SPFx: breaking out of the ClientSideWebPart CanvasZone

Question

In Classic SharePoint days I would break out the CEWP (or do it straight from a UCA-ScriptLink) and add content to the DOM or even replace the whole s4-workspace

• Do I (each CSWP) now have to stay within CanvasZone boundaries?
• Will I break anything if I replace id='pageContent' ?

Answer 1

It's a bad idea to break outside of this.DomElement. There is really no guarantee that the markup on the page will a) remain consistent over time or b) remain consistent across page types.

We're working on the extensibility model for full page apps, page layouts and non-webpart controls, but client side webparts is not the answer.

Answer 2

Your script is running in the page so you should be able to get at any DOM element. Yes you could use that to break stuff. Bear in mind that workbench.aspx is just a representation of the page for development purposes.

If you start changing IDs on tags with names like "pageContent" then, yes, you will probably break something - maybe not today, but...