Since PCF controls have been released for Portals it has unlocked lot of ability which used to be custom built on portals earlier. Today we will diving into one such feature Editable grids using PCF controls on Power Pages Portals.
This feature is super handy for making your web pages more interactive and user-friendly. It allows users to view, edit, and interact with data directly on your webpage, much like they would in a spreadsheet.
Let’s break it down into simple steps, so you can follow along and get this set up on your site without any fuss.
For this blog we will use an example of adding a Courses list on a power pages site and making it editable.
Power pages went GA at Ignite, and amongst the slew of new features, one of the most significant is the new licensing model. The new model not only makes the product cheaper in most cases. It opens the door for new use cases with Power Pages.
Two major updates change how Power Pages/Power Apps Portals have been used in the past.
One of the biggest change is that Power Pages is its product, and With it being its product, It brings less dependency on Power Apps Licensing.
Power Apps Portals have predominantly been used for use cases where users are external to your organization. Power Apps(Canvas & Model Driven ) were primarily used for Internal user use cases. Earlier, even if you built Power Pages for internal users, they would need a Power Apps license.
With the new change, internal and external users fall under the same licensing model. Power pages are viable for many internal use cases, such as Request management/ HR use cases. Many of the HR services are used by employees only a few times a year, and building them on Power pages provides better licensing and customization support.
Sangya Singh announcing the General availability of Power Pages at Ignite 2022
Within Business Application & Power Platform space, Portals have always been my favorite product. About a decade ago, I started my Dynamics/CRM/PowerApps Journey with Adx Studio. I remember the first Project implementation I was doing was for a large insurance organization for claims management, The requirements were very complex and being a developer first, I took the obvious route of code customization to start with. At that time, Grant, a Partner at Adx Studio, asked us(Nice way of saying Challenged us) if we could explore the option for configuration over customization for the Portal. Dhina and Itook a step back and started brainstorming & whiteboarding on how we could approach the requirements through configuration. We scrapped all our custom code and finally built the Portal through configuration only, we did have a few JavaScripts for front-side validations, and we stretched the limits of the platform, especially the webforms, but we were so proud of what we built with a Low Code approach.
Since Microsoft acquired the product in 2015, it has continued to evolve the product. Over the course of years, it changed to CRM Portals, to Power Apps portals and now Power Pages. Microsoft’s approach has always been to make it easier for Makers to build and deploy Portals. With Power Pages, the product has really evolved into a true Low Code Maker platform, Power pages are in GA now, and that means you can edit and manage all your existing PowerApps Portals as Power Pages.
Let’s dive into the Power Pages and see what has really changed and how it makes a compelling Platform to build websites:
Licensing :
Power Pages Licensing has been completely revamped, the new licensing model is focused on MAU(Monthly Active Users) vs tracking each login in 24 hours window. The licensing model for external and internal users are same as well as the new license model includes Dataverse and CDN . You can find more details on Power Pages License here, I will post another blog around some of the licensing strategies for Power pages.
