Audience: SharePoint admins, Citizen Developers.

The Content Editor Web Part (CEWP) was a pillar of Power User and Citizen Developer work on classic SharePoint. Countless posts on this blog are dedicated to it and its siblings, the Script Editor Web Part and the Page Viewer Web Part.

With the migration to modern, the CEWP is not available anymore and site owners have been looking for alternatives.

My first advice is to clearly understand what problem you are trying to address, and look at out-of-the-box options. For example, if you need to insert some HTML in the page, maybe the Markdown Web Part has you covered? If you are trying to trigger an action, maybe Power Automate or Power Apps could fit the bill?

There are still situations where there is no easy path forward. What if you just need light adjustments to styles in the page? What if you want a news-like layout, with text wrapped around an image, like in the example below?

Microsoft’s answer is the SharePoint Framework (SPFx). The SPFx allows us to build Client Side Web Parts to complement the out-of-the-box solutions.

Several developers have leveraged the SharePoint Framework (SPFx), to release a modern version of the CEWP. Just to name a couple, check out the spjs blog or the Microsoft 365 PnP community.

I have decided to publish my own version on github. It is the first of a series of Client Side Web Parts I plan to release in the next couple months. Note that it is still in preview (version 0.9), and – like any Client Side Web Part – you’ll need an admin to install it on your environment.

But why yet another solution when there are already several available?

Beyond just offering a patch, I have a plan in mind. You’ll notice that my solution is named “Dangerous Content Web Part“, rather than “modern CEWP”. The first objective is to pass the message, and alert users on the risk when using such a Web Part. The other intent is to start working with clients on a “Safe Content Web Part” to smoothly transition out of the danger zone. If you are interested, contact me!