2019 was a very challenging year. Nevertheless, it was another great year, both personally and professionally. Last year I described it as a family year; this one was a consolidation year.
- Last year, I moved my family to a bigger house, and this year we made all the necessary modifications to the home of our dreams.
- If my team at DevScope grew at the end of 2018, 2019 was a year of consolidation, and we hope it will continue to grow this year, while remaining full of challenging and great projects worldwide. We are doing a fantastic job.
- My Porto Airbnb host house is running smoothly, with good reviews from our guests. Nevertheless, there is always space for improvement.
- And who knows me knows that one of my passions is to enjoy a glass of good wine, so I’m delighted to have my first wine cellar draft (it will be improved in the future).
- But with all of these renovations, it was also a year that I had to dedicate more time to the family – something that was delightful!
- And I got married…
📝 One-Minute Brief
Reflects on 2019 as a year‑in‑review, covering key personal milestones, professional growth, community involvement, and blog performance statistics, while thanking readers for their continued support.
My Blog is growing every year…
So, once again, I struggle to have free time, but when you love what you do, you will always find a way to do it. So, in the end, I was able to:
- Publish 43 new posts on my blog; it was indeed the year I published fewer blog posts since I started my blog, but to be honest, I compensate in other aspects!
- More than 431,000 visits to my blog – that’s an average of 1,181 visits per day!
- That is almost double of last year. And the best year ever.
- Coming from 207 countries across the world in the past year.
- 13 new locations compare to the previous year.
- And the countries that most visited my blog still are the United States, followed by India, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
- More than 431,000 visits to my blog – that’s an average of 1,181 visits per day!
Not bad if we compare to previous years:
- 2018: 246,381 visits, 194 countries, 70 new posts.
- 2017: 210,000 visits, 167 countries, 63 new posts (migrate to a new blog).
- 2016: 318,576 visits, 190 countries, 50 new posts.
- 2015: 350,000 visits, 184 countries, 79 new posts.
- 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.
I want to say thanks to all my readers. I appreciate all the visits to my blog, and thanks for your support.
Blog Attractions in 2019
These are the top 10 posts that got the most views in 2019:
- A fish out of water: Saving changes is not permitted. The changes that you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created with 82,876 views.
- BizTalk Assessment: .NET Runtime Optimization Service causing high CPU usage with 36,387 views.
- SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS): The Visual Studio component cache is out of date. Please restart Visual Studio with 18,915 views.
- The source was not found, but some or all event logs could not be searched. Inaccessible logs: Security with 15,125 views.
- Microsoft Integration (Azure and much more) Stencils Pack v3.0.0 for Visio with 14,048 views.
- SQL Server detected a logical consistency-based I/O error: incorrect pageid in BizTalkMsgBoxDb database with 12,965 views.
- New Office 365 icons are now included in the Microsoft Integration (Azure and much more) Stencils Pack v3.1.1 for Visio, with 8,255 views.
- Microsoft Flow: How to pass the SQL data table results in a Markdown-formatted table into an Email notification or Approval Requests with 6,852 views.
- TypeLoadException: Could not load type ‘type name’ from assembly ‘assembly name, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=…’ with 6,078 views.
- BizTalk Server 2020… is coming at the end of CY 2019 with 5,905 views.
My 2019 favorites
And these are some of my favorite post that I enjoyed writing in 2019:
- How I’m automating my Porto Airbnb host with Microsoft Forms and Microsoft Flow – Because this is a real case scenario that I’m using to manage and interact with the guest that stays in my Porto Airbnb house.
- BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack: JSON Encoder Pipeline Component – Basically because we all are eager for a better JSON support that the one Microsoft provides out-of-the-box in the product.
- BizTalk Port Multiplier Tool – This is one of my favorite BizTalk tools at the moment, and I love this team project that we created this year.
- BizTalk Bindings Exporter – My second favorite BizTalk tools and another amazing team project that we created this year.
- And finally, how to expose Microsoft Flow through Azure API Management, because it is different, and I am just playing with technologies.
