Dynamics 365 & Power Platform 2024 Release Wave 1 – Power Pages

Power Pages is a great low-code service that people with wide-ranging skill sets can use to create external-facing websites. Let’s take a look at what Microsoft has in store to improve the functionality and accessibility of Power Pages with the 2024 Wave 1 updates.

The four major themes:

Microsoft has four major themes they are investing in for wave 1. The first theme is unsurprisingly generative ai. As with many Microsoft products copilot is being worked into Power Pages more and more. The goal is to have copilot assist in every step of the site-building process. The second theme is data connectivity. The idea is to connect data seamlessly between many different sources. One way they are doing this in wave 1 is by allowing us to create virtual tables from the Power Pages studio. The third theme is collaboration with low code and pro-dev tools. Finally, the fourth theme is security and governance.

Now let’s take a look at some of the planned releases they have around these themes.

Power Pages Copilot 

The next feature we can expect from copilot goes into public preview in April 2024. This will allow users to get answers from website data using copilot. Users can just ask copilot question about the websites in natural language and get answers without having to spend time searching the site manually.  

Design Studio

There are two features planned for general availability in wave 1. The first is enhanced file upload in May 2024. The enhanced file upload just makes for an all-around improved file experience for end users in power pages. It now allows for increased file size limits for SharePoint uploads, drag and drop support, and uploading files from cloud storage locations or the camera. The second feature is the ability to create virtual tables in April 2024. This allows users to connect their power pages site to external data sources and have it be represented as Dataverse tables.  

Administration and Governance 

Now let’s take a look at what is being done on the administrator and governance side. The first features are the admin security and analytics views. The security view will provide information about the site’s security score, if there is anonymous access, what authentications are used, and if phishing sites have been detected on the tenant. The analytics view will provide active monthly and daily users and service errors. These views are currently in public preview and will be ready for general availability in May 2024.

The next feature is protection through a web application firewall. This allows users to use foundational Azure-managed ruleset specifically targeting OWASP vulnerabilities. Users will have access to this in general availability in April 2024. The third feature is the ability to disable anonymous access. A feature which currently not available to administrators. This feature is in preview and will be open for general availability in May 2024. The fourth feature is the ability to disable external authentication providers. This simply allows admins to determine which authentication providers websites can use across their tenants. This feature goes into public preview in June 2024.

Professional Developer Experience

The final area we’ll look at is for the professional development experience. The first features is the ability to perform website actions using the Power Platform CLI. This allows users to use the CLI to create build scripts, develop CI/CD flows, and automate deployments. Public preview will be available for these features in April 2024. The second feature here is to use the site checker from the Power Platform CLI. Which allows users to check site and performance issues before the site goes live. This will be ready for general availability in August 2024.

Want to know more? Take a look at our service page for Microsoft Power Platform!

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We love to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform solutions here at Beringer.  We’ve been working with Microsoft Dynamics since its inception, and we’re always finding innovative ways to implement the latest tools and help automate business processes.

Beringer Technology Group, a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Business Applications, specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution also provides expert Managed IT Services, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cloud Based Computing, Email Security Implementation and Training, Unified Communication Solutions, and Cybersecurity Risk Assessment.