So what happened in 2015? Many things! But, in the end, it was a good year, both personal and professional. The end of last year was crazy with projects, so crazy that I didn’t have any free time to write new posts on my blog (which I enjoy)… I even thought I had published a few posts this year (at least considerably less than last year)… SURPRISE! Despite all that, I was still able to publish 27 more posts than last year, for a total of 97!
In 2015, there were 79 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 482 posts.
📝 One-Minute Brief
A personal and professional recap of 2015, reflecting on blog growth, community contributions, book publication, and multiple speaking engagements across Europe. The post thanks readers and the integration community while summarizing key milestones achieved throughout the year.
BizTalk Mapping Patterns and Best Practices is now a physical book…
Thanks to BizTalk360 (the publisher), my first book is now available as a physical print copy!! This is a book completely free for the community. A book that was announced in Oslo, Norway, during the BizTalk Innovation Day of 2014.
The BizTalk Mapping Patterns and Best Practices book is a 400-page recipe that offers insights on how maps work, the most common patterns in real-time scenarios, and best practices for BizTalk Developers to develop effective, robust, and organized maps. The book has as technical reviewers Steef-Jan Wiggers, Nino Crudele, Michael Stephenson, and José António Silva, and is available for you to download on the BizTalk360 website here.
A year of speaking engagements…
Wow, I had the opportunity to be present at 13 sessions!!, have a speaker, some of them with completely different topics (TechNet Wiki, several topics about BizTalk Server, and of course Logic Apps), in multiple events across Europe (the UK, Belgium, and Portugal), and some of them through live meetings. That indeed is my personal record so far!
Here is the complete list of speaking engagements that I had in 2015:
- III Evento da Comunidade Porto.Data | January 22, 2015
- 2 talks in TechNet Wiki Summit 2015 | March 17-18-19, 2015
- BizTalk Summit London 2015 | April 13-14, 2015
- Microsoft MVP Showcase | April 25, 2015
- Global Azure Bootcamp 2015 | April 25, 2015
- BTUG.be – Integration Day 2015 | June 4th, 2015
- 2 Talks at Integration Monday | August 31 and June 22, 2015
- XI Porto.Data Community Meeting | September 30, 2015
- 2 talks in SQLSaturday#429 Porto | October 3, 2015
- Microsoft WebCamp Lisbon | December 2, 2015
For me, it is always a great honor and joy to participate in events, either as a speaker or an attendee, to be with old friends, to meet new people, and to share knowledge!
And yet had the opportunity once again to attend some events like:
- MVP Global Summit 2015
- A few SQLPort and Porto.Data Community events.
- An incalculable number of internal training events at DevScope.
- And more.
My Blog is growing every year…
Very special thanks to all my reader I really appreciate the 350,000 visits to my blog, from 184 countries in the past year. That’s 40,000 more visits than last year and 150,000 more than 2013!
- 2014: 310,000 visits, 183 countries, 52 new posts
- 2013: 200,000 visits, 176 countries, 79 new posts
- 2012: 170,000 visits, 171 countries, 102 new posts
- 2011: 91,000 visits, 61 new posts
Most visitors came from the United States. India & United Kingdom were not far behind.
And even with all the speaking events that I had, I was still able to write 79 new posts.
The posts that got the most views in 2015 were:
- BizTalk 2013 Installation and Configuration – Install and Configure BizTalk Server 2013 (Part 9), posted in May 2013.
- BizTalk 2013 Installation and Configuration – Important considerations before set up the server (Part 1), posted in May 2013.
- The source was not found, but some or all event logs could not be searched. Inaccessible logs: Security., posted in February 2012.
- BizTalk 2013 Installation and Configuration – Install SQL Server 2012 (Part 7), posted in May 2013.
- BizTalk 2013 Installation and Configuration – Installing BizTalk Adapter Pack (Part 12), posted in May 2013.
However, my favorite posts that I enjoyed writing last year were:
- How to fix or configure the Deployment Properties of a BizTalk Project with PowerShell, because it is a time-saving script! It helped me to not to lose the rest of my hair.
- How to Install and Configure Microsoft BizTalk 2013 R2 Accelerator for RosettaNet (series), because it was an unclear and not well-documented feature.
- And finally BizTalk Server 2013/2013 R2: Step-by-Step WCF-SAP Adapter installation guide for the same reasons.
TechNet Wiki, BizTalk Open Source Contributions
And, as has been the case in recent years, I’m a BizTalk Technet Contributor, writing articles on the Microsoft TechNet Wiki, and a BizTalk TechNet moderator. I’m also a member of the TechNet Wiki Community Council and TechNet Wiki Ninja Blogger.
- BizTalk Open Source Contributions in Microsoft TechNet Gallery and in GitHub;
And many other contributions….
Besides community work…
… of course, friendship, family, traveling, and running were also important things as always!
- In 2015, I had the pleasure to have 3 great friends in my house/country: Steef-Jan Wiggers, Kent Weare and his wife, and Nino Crudele and his family!
- Besides traveling for speaking events, I was able to visit several places in Portugal (a personal choice this year) for pleasure.
- And several MVP Meetings.
Thanks for following me, for reading my blog, and I promise that I will continue to share my knowledge in 2016.
Hope you find this helpful! If you liked the content or found it useful and would like to support me in writing more, consider buying (or helping to buy) a Star Wars Lego set for my son.
