Possible to show/hide SPFx web parts available in web part toolbox?

Question

I have created an SPFx web part, deployed it, and added it to a page. I want to restrict other end users' ability to add the same web part to other pages. It's not a security thing, it's a tech saavy thing. The users won't know what it is, and it will potentially just cause confusion. Is it possible for me to 'hide' it from the web parts toolbox?

I found an old thread asking the same thing, and the guidance was to restrict permissions on the relevant file in the web part gallery. That won't work in this case, as SPFx web parts are served up from the CDN (or app catalog) so they don't have a file in the web part gallery. This client is in SharePoint O365.

Thanks! :-)

Answer 1

There is a property in the web part manifest named hiddenFromToolbox which you can set to true to hide it from the toolbox:

{
  "$schema": "https://dev.office.com/json-schemas/spfx/client-side-web-part-manifest.schema.json",
  "id": "1c66eda5-6e12-4df6-8d67-a65dc9495197",
  "alias": "HelloWorldWebPart",
  "componentType": "WebPart",

  // The "*" signifies that the version should be taken from the package.json
  "version": "*",
  "manifestVersion": 2,

  // If true, the component can only be installed on sites where Custom Script is allowed.
  // Components that allow authors to embed arbitrary script code should set this to true.
  // https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Turn-scripting-capabilities-on-or-off-1f2c515f-5d7e-448a-9fd7-835da935584f
  "requiresCustomScript": false,
  "hiddenFromToolbox": true,

  "preconfiguredEntries": [{
    "groupId": "5c03119e-3074-46fd-976b-c60198311f70", // Other
    "group": { "default": "Other" },
    "title": { "default": "HelloWorld" },
    "description": { "default": "HelloWorld description" },
    "officeFabricIconFontName": "Page",
    "properties": {
      "description": "HelloWorld"
    }
  }]
}