PowerPagesAlmDriftInspector 1.2026.1.2

Power Pages ALM Drift Inspector

Power Pages ALM Drift Inspector is an XrmToolBox plugin for comparing Power Pages site settings across Microsoft Dataverse environments to identify ALM drift.

The tool helps administrators, makers, release teams, and solution teams compare source and target environments, review changed or missing site settings, and export evidence for release validation, troubleshooting, and deployment review.

Overview

Power Pages site settings often contain environment-specific configuration such as authentication settings, redirect URLs, identity provider values, feature flags, search settings, HTTP/security headers, analytics tracking values, certificates, and portal behavior settings.

This plugin provides a focused way to compare those settings between two Dataverse environments so teams can quickly identify:

• Settings that match
• Settings with different values
• Settings missing from the source environment
• Settings missing from the target environment
• Settings that may be intentionally environment-specific
• Settings that require release or configuration review before deployment

Features

• Load Power Pages websites from the connected Dataverse environment
• Load site settings for the selected website
• Capture separate Source and Target snapshots
• Compare selected website site settings across two environments
• Detect:
  • Different values
  • Missing in source
  • Missing in target
  • Exact matches
• View source and target environment context before comparing
• View website and site setting counts
• Use a two-grid layout for website selection and site setting or comparison review
• Filter site settings and comparison results by:
  • Text search
  • Category
  • Status
• Use Findings only to focus on differences and missing settings
• Clear all active filters with one action
• View detailed site setting values in a popup
• View detailed comparison results in a side-by-side popup
• Review source and target values side by side
• Toggle wrap text in the comparison detail view for long values
• Copy source value, target value, both values, or a comparison summary from the detail view
• View review-focused guidance for each comparison result
• Identify likely environment-specific configuration patterns
• Show a recommended action for changed or missing settings
• Export currently visible results to CSV
• Export formatted Excel reports using .xlsx
• Export browser-friendly HTML reports

Review Guidance

Version 1.2026.1.2 adds review-focused drift guidance to help reviewers quickly understand why a result may matter.

Comparison results may include:

• Review Focus
  Identifies the general area that should be reviewed, such as authentication configuration, HTTP/security configuration, analytics or tracking configuration, certificate/key/secret references, or general environment-specific configuration.

• Environment-Specific Note
  Highlights likely environment-specific patterns such as URLs, domains, authentication values, identifiers, client references, certificates, keys, tokens, or security policy values.

• Recommended Action
  Provides practical next-step guidance for the comparison result, such as confirming the expected value, validating whether a target-only setting is intentional, creating a missing target setting, or documenting an accepted environment-specific difference.

These fields are intended to support review and decision-making. They do not replace release governance, security review, or environment-specific configuration standards.

Export Options

CSV Export

Use Export CSV when you need a simple raw data export that can be opened by Excel, Power BI, or other tools.

CSV export includes the currently visible result set after active filters are applied.

Excel Export

Use Export Excel when you need a formatted review workbook.

The Excel export is generated as a real .xlsx workbook and includes:

• Report metadata
• Source and target environment context
• Source and target website names
• Export timestamp
• Summary counts
• Filtered result counts
• Active filter information
• Formatted headers
• AutoFilter support
• Color-coded result rows
• Review Focus
• Environment-Specific Note
• Recommended Action
• Text formatting for long URLs, identifiers, booleans, time values, and configuration values

Color-coded Excel rows:

• Yellow for different values
• Red for missing settings
• Green for matching settings

HTML Export

Use Export HTML when you need a browser-friendly report that can be reviewed, printed, saved as PDF, or shared with release stakeholders.

The HTML report includes:

• Source and target environment context
• Source and target website names
• Export timestamp
• Summary counts
• Active filter notice
• Sensitive information notice
• Color-coded findings table
• Review Focus
• Environment-Specific Note
• Recommended Action
• Full comparison result details based on the current visible grid

The HTML report is designed for release review and evidence capture. It can be opened in a browser and printed or saved as PDF if needed.

Sensitive Information Notice

Power Pages site settings may contain sensitive or environment-specific configuration values.

Exports may include values such as:

• Environment URLs
• Redirect URLs
• Authentication provider settings
• Client identifiers
• SAML or OpenID Connect configuration
• B2C authority values
• Analytics or tracking identifiers
• HTTP/security policy values
• Certificate, key, token, or secret references
• Other protected configuration data

The tool does not redact exported values. This is intentional so reviewers can compare the actual source and target configuration.

