Power Pages WebAPI with $pages Client API: Modern Dataverse CRUD Implementation Guide

If you have worked with Power Pages, you probably got stuck at some point using webapi.safeAjax for Dataverse operations. Microsoft introduced the $pages Client API to simplify how developers interact with forms, authentication, Dataverse data, and multilingual configuration directly from custom HTML and JavaScript pages.

Initialize Client API
$pages Client API Objects
- currentPage Object
- user Object
webAPI Object
languages Object
Demonstration: Custom Appointment Form
References

Initialize Client API

The $pages Client API is not automatically available on page load. You must ensure it is initialized before calling its methods.

Callback-based readiness

Microsoft.Dynamic365.Portal.onPagesClientApiReady(($pages) => {
    const forms = $pages.currentPage.forms.getAll();
    console.log(`Found ${forms.length} forms on the page.`);
});

Promise or async/await-based readiness

let $pages = await Microsoft.Dynamic365.Portal.onPagesClientApiReady();
const forms = $pages.currentPage.forms.getAll();

$pages Client API Objects

The Client API exposesthe below objects

currentPage
user
webAPI
languages

currentPage Object

Provides access to forms and components available on the current page.

The below piece of code will get all the forms inside the current page

let forms = $pages.currentPage.forms.getAll();

The below piece of code will get all the list inside the current page

let lists = $pages.currentPage.lists.getAll();

user Object

Allows programmatic sign-in and sign-out operations.

The below line of code will sign the user into the site.

$pages.user.signIn

The below line of code will sign the user into the site.

$pages.user.signOut

webAPI Object

Supports Create, Retrieve, and Retrieve Multiple operations in Dataverse. Create

$pages.webAPI.createRecord('contacts', {  
firstName: 'John',
lastName: 'Doe'  
});

Retrieve

let record = await $pages.webAPI.retrieveRecord('accounts', 'aaaaaaaa-0000-1111-2222-bbbbbbbbbbbb',  '$select=name');

Retrieve Multiple

let records = await $pages.webAPI.retrieveMultipleRecords('accounts','$select=name&$top=3');

languages Object

Retrieves the list of configured languages for the website.

Demonstration: Custom Appointment Form

A Bootstrap-based custom HTML page submits form data into the Appointment table in Dataverse. Choice values are fetched from the StringMaps table using $pages.webAPI.retrieveMultiple and records are created using $pages.webAPI.createRecord