Today I am taking you through the features and functionality we can expect to see released between March 2024 and October 2024 for Power Pages.
The PDF file also includes information about Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Pages, Power Virtual Agents, Microsoft Dataverse, Microsoft Power Platform governance and administration, and data integration.
The Microsoft Power Platform features coming in the 2024 release wave 1 have been summarized in a separate release plan as well as a downloadable PDF
In the area of Administration and governance the focus of updates for Power Pages are,
Disable external authentication providers in Power Pages
In the latest update, system admins gain more control over access to their Microsoft Dataverse data through Power Pages websites. This new feature allows admins to customise and manage additional authentication providers.
With this setting, system admins can not only restrict anonymous access but also selectively block specific authentication providers. This added layer of control ensures tighter security and compliance measures, providing administrators with greater peace of mind when managing data access within their organizations.
In the Design studio they are a number of changes, mostly focused on the use of external data sources in your site.
Create virtual tables to use external data sources
The feature allows you to connect your Power Pages site to external data sources, such as SQL Server and Microsoft SharePoint, from the data workspace in Power Pages studio.
Admins can create Virtual Tables using the above SQL Server and Microsoft SharePoint virtual connector providers inside the Power Pages studio Data workspace.
These Virtual tables enable data integration from external data sources by surfacing that data as tables in the Microsoft Dataverse without data replication.
Sites, solutions, apps and even power automate flows can use virtual tables as if they were native Dataverse tables. Virtual tables allow for full create, read, update, and delete privileges unless the data source.
Create websites with data from Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Fabric
Power Pages is a tool that helps businesses quickly create websites that focus on data and work well on different devices and web browsers. If a company uses data stored in SQL Server or Microsoft Fabric, they can easily make Power Pages websites that connect with their existing data systems.
To begin building your website, you can choose your data source directly from the Power Pages maker homepage. Makers now have the option to kick off their website creation process using data sources such as Microsoft Fabric and SQL Server.
And of course, Copilot in Power Pages has added increased functionality to the tool
Create a website with Copilot
Makers can create custom websites from the Pages workspace in design studio with natural language by prompting Copilot.
Create custom websites in Power Pages design studio using natural language. From the Pages workspace, describe the site you want to create in your own words and Copilot create a custom site.
Tell Copilot:
what type of site you'd like to create
who will use your site
what information your site will process
Copilot uses this information to generate your site's name, address, and pages with layout and content. Once Copilot creates your site, you can customize it by prompting Copilot again or by using design studio's WYSIWYG editor.
Get answers from website data using copilot
Users of our sites will be able to get information and answers from copilot by asking questions in natural language in one place, saving time without the need to search the site manually.
You can configure a copilot chatbot to allow website users to use natural language for getting information and insights through structured data search of tables that will adhere to configure roles and permissions.
For example, a website user can log into a customer service website and ask for the status of their open case. The chatbot will provide the current status and link to their open case.
Use generative AI to search Power Pages sites
Power Pages users can review AI-generated summaries to quickly understand search topics and discover options for further exploration with AI-generated prompts.
Global search functionality in Power Pages allows your users to find records across multiple tables. Search finds matches in any field in the table, gets results from all the searchable tables in a sorted list, and provides options to filter results. Generative AI improves the search experience by helping users locate information more quickly and easily.
Hope you all enjoyed this post on the Power Pages Release Wave 2 for 2024 updates I will continue this series with some additional content specifically related to the remainder of the Power Platform in coming weeks. Take Care, Speak Soon!