Review and protect exported CSV, Excel, and HTML reports before sharing them.

Requirements

• XrmToolBox
• Access to Microsoft Dataverse / Dynamics 365 environments
• Permissions to read:
  • Power Pages website records
  • Power Pages site setting records

The plugin includes the required OpenXML runtime dependency used for Excel export.

Installation

Install directly from the XrmToolBox Tool Library once published.

Manual Installation

For local testing before the package is available in the XrmToolBox Tool Library:

1. Build the solution in Release mode.
2. Create the .nupkg package.
3. Open XrmToolBox.
4. Open the Tool Library.
5. Use the local/manual install option if available in your XrmToolBox setup.
6. Select the generated .nupkg.
7. Restart XrmToolBox if the tool does not appear immediately.

The package includes:

• PowerPagesAlmDriftInspector.dll
• DocumentFormat.OpenXml.dll
• README.md
• PowerPagesAlmDriftInspector_64.png

Usage

1. Open XrmToolBox.
2. Connect to the source Dataverse environment.
3. Open Power Pages ALM Drift Inspector.
4. Click Load Websites.
5. Select a website.
6. Click Load Site Settings to review the current environment values.
7. Click Capture Source to capture the source snapshot.
8. Click Capture Target and connect to the target Dataverse environment when prompted.
9. Select the matching website in the target environment.
10. Click Capture Target to capture the target snapshot.
11. Click Compare.
12. Review the comparison summary and color-coded results.
13. Use the text, status, category, and findings-only filters as needed.
14. Double-click a comparison row to open the detailed comparison view.
15. Review the source value, target value, review focus, environment-specific note, and recommended action.
16. Use the copy buttons to copy values or a comparison summary if needed.
17. Export the current view to CSV, Excel, or HTML as needed.

Result Statuses

Match

The setting exists in both environments and the compared values match.

Different Value

The setting exists in both environments, but the source and target values are different.

This may indicate drift, an incomplete deployment, or an expected environment-specific difference.

Missing in Source

The setting exists in the target environment but does not exist in the source environment.

This may be intentional for environment-specific configuration, or it may indicate that a setting should be added to the source environment and managed through ALM.

Missing in Target

The setting exists in the source environment but does not exist in the target environment.

This may indicate that a setting needs to be created or deployed to the target environment, or that the target environment intentionally omits the setting.

Example Use Cases

• Compare DEV vs UAT Power Pages site settings
• Compare UAT vs PROD Power Pages site settings
• Validate deployment completeness after a release
• Detect missing authentication or portal configuration values
• Review identity provider configuration differences
• Review redirect URI and domain differences
• Review HTTP/security header differences
• Review analytics or tracking setting differences
• Detect missing portal feature flags
• Troubleshoot unexpected Power Pages behavior between environments
• Support ALM release readiness checks
• Provide exportable evidence for deployment validation
• Prepare release review notes for solution or operations teams

Recommended Review Process

1. Capture the source and target snapshots.
2. Run the comparison.
3. Use Findings only to focus on differences and missing settings.
4. Review each finding by category.
5. Open the detail view for long values, URLs, or security-sensitive settings.
6. Confirm whether each difference is:
   • Expected for the environment
   • Required for deployment
   • Missing from the target
   • Missing from the source
   • Requiring documentation as an accepted environment-specific difference
7. Export the reviewed results to Excel or HTML for release evidence.
8. Protect exported reports before sharing.

Notes

Some site setting differences may be expected between environments, especially values related to URLs, authentication providers, redirect URIs, client IDs, SAML metadata, B2C authority values, analytics configuration, content security policy values, and other environment-specific settings.

Review comparison results in the context of your release and environment strategy.

Version 1.2026.1.2 Highlights

Version 1.2026.1.2 includes:

• Hardened OpenXML runtime loading for Excel export
• Improved dependency resolution when XrmToolBox loads the plugin from the application folder, Plugins folder, or NuGet plugin cache
• Review Focus column
• Environment-Specific Note column
• Recommended Action column
• Findings-only filtering
• Updated comparison detail view
• Copy Summary support
• CSV export updates
• Excel export updates
• HTML report export
• Sensitive information notice in HTML reports
• Improved support for release validation and ALM drift review

License

MIT License

Author

Created by Adrian Lucaci

GitHub:
https://github.com/Lucarian77

Project repository:
https://github.com/Lucarian77/PowerPagesAlmDriftInspector

Support

If you find this project useful, consider starring the repository or supporting future development.