Open Source Contributions…
I told earlier that this was the year I wrote fewer blog posts in my blog. On the other hand, this was the year I published more open source contributions like code samples, tools, and resources. Here is the current list of all my contributions:
- Migrate all the code samples that existed in Microsoft Code Gallery that shut down to a GitHub repository: BizTalk Server Learning Path that includes nothing less than 46 code samples that will help you understand and improve different skill in BizTalk Server.
- Microsoft Integration, Azure, Power Platform, Office 365 and much more Stencils Pack continues to be updated with new releases. The last time I counted already includes nearly 2150 shapes that will help you visually represent Integration architectures (On-premise, Cloud or Hybrid scenarios) and Cloud solutions diagrams.
- BizTalk Scheduled Task Adapter repo includes an in-process receive adapter that executes a prescribed task on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule.
- And the creation of a public repository for Microsoft BizTalk Server open source community extensions: code samples, BizTalk Artifacts (components), adapters, tools and so on: BizTalk Server Open Source Community that at the moment already includes 5 tools and 3 resources:
- BizTalk Binding Exporter Tool is a simple tool that you can use to easily generate and export binding files from BizTalk Applications.
- BizTalk Port Multiplier Tool is a simple tool that aims to simplify this process by allowing you to easily “clone or duplicate” an existing port (Receive Port or Send Port).
- BizTalk Filter Finder Tool is a simple tool that aims to simplify the process for better understand and maintain solutions based on content-based routing and context-based routing with or without orchestrations involved.
- BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack is a set of custom pipeline components (libraries) with several custom pipeline components that can be used in received and sent pipelines, which will provide an extension of BizTalk out-of-the-box pipeline capabilities.
- BizTalk Mapper Extensions UtilityPack is a set of libraries with several useful functoids to include and use them in a map, which will provide an extension of BizTalk Mapper capabilities.
- BizTalk MapperExtensions Functoid Wizard is a Custom Functoid Project Wizard for Visual Studio. It allows you to create a new Functoids project for BizTalk Server without having to create manually the project.
- Microsoft Message Queuing Testing Tool is a simple tool that you can use to test sending files to Microsoft Queue.
- SSO Application Configuration tool that provides the ability to add and manage applications, add and manage key-value pairs in the SSO database, as well as import and export configuration applications so that they can be deployed to different environments.
External contributions…
And of course, several other publications outside my blog.
- Publish 2 guest blog posts on Serveless360.
- Publish 9 guest blog posts on BizTalk360.
- Publishing 2 whitepapers:
- And contributing in all crazy ideas with my dear friend Nino Crudele on his blog.
A year of speaking engagements…
However, that not all! I still was able to deliver 9 sessions:
- XLVIII Porto.Data Community Meeting | January 30, 2019 | How we use Microsoft Flow and PowerApps: Real cases and scenarios.
- Integration Use Group | February 4, 2019 | The NoS-addin – your (free) BizTalk Dev buddy!
- Integration Down Under | February 14, 2019 | How we are using Microsoft Integration features and related Azure technologies to improve our processes.
- Global Integration Bootcamp 2019 Madrid | May 30, 2019 | Real case implementations using Azure Logic Apps and/or Microsoft Flows.
- Global Azure Bootcamp 2019 Lisbon | April 27, 2019 | How we are using Logic Apps (and/or Microsoft Flow): Real cases scenarios.
- INTEGRATE 2019 UK London | June 3-5, 2019 | BizTalk Server Fast & Loud Part II.
- INTEGRATE 2019 USA – Redmond | June 24-26, 2019 | BizTalk Server Fast & Loud Part II.
- PBIPT #7 | July 2, 2019 | Power BI Service, Flow, PowerApps, and all together!
- DevScope CSI | October 4, 2019 | Diagnosis – How are your Flows: Best Practices, Tips and Tricks
And several workshops and training courses during 2019:
- Developing Business Process and Integration Solutions Using Microsoft BizTalk Server 2016 training course.
- BizTalk Server 2016: Developer and Administration (OAM) training course
- Get started with the Microsoft PowerApps and Flow training course.
- Microsoft Integration Workshop London | October 28-29.
For all of you…
Once again, thanks for following me, for reading my blog, and I promise that I will continue to share my knowledge in 2020.
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.
