Power Pages Development

Power Pages Development

Overview

Microsoft Power Pages (formerly Power Apps Portals, formerly Dynamics 365 Portals) is a low-code platform for building external-facing websites backed by Microsoft Dataverse. Power Pages sites allow organizations to expose Dataverse data to external users — customers, partners, vendors, or the public — through authenticated or anonymous web experiences.

Power Pages combines drag-and-drop design with Liquid templates, FetchXML data queries, and a granular table permission model. Sites run as managed Azure web apps with built-in CDN, DDoS protection, and automatic scaling.

Core Concepts

Site Hierarchy

Website
├── Web Pages (content hierarchy with parent/child)
│   ├── Page Templates (map pages to web templates)
│   │   └── Web Templates (Liquid + HTML source code)
│   └── Content Snippets (reusable text/HTML fragments)
├── Entity Lists (display Dataverse records in grid views)
├── Entity Forms / Basic Forms (single-record forms)
├── Web Forms (multi-step wizard forms)
├── Web Roles (group users by access level)
├── Table Permissions (control CRUD on Dataverse tables)
└── Site Settings (key-value configuration)

Key Terminology

• Web Page (adx_webpage): A content page with a URL, title, and HTML body. Pages form a parent-child hierarchy for navigation.
• Page Template (adx_pagetemplate): Maps a web page to a web template. Controls which Liquid template renders the page.
• Web Template (adx_webtemplate): The actual Liquid + HTML source code. Supports {% include %} for partials, {% extends %} for inheritance, and {% fetchxml %} for data queries.
• Entity List (adx_entitylist): Renders a Dataverse view as an HTML grid with search, filter, pagination, and inline actions (view/edit/delete).
• Entity Form / Basic Form (adx_entityform): Renders a Dataverse form for a single record. Supports Insert, Edit, and Read Only modes.
• Web Form (adx_webform): A multi-step form wizard with conditional branching, validation, and redirect on completion.
• Content Snippet (adx_contentsnippet): A named reusable block of text or HTML, referenced in templates via {% snippet 'SnippetName' %}.
• Site Setting (adx_sitesetting): A key-value pair for runtime configuration (e.g., auth provider settings, cache duration, custom behavior).

Dataverse Tables for Power Pages

All Power Pages configuration is stored as Dataverse records. The prefix adx_ identifies portal-specific tables.

API Endpoints

Power Pages configuration is managed via the Dataverse Web API.

Base URL: https://{org}.api.crm.dynamics.com/api/data/v9.2

Web Pages

Web Templates

Web Forms

Table Permissions

Web Roles

JSON Request Bodies

Create Web Page

{
  "adx_name": "Contact Us",
  "adx_partialurl": "contact-us",
  "adx_isroot": false,
  "adx_hiddenfromnavigation": false,
  "adx_websiteid@odata.bind": "/adx_websites(<website-id>)",
  "adx_parentpageid@odata.bind": "/adx_webpages(<parent-page-id>)",
  "adx_pagetemplateid@odata.bind": "/adx_pagetemplates(<template-id>)"
}

Create Table Permission

{
  "adx_entityname": "Case",
  "adx_entitylogicalname": "incident",
  "adx_scope": 756150001,
  "adx_read": true,
  "adx_write": true,
  "adx_create": true,
  "adx_delete": false,
  "adx_append": true,
  "adx_appendto": true,
  "adx_websiteid@odata.bind": "/adx_websites(<website-id>)"
}

Scope values: 756150000 = Global, 756150001 = Contact, 756150002 = Account, 756150003 = Self, 756150004 = Parent.

Create Web Form

{
  "adx_name": "Support Case Submission",
  "adx_websiteid@odata.bind": "/adx_websites(<website-id>)"
}

Create Web Form Step

{
  "adx_name": "Step 1 - Contact Information",
  "adx_type": 100000000,
  "adx_targetentitylogicalname": "incident",
  "adx_mode": 100000000,
  "adx_webformid@odata.bind": "/adx_webforms(<form-id>)",
  "adx_nextstep@odata.bind": "/adx_webformsteps(<next-step-id>)"
}

Mode values: 100000000 = Insert, 100000001 = Edit, 100000002 = Read Only.

Create Web Role

{
  "adx_name": "Customer",
  "adx_description": "External customer with access to their own cases and account data",
  "adx_websiteid@odata.bind": "/adx_websites(<website-id>)"
}

Liquid Template Language

Power Pages uses the Liquid template language (Shopify-based with Microsoft extensions) for dynamic rendering.

