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Portal Checker tool walkthrough

Posted on by Rishan Solutions

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The Portal Checker tool in Power Pages is a valuable utility designed to help developers and administrators assess the health and functionality of their Power Pages portals. It identifies issues, suggests fixes, and provides insights into the performance and configuration of your portal. Here’s a detailed guide on how to use this tool and what to look for during its use.

Table of Contents

  1. What is Portal Checker?
  2. Prerequisites
  3. Accessing the Portal Checker Tool
  4. Running the Portal Checker
  5. Analyzing Results from Portal Checker
  6. Common Issues Identified by Portal Checker
  7. Resolving Common Issues
  8. Best Practices
  9. Summary
  10. Tags

1. What is Portal Checker?

The Portal Checker tool is an integrated diagnostic feature within Power Pages that evaluates a portal’s configuration and performance. It performs various checks across the portal’s settings, permissions, performance, and security, helping identify areas for improvement or troubleshooting.

This tool provides feedback on:

  • Security settings
  • Performance issues
  • Configuration inconsistencies
  • Missing or incorrectly configured features

2. Prerequisites

Before using the Portal Checker tool, ensure that:

  • You have Administrator or Environment Admin privileges for the portal.
  • Your portal is connected to Microsoft Dataverse.
  • You are signed in with the appropriate credentials (Azure AD, Entra ID, or external authentication method).
  • Your Power Pages environment is configured properly.

3. Accessing the Portal Checker Tool

You can access the Portal Checker tool through the Power Platform Admin Center or directly from within the Power Pages portal interface. Follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to the Power Platform Admin Center or Power Pages Admin Center.
  2. Navigate to the Environment where the portal is hosted.
  3. In the left pane, find and select Portals.
  4. Choose the portal you wish to analyze.
  5. On the portal’s overview page, look for the Portal Checker button under the Settings or Diagnostics section.

4. Running the Portal Checker

Once you’ve accessed the Portal Checker tool, here’s how to run it:

  1. Click on the “Run Portal Checker” button. This will start a diagnostic scan of your portal.
  2. The tool will begin analyzing various configurations, security settings, performance metrics, and other critical aspects of your portal.
  3. Depending on the size and complexity of your portal, the scan may take a few minutes.

During the scan, the tool performs checks on:

  • Security configurations (e.g., SSL/TLS settings)
  • Portal settings (e.g., authentication providers, permissions)
  • Performance (e.g., page load speed, JavaScript execution)
  • Missing or misconfigured features (e.g., custom code issues, unreferenced resources)

5. Analyzing Results from Portal Checker

Once the Portal Checker scan is complete, it will display a comprehensive report of findings. The results will be categorized into several sections:

a. Security

  • SSL/TLS Configuration: Ensures your portal uses HTTPS to encrypt data.
  • Permissions: Verifies whether proper role-based access control (RBAC) settings are configured.
  • Authentication: Checks if authentication methods (Azure AD, OAuth, etc.) are configured securely.

b. Performance

  • Page Load Time: Analyzes how long it takes for the portal’s pages to load, suggesting improvements for faster rendering.
  • Asset Optimization: Evaluates the size of images, JavaScript, and CSS files, recommending compression or minification to speed up loading times.
  • Caching: Checks caching settings to optimize content delivery and reduce load times.

c. Configuration

  • Web Page Configuration: Identifies missing or misconfigured web pages.
  • Entity List Configuration: Detects any issues in the display of entity lists, ensuring data is retrieved and displayed correctly.
  • Theme Customizations: Highlights inconsistencies or errors in custom themes, particularly in CSS or HTML.

d. Missing Features

  • Custom Code Issues: Flags any errors related to JavaScript or Liquid templates.
  • API Integration: Identifies missing or incorrect configuration for external API integrations (e.g., REST APIs, Power BI embedding).
  • Web Role and Table Permissions: Verifies that proper permissions are set for the correct users to access and interact with the portal.

6. Common Issues Identified by Portal Checker

Some common issues that the Portal Checker tool can identify include:

  1. Missing SSL Certificate: The portal does not use HTTPS for secure communication.
  2. Slow Page Load Times: Pages take too long to load due to large image sizes, unoptimized scripts, or excessive requests.
  3. Incorrect Authentication Setup: Authentication providers are misconfigured, leading to failed logins.
  4. Unreferenced Web Files: Web files (like images or scripts) are included in the portal but not actually used in the portal’s pages.
  5. Role-based Access Control Issues: Users cannot access certain portal pages due to improper Web Roles or permissions.
  6. Outdated Dataverse Integration: API or data integration issues with Microsoft Dataverse may result in missing or outdated data.
  7. Missing Data Security Configurations: Insufficient data security and privacy settings, particularly when handling sensitive data.
  8. Unoptimized Custom Code: JavaScript errors or inefficient Liquid templates slowing down the portal’s performance.

7. Resolving Common Issues

After the tool highlights the issues, here are some ways to resolve them:

a. Security Issues

  • Ensure SSL certificates are properly configured for HTTPS.
  • Review authentication provider settings in the Power Pages Admin Center and Azure AD.
  • Adjust role-based access control (RBAC) and web role settings in Dataverse to ensure users have the correct permissions.

b. Performance Optimization

  • Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files to reduce the size and improve page load times.
  • Use image compression tools to reduce the size of media files.
  • Enable content delivery networks (CDN) for static resources like images and scripts.

c. Configuration Fixes

  • Review Entity List and Entity Form configurations to ensure they’re properly linked to Dataverse tables.
  • Adjust custom theme settings (CSS, fonts, images) to ensure they display correctly on all pages.

d. Missing Features

  • Check custom JavaScript for errors or missing functionality.
  • Review API integration settings and credentials to ensure external services are properly connected.
  • Ensure Web Roles are set correctly for users to view or interact with the portal.

8. Best Practices

To ensure your portal remains healthy and secure, follow these best practices:

  • Regularly run the Portal Checker to proactively identify and resolve issues.
  • Use responsive design principles to ensure your portal works well across devices.
  • Regularly audit user roles and permissions to avoid security risks.
  • Test your portal with different user profiles to ensure role-based access control (RBAC) is functioning properly.
  • Optimize content delivery with caching, CDNs, and performance tuning.

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