Notes From The Road: 2020 Year In Review

Posted: January 6, 2021  |  Categories: Other

I sincerely believe that humankind has faced worse years than in 2020. Nevertheless, this was probably the most challenging, exhausting, and difficult year of our generation. When the pandemic hit, and we were forced to be locked down at home, everything change, and we have to struggle between: 

  • Both parents working from home. We were not prepared, i.e., we did not have the necessary conditions at home, but that was the least of concerns, and it was relatively easier to fix. I ready had my office at home, so it was a matter to extend it to fit my wife’s needs and improve the network capabilities.
  • 3 Kids with younger ages being 24 hours at home and more critical having virtual school at home, and this was truly a challenge. Once again, luckily, I have several devices, that unfortunately, many people do not have, so in terms of equipment, that was easy, the oldest get a Mac, and the youngest was entitled to a Surface Pro. the little one, fortunately, didn’t have virtual school. But to conciliate both kids having virtual school and both parents having to work, and taking care of the kids and the house… wow, that was something huge that we luckily succeeded in without causing to much stress on our family and marriage.

Briefly and in the face of adversity, I would say that this turned out to be a good year. Family until now is safe and healthy, and that is the essential thing in life. We didn’t travel this year, that is something that I miss, but we arrange other things to pass the time in family, mainly at home safely. And for that reason, renovations at home continue to happen during 2020 in order to continue to build our dream house.

But that it’s not all:

  • We increased the family by adopting a new member: a 4-year-old puppy who suffered from mistreatment and that is now is a little princess here at home and cause for great joy and children’s play
  • We started a pep project during this pandemic to reduce stress, but it ended up improving our food: a biological garden that was initially small and got bigger and bigger!
  • And my team at DevScope grew even more and we hope it will continue to grow during this year in terms of business but full of challenging and great projects worldwide. We are doing a fantastic job;

My Blog is growing every year…

With all these constraints caused by the pandemic, both in personal and professional terms, It was to imagine that I had little time to do something I like: sharing knowledge. But when you do something that you enjoy, you always find the time. It was also a way to escape from all the problems and worries that have happened and relax. So it actually was a very productive year:

  • Publish 92 new posts on my blog; This goes directly to the podium, being the second most productive year since I start my personal blog.
    • More than 392,535 visits to my blog – that’s an average of 1,075 visits per day!
    • Coming from 214 countries across the world in the past year.
      • 7 new countries compare to the previous year
    • And the countries that most visited my blog are once again the United States, followed by India, the United Kingdom, and Canada

Not bad if we compare to previous years:

  • 2019: 431,000 visits, 207countries, 43 new posts
  • 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.

Attractions in 2020

These are the top 10 posts that got the most views in 2020:

  1. 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 40,532 views
  2. Microsoft Integration and Azure Stencils Pack for Visio: New major version available (v5.0.0) with 21,948 views
  3. The source was not found, but some or all event logs could not be searched. Inaccessible logs: Security with 17,420 views
  4. SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS): The Visual Studio component cache is out of date. Please restart Visual Studio with 14,256 views
  5. SQL Server detected a logical consistency-based I/O error: incorrect pageid in BizTalkMsgBoxDb database with 13,450 views
  6. Logic Apps: How to send a well-formatted HTML Email notification with Office 365 Outlook connector with 10,070 views
  7. Microsoft Flow: How to pass the SQL data table results in a Markdown-formatted table into an Email notification or Approval Requests with 8,271 views
  8. Microsoft Integration and Azure Stencils Pack for Visio: New version available (v5.1.0) with 6,964 views
  9. TypeLoadException: Could not load type ‘type name’ from assembly ‘assembly name, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=…’ with 6,596 views
  10. Microsoft Integration (Azure and much more) Stencils Pack v3.0.0 for Visio with 5,122 views

And these are some of my favorite post that I enjoyed writing in 2020:

Open Source Contributions…

With all of this activity on my blog and to support my posts, I end up reorganizing and add several repositories and contributions to my GitHub account and organizations. Here are some samples:

  • Migrate all the BizTalk Server tools and Open Source Community projects to BizTalk Server 2020:
    • BizTalk Port Multiplier Tool: a 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: a tool that aims to simplify the process for better understand and maintain solutions based on content-based routing. By allowing you to have a quick overview of all the artifacts, send ports, or orchestrations that have filters associated.
    • BizTalk Bindings Exporter tool: a tool that you can use to easily export a binding file from BizTalk Applications.
    • BizTalk Server SSO Application Configuration Tool: a 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.
    • BizTalk MapperExtensions Functoid Wizard: a Custom Functoid Project Wizard for Visual Studio 2010. It allows you to create a new Functoids project for BizTalk Server without having to create manually the project.
    • BizTalk MapperExtensions Functoid Project Template:  a Custom Functoid Project Template for Visual Studio 2019. It allows you to create a new Functoids project for BizTalk Server 2020 without having to create manually the project.
    • BizTalk Pipeline Components Extensions Utility Pack: 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: a set of libraries with several useful functoids to include and use in a map, which will provide an extension of BizTalk Mapper capabilities.
  • Microsoft Integration, Azure, Power Platform, Office 365 and much more Stencils Pack continues to be updated with new releases and getting some contributions from the community.
  • And I add brand new Repositories on my account:

Other contributions…

And if you think I stayed and contribute only on my blog, you are very wrong I perform several other publications outside my blog:

A year of on-line speaking engagements…

However, that not all! I still was able to deliver 10 virtual sessions in several conferences and User Groups worldwide on topics like BizTalk Server, Logic Apps and Power Automate:

  • Virtual Global Azure Lisbon | April 25, 2020 | Logic Apps: Best practices, Tips, and Tricks
  • Integration Use Group | May 4, 2020 |Microsoft Power Platform: Learn what Power BI + PowerApps + Power Automate + Office 365 can do for your organization
  • Integration Use Group | May 25, 2020 |Logic App: Best Practices, Tips & Tricks
  • INTEGRATE 2020 Remote | June 1-3, 2020 | BizTalk Server 2020: Migration Path
  • On-Demand | July 16, 2020 | Current Vision Enterprise Integration & Automation
  • Collabdays Lisbon | October 10, 2020 | Power Automates: Best Practices, Tips & Tricks
  • Global Microsoft 365 Bootcamp Lisbon 2020 | November 21, 2020 | Power Automates: Best Practices, Tips & Tricks
  • Global Integration Bootcamp Madrid 2020 | November 28, 2020 | BizTalk Server 2020 In Action
  • Integration Use Group | December 07, 2020 | Logic Apps: Development Experiences
  • Developer! Developer! Developer! (DDD2020) | December 12, 2020 | Logic App: Best Practices, Tips & Tricks

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 during 2021.

Author: Sandro Pereira

Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community.

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