Objects

Tags

FetchXML query (the most powerful data access method):

{% fetchxml my_cases %}
<fetch mapping="logical" count="10">
  <entity name="incident">
    <attribute name="title" />
    <attribute name="ticketnumber" />
    <attribute name="createdon" />
    <filter type="and">
      <condition attribute="customerid" operator="eq" value="{{ user.id }}" />
      <condition attribute="statecode" operator="eq" value="0" />
    </filter>
    <order attribute="createdon" descending="true" />
  </entity>
</fetch>
{% endfetchxml %}

{% for case in my_cases.results.entities %}
  <p>{{ case.ticketnumber }} — {{ case.title }}</p>
{% endfor %}

Include (embed another web template):

{% include 'Header' %}
{% include 'Sidebar' with sidebar_title: 'Navigation' %}

Editable content (in-place editing in design mode):

{% editable page 'content' %}

Control flow:

{% if user %}
  Welcome, {{ user.fullname }}!
{% else %}
  <a href="/.auth/login/local">Sign In</a>
{% endif %}

{% unless page.children.size == 0 %}
  <ul>{% for child in page.children %}<li>{{ child.title }}</li>{% endfor %}</ul>
{% endunless %}

Filters

Authentication

Power Pages supports multiple authentication providers configured via site settings.

Built-in Providers

Key Site Settings for Azure AD B2C

Login/Logout URLs

• Login: /.auth/login/{provider} (e.g., /.auth/login/local, /.auth/login/AzureADB2C)
• Logout: /.auth/logout
• Profile: /.auth/me (returns current user claims as JSON)

PAC CLI for Power Pages

The Power Platform CLI provides commands for local Power Pages development.

VS Code Extension: Install "Power Platform Tools" for VS Code to get IntelliSense for Liquid templates, local preview, and one-click upload/download.

Local directory structure (after pac pages download):

portal/
  web-templates/
    Header.html
    Footer.html
    Layout.html
  web-pages/
    Home/
      content.html
      metadata.yml
  content-snippets/
    Footer-Copyright.html
  site-settings.yml

Permissions / Scopes

Error Handling

Dataverse API Errors

Portal Runtime Errors

Common Patterns

Public Knowledge Base with Search

Build a public-facing knowledge base with article search:

1. Create a Dataverse table cr_article with columns: cr_title (text), cr_body (multiline), cr_category (option set), cr_publishdate (date), cr_ispublished (boolean).
2. Create a table permission with scope Global and Read only, assigned to the Anonymous Users web role.
3. Create a web template with a FetchXML query filtered by cr_ispublished eq true, ordered by cr_publishdate desc.
4. Add a search bar using request.params['q'] to filter articles: <condition attribute="cr_title" operator="like" value="%{{ request.params['q'] }}%" />.
5. Create an article detail page template that receives the article ID via URL parameter.

Authenticated Customer Portal with Case Submission

Build a portal where customers can submit and track support cases:

1. Configure Azure AD B2C authentication via site settings.
2. Create a basic form for incident (Case) in Insert mode for case submission.
3. Create an entity list for incident filtered by customerid = current contact.
4. Set table permissions: scope = Contact, privileges = Read + Write + Create (no Delete).
5. Add a web form for multi-step case submission: Contact Info → Case Details → Attachments → Confirmation.

Multi-Step Application Form

Build a wizard-style application form (e.g., job application, grant request):

1. Create a custom Dataverse table cr_application with fields for each section.
2. Create a web form with 4 steps: Personal Info → Qualifications → Documents → Review & Submit.
3. Configure step 3 with a file upload field using Dataverse Notes (annotations) for attachments.
4. Add a condition step between step 2 and 3: if cr_requiresdocuments is true, show step 3; otherwise skip to step 4.
5. Set the final step type to "Redirect" with a thank-you page URL.

Partner Portal with Account-Scoped Data

Build a portal where partner organizations see only their own data:

1. Create web roles: "Partner Admin" (can manage all records for their account) and "Partner User" (read-only).
2. Create table permissions with scope = Account for shared entities (opportunities, orders, invoices).
3. Partner Admin gets Read + Write + Create privileges; Partner User gets Read only.
4. Create entity lists with the Dataverse view filtered by the current contact's parent account.
5. Use Liquid {% if user.roles contains 'Partner Admin' %} to conditionally show edit buttons.

Best Practices

• Minimal scope: Always use the most restrictive table permission scope possible (Self > Contact > Account > Global).
• Template inheritance: Use {% extends 'Base Layout' %} and {% block content %} for consistent layouts.
• Escape user input: Always use | escape filter when rendering user-generated content to prevent XSS.
• Cache wisely: Set appropriate cache duration on page templates — static content can cache for hours, dynamic content should cache briefly or not at all.
• FetchXML pagination: Use count and page attributes in FetchXML to paginate large result sets.
• Site settings over hardcoding: Store configuration values in site settings rather than hardcoding in Liquid templates.
• Local development: Use pac pages download for local editing and version control, then pac pages upload to deploy.

Reference Files

Example Files

Progressive Disclosure — Reference Files