Transition to Power Pages
Bodee Pawchuk | May 31, 2023
Over the past few weeks, I have been entrusted with the process of transferring and revamping the previously made Geoson Solutions website from Wordpress to the new Microsoft Power Pages platform. Through this process I have familiarized myself with the platform and being a developer new to the Microsoft Power stock of tools, I have found Power Pages to have its own collection of strengths and weaknesses.
I began the process by simply transferring over and attempting to replicate the data and format from the previous website onto the now current one. The was some worry that this process would be complicated and strenuous, though it only took a few days to migrate the overall format and data. This allowed additional time to work on some more advanced no-code features of Power Pages.
Initial work on the website Title Page
My preparation was to complete the Microsoft Learning, readings, and videos that I continued to reference throughout the project. Page creation, adding images, text, and especially links to other websites through the Power Pages web interface was very easy and intuitive with a few clicks. In this way, Power Pages does deliver as a low code tool. Though after having worked with the platform for the past few weeks, unlocking the platform to its fullest potential will eventually require coding knowledge in Visual Studios.
Certain actions which could be considered rudimentary such as lining up a group of images horizontally instead of vertically take a small amount of coding knowledge. Though our first iteration of the deployed website included no custom code, just so that we could prove to ourselves it could be done.
Example code for inputing an image and changing its parameters
Additionally, I have found that larger stylistic changes such as changing the shape of buttons or the size of fonts in different areas can be more complicated than traditionally expected. Though in the end I found the Power Pages platform to be a very well-constructed addition to Microsoft’s growing list of applications, as with little coding I was able to create the initial draft of the site I had been working on.
Over the span of the next few weeks, I plan to learn more about how code can be used in conjunction with Power Pages to modify the websites appearance, as well as create more complex additions to the website such as a chatbot or sign in feature.
I am looking forward to writing future blog posts about our website improves. Please contact me with any questions or comments.
Bodee Pawchuk
Bodee.pawchuk@geosonsolutions.com