TOTAL Newbie - External Facing Site/App

[lexkinter]

Hello, all! This is my first post, so thought some context on background would be good.

I've used MS Access for 20 years, have created a sharepoint website, powerapp with a sharepoint list as backend, have touched on powerbi, but have not used powerautomate. All the cloud work I've done has been through my work in the government tenant.

I have a personal business basic account and would like to do some cloud work such as have an externally-facing website, collect data such as surveys, etc. I don't know where to start.

Questions such as

1. Is the external-web development done similar to what I've done in the government cloud tenant (ie point, click to create a site)?

2. How do I expose sites I've created in sharepoint on an external site?

3. How do I create surveys, etc and expose them on the external site?

I have NO IDEA where to start. Any help (reading, classes, thoughts) is appreciated.

Thank you

[ANB]

Hi @lexkinter , If you are specifically looking for Power Platform, then you can creates apps/sites using Power Platform. PFB answers to your questions:

1. Is the external-web development done similar to what I've done in the government cloud tenant (ie point, click to create a site)?: You can create Microsoft Power Pages , please check this for mor details

2. How do I expose sites I've created in SharePoint on an external site?: This is more related to SharePoint question but still you can find more information from here.

3. How do I create surveys, etc. and expose them on the external site?: You can create Canvas app with form, you can create survey forms using Microsoft Form and you can also create Power Platform Pages, but Microsoft Forms would be easiest one. PFB articles for the same.

Create a form with Microsoft Forms

Administrator settings for Microsoft Forms 

Understand canvas-app forms 

Share a canvas app with guest users

Do not forget to check the licensing part for Power Platform before starting:

Licensing overview for Microsoft Power Platform

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I hope this helps.

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Thanks,
ANB

 

[lexkinter]

Thank you!

In terms of $, Power Pages cost additional beyond Business Basic - right?

I should have been clearer, as I don't believe you're referring to a website that is discoverable by searching the web, and visible by anonymous users - right?

In general, I'm talking more about visibility on the cloud and accessibility - which is related to $.

Please comment with regards to these aspects.

Thank you again

[ANB]

Hi @lexkinter, In terms of $, this completely depends on business to business. 

If you are looking for traditional website where you just want to display the information without doing any CRUD operation, then in that case you can look for various frontend technology through which you can create website and host that on Azure or any service providers. 

The reason I mentioned everything related to Power Platform because the scope of this forum community is related to PowerApps and its associated components. Apologies if I misunderstood your requirements. 

Thanks,

ANB

[lexkinter]

So, can i combine learned PowerPlatform (including CRUD) skills and expose the interfaces (collecting/using data) via frontend technology you mention above? 

Thanks

[ANB · Accepted solution]

@lexkinter CRUD is general term which is refer to C-Create, R-Read, U-Update, D-Delete. These are operation that usually an app, Pages , websites support. Power Platform is low code/ no code technology. 

PowerApps canvas app give you option to create your UI through drag and drop of the controls to canvas. Backend to these apps could be SharePoint/SQL/Dataverse or relational db.

Pages allow to use html/JavaScript.

So, please check these article for any decisions:

Making Good Technology Decisions: Establishing Decision Criteria
Making Good Technology Decisions: Front End
Making Good Technology Decisions: Data Storage

Again, these are related to Power Platform and its M365 and Azure.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope this helps.

Please click Accept as solution ✅ if my post helped you solve your issue. This will help others find it more readily. It also closes the item. If the content was useful in other ways, please consider giving it Thumbs up.👍

Thanks,
ANB