Unable to trust the self-signed developer certificate before creating a project.

[DGDC]

As of 1/4/2021 the https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/spfx/set-up-your-development-environment article states, with emphasis added:

Trusting the self-signed developer certificate

The SharePoint Framework's local webserver, used when testing your custom solutions from your development environment, uses HTTPS by default. This is implemented using a development self-signed SSL certificate. Self-signed SSL certificates are not trusted by your developer environment. You must first configure your development environment to trust the certificate.

A utility task is included in every SharePoint Framework project in the form of a gulp task. You can elect to do this now, or wait until you create your first project as covered in the Build your first SharePoint client-side web part (Hello World part 1) tutorial.

When executing gulp trust-dev-cert the following error is encountered.

[14:55:58] Local gulp not found in ~
[14:55:58] Try running: npm install gulp

The document states that "You can elect to do this now, or wait until you create your first project".

The use of "or" is that of a conjunction used to connect words, phrases, or clauses representing alternatives. E.g. You can dine in or you can carry out. In this case per the documentation, the command to trust the developer certificate can be done before creating a project or after creating a project.

The command fails before creating a project. So please fix the command OR correct the documentation.

Related Bugs:

• Local gulp not found #3575
• Unable to trust the self-signed developer certificate before creating a project. #6588

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Document Details

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• ID: 5bee09a8-022e-1b5a-4aab-d6e7c6216808
• Version Independent ID: 49edce1e-f2be-e989-917f-c6b389363e2f
• Content: Set up your SharePoint Framework development environment
• Content Source: docs/spfx/set-up-your-development-environment.md
• Product: sharepoint
• Technology: sharepoint-framework
• GitHub Login: @spdevdocs
• Microsoft Alias: spdevdocs

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[bcameron1231]

to confirm, you have tried to install gulp globally as stated?

[kongmengfei]

@DGDC,

gulp trust-dev-cert must be run from the project folder. Even if you have installed Gulp globally, you need to install Gulp locally in the individual project directory where you want to use Gulp (This has been done by SPFx generator, you can find the local gulp module in your project through node_modules folder/package.json file ).

What we need to install globally is the Gulp CLI (It's included in gulp). This is what lets you type in the gulp command on the command line, from any directory on your computer.

It's possible to start a gulp task outside a project by means of npm link gulp --no-bin-links. Generally, it will require a gulpfile.js file. However trust-dev-cert task is defined as a subtask in SPFx scaffold, thus we have to run it from the SPFx project.

Baker Kong
Microsoft SharePoint Community Support

[DGDC]

Allow me to rephrase the issue. The documentation is wrong and the refusal to update it over the years has severely hampered attempts to adopt the SharePoint Framework methodology.

The section Trusting the self-signed developer certificate states that "A utility task is included in every SharePoint Framework project in the form of a gulp task. You can elect to do this now, or wait until you create your first project..." To add emphasis to the issue, "You can elect to do this now, or wait until you create your first project..."

In reality, self-signed developer certificates can only be trusted using the command gulp trust-dev-cert after a project is created, not before (now) as the documentation states.

@kongmengfei has provided clear instructions within this issue thread. It would be very helpful if such language was used to correct the erroneous information in the Trusting the self-signed developer certificate section- that gulp trust-dev-cert can only be executed from within an existing project.

[andrewconnell]

@DGDC

The section Trusting the self-signed developer certificate states that "A utility task is included in every SharePoint Framework project in the form of a gulp task. You can elect to do this now, or wait until you create your first project..." To add emphasis to the issue, "You can elect to do this now, or wait until you create your first project..."

That's fair... I can see how that might be misunderstood. Care to submit a PR to fix the doc?

Also... to be fair...

The documentation is wrong and the refusal to update it over the years has severely hampered attempts to adopt the SharePoint Framework methodology.

No PR has ever been rejected that submitted a change to this page with that suggestion, nor in the 2 years+ since I've been helping moderate this issue list have I seen this feedback. So... "refusal to update" is simply not true.

[DGDC]

I am confused by "Care to submit a PR to fix the doc?" since from the problematic article I followed the "Submit and view feedback for this page" link that led here and thus this duplicate issue was opened after @andrewconnell closed my original issue, #6588.

I know I am not alone in my frustration given similar confusion from the docs going back to 2019, #3575.

[andrewconnell]

@DGDC said:

I am confused by "Care to submit a PR to fix the doc?" since from the problematic article I followed the "Submit and view feedback for this page" link that led here and thus this duplicate issue was opened after @andrewconnell closed my original issue, #6588.

I wasn't implying your feedback was offbase... I was more trying to do a polite subtle nudge/invitation to help be part of the solution. The docs are mostly community-driven as you can see from the diverse list of contributors in commits & those who submit PRs. I was taking the "well it's clear to me, but if it's not clear to you & you think others are also frustrated, would you care to submit a change that you think would phrase it better" instead of me taking a stab at it as that would be the best way to understand what you think it's clear.

If this wasn't clear in my original response, I hope it is now... it's also why I added the "good first issue" and "help wanted" tags when I replied.

We VERY VERY VERY much welcome and encourage community contribution to the docs in areas where you think it may be lacking. I hope this response clears it up.