Interest in Power Pages as a solution has become one of the fastest growing requests from our clients. And it is pretty easy to see why. Need a student registration website? An ordering portal for your vendors? A scheduling tool for subcontractors? Power Pages offers a secure solution for external users and connects seamlessly to your Dataverse environment. If you have processes that involve people outside of your company and right now rely on manual processes (email!), then consider Power Pages. Yes, there are licensing costs, but we ran some ROI numbers for our own org and building a Power Pages solution will ultimately save us time and money!
But how low code is it?
Power Platform is working to make application development accessible to people with little to no coding experience, and Power Pages is no exception. However, it is not quite as low code as some of its companion tools. As the child of Dynamics 365 Portals, Power Pages is built on Dataverse and is essentially a model-driven app on the back end. In its current form, you can only achieve so much with out of the box functionality and will need HTML, CSS, JavaScript and/or Liquid to go further. Currently, organizations can make very basic pages using low-code and need to leverage full dev to create more sophisticated interfaces. The Microsoft team is working to include more and more Power FX to Pages, which is great news, but it is still in the early stages.
You can build for two different types of users: Authenticated or Anonymous
Building for Authenticated Users
Power Pages Authenticated users are users who obtain secure access to your website by logging in through an authentication provider website. More simply put, authenticated users are logged in to your website.
Before you decide to start building for authenticated users, understand how you want each type of user to use the site. We call this, user roles. User roles help define what each type of user can access, view, and modify within the website. By establishing clear roles, you can tailor content and features to specific user needs, ensuring that sensitive information is only available to authorized users.
When planning a Pages project, map out who will use your solution, and the different functions they will perform. Identify what tables in Dataverse they will have access to and make a plan to configure and test each users access role as you develop. Keep in mind that security in Dataverse is not relevant to Power Pages. It has its own thing which operates on the account and contact tables.
By carefully planning user roles and enforcing security measures, organizations can create robust, secure websites that serve your audience’s needs without compromising on safety or compliance.
Anonymous Users and Power Pages
If you have no need to restrict the content to only certain users, then building for Anonymous users might be the right way to go. Anonymous access does not require users to log in. In these cases, your user role planning is focused on one user type- everyone. Even though user roles for anonymous users may seem simple, it is important to carefully plan and control what information is accessible. While sharing event details and documents is straightforward, it’s essential to ensure that sensitive data or internal resources are restricted and properly secured. Defining clear boundaries for anonymous users helps maintain the integrity of your organization’s information while still providing a user-friendly experience.
Ready to build? Join our live three day workshop, November 12-14 (only $650!!), which will give you all the tools you need to get started with Power Pages.
If you are still not sure, check out these videos or just reply to this email and ask us a question.
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