CI/CD pipeline for Power Pages using GitHub Actions

Modern application development demands agility, repeatability, and automation. When working with Power Pages (formerly PowerApps Portals), a CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) pipeline ensures consistent, automated deployments across development, test, and production environments.

GitHub Actions is a powerful automation tool that helps you orchestrate CI/CD workflows. By integrating Power Pages with GitHub, you can:

• Track portal code changes via source control
• Automate build and deployment tasks
• Minimize human error and downtime
• Streamline collaboration across teams

This guide walks through creating a CI/CD pipeline for Power Pages using GitHub Actions, covering everything from prerequisites to deployment.

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1. Why CI/CD for Power Pages?

Power Pages involves:

• Portal configuration (web pages, forms, snippets, etc.)
• Liquid templates and JavaScript code
• Dataverse table schema and data

A manual deployment of this content can be:

• Error-prone
• Time-consuming
• Hard to audit or roll back

With CI/CD, your portal development becomes:

• Repeatable: Consistent across environments
• Traceable: Trackable through Git commit history
• Auditable: Every deployment is logged

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2. Prerequisites

Before setting up the CI/CD pipeline, make sure you have:

A Power Platform environment with Power Pages
A GitHub repository to store portal configuration
Installed Power Platform CLI (PAC CLI)
A GitHub personal access token
Power Platform Service Principal (or use your username/password for development)

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3. Folder Structure in GitHub Repository

Use this structure to organize your portal content in the repo:

📁 PowerPages-CICD/
│
├── 📁 src/
│   └── MyPortal/ (downloaded portal code)
│
├── 📁 workflows/
│   └── ci-cd.yml (GitHub Actions workflow)
│
├── .gitignore
└── README.md

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4. Exporting Portal Code

Export portal configuration using PAC CLI:

pac auth create --url "https://<env>.crm.dynamics.com"
pac paportal download --path "src/MyPortal" --webSiteId <GUID>

Commit this code to GitHub. This forms your source of truth for portal logic.

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5. Setting Up GitHub Actions Workflow

Create a file: .github/workflows/ci-cd.yml

name: Power Pages CI/CD

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    name: Deploy Power Pages
    runs-on: windows-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Setup .NET Core
        uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v3
        with:
          dotnet-version: '6.x'

      - name: Install Power Platform CLI
        run: |
          dotnet tool install --global Microsoft.PowerApps.CLI.Tool

      - name: Authenticate with Power Platform
        run: |
          pac auth create --clientId ${{ secrets.CLIENT_ID }} --clientSecret ${{ secrets.CLIENT_SECRET }} --tenant ${{ secrets.TENANT_ID }} --url ${{ secrets.ENVIRONMENT_URL }}

      - name: Upload Portal Changes
        run: |
          pac paportal upload --path src/MyPortal

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6. GitHub Secrets Configuration

In your GitHub repository, go to Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions > Secrets and add:

Secret Name	Description
CLIENT_ID	Azure AD App (Service Principal) ID
CLIENT_SECRET	Service Principal Secret
TENANT_ID	Your Azure AD Tenant ID
ENVIRONMENT_URL	URL to your Power Platform environment

Use Azure App Registrations to create a service principal and assign proper roles in the Power Platform admin center.

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7. Automating the Full CI/CD Process

To automate the full lifecycle:

Continuous Integration (CI)

• Validate Liquid or JS syntax (use linting tools if possible)
• Run unit tests for backend logic (e.g., plugins or custom connectors)

Continuous Deployment (CD)

• Upload portal code to the target environment
• Optionally include Dataverse data using pac data import
• Add approval gates before deploying to production

Optional Enhancements:

• Multi-environment deployment (dev, test, prod)
• Environment-based branches (main for production, dev for staging)
• Slack/Teams notifications on successful deployment

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8. Adding a Manual Trigger

You can also add manual deployment:

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      environment:
        description: 'Select environment'
        required: true
        default: 'dev'

This allows you to trigger deployments from the GitHub UI.

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9. Handling Schema and Data Migration

Power Pages often depend on underlying Dataverse data. Include table schema and reference data using:

pac solution export --path "solution.zip" --name "MySolution"

In GitHub Actions, upload this as part of the pipeline:

- name: Import Solution
  run: |
    pac solution import --path solution.zip

Use pac data import to seed portal-related data like contact records or lookup values.

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10. Testing After Deployment

Add a step to verify if deployment was successful:

- name: Validate Portal Deployment
  run: |
    curl --fail https://yourportal.powerappsportals.com

You can also trigger Playwright tests or Postman API tests after deployment.

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11. Rollback Strategy in Pipeline

Include rollback logic by re-uploading a previous portal version:

- name: Rollback Portal
  if: failure()
  run: |
    pac paportal upload --path backup/PreviousPortal

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12. Monitoring and Alerts

• Use Application Insights to track portal performance and exceptions
• Add alerts if GitHub Action fails using:
  • GitHub notifications
  • Slack / Microsoft Teams integrations
  • Azure Monitor alerts

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13. Best Practices

Keep environments isolated (dev, test, prod)
Use short-lived feature branches and merge via PRs
Store portal backups in separate folders or branches
Test scripts locally before adding to GitHub Actions
Document portal changes in Git commits