.context.pageContext.web.absoluteUrl);
}
Hope this helps.
