I usually like to see the positive side of things, even in adverse situations, so despite 2023, it has been a strange year, neither good nor bad, just weird. Perhaps the constant inflation of the cost of living and the continuous loss of civility in society have influenced this definition. I still find myself remembering the good and most important moments, both professional and personal.
Personal highlights…
5 years in a row with home renovations. The path to our dream house is not a fast run but a marathon instead :). This year, we have decided to renew all the bedroom wardrobes in our house and improve our pergola with lights to have family dinners on summer nights. Also, do some renovations on our AIRBNB house in Porto:
We made one of our dream trips: Walter Disney Paris!
And I was able to bring my wife on a “business trip” with a personal weekend as a bonus for her to know a different city and country: Gothenburg, Sweden.
Professional highlights…
Each year, I change, or I try to, how I contribute to the different communities so that it does not become tiring or monotonous. If 2021 and 2022 were years that I dedicated myself to speaking engagements at conferences and User Groups worldwide on topics like BizTalk Server, Logic Apps, and Power Automate, delivering a combined total of 31 sessions. Or in 2022, a year that I also focused on creating whitepapers, ending up publishing ten whitepapers that year.
This year, I decided to return to my roots and dedicate myself to writing more blog posts on my blog (117 new posts) – a personal record!:
2022: 77 new posts
2021: 77 new posts
2020: 92 new posts
2019: 43 new posts
2018: 70 new posts
2017: 63 new posts (migrate to a new blog)
2016: 50 new posts
2015: 79 new posts
2014: 52 new posts
2013: 79 new posts
2012: 102 new posts
2011: 61 new posts
As in BizTalk360 (13 new posts) and Serveless360 (42 new posts). Making an astonishing total of 172 blog posts, which means an average of 14.33 blog posts per month.
I also contribute to GitHub with samples, tools, and other types of resources.
But don’t get me wrong, I was still able to deliver 8 sessions (on-prem and remote) in several conferences and User Groups worldwide on topics like BizTalk Server, Logic Apps, and Power Automate:
Microsoft Integration Trends 2023 Webinar | March 2,9 and 16, 2023 | Online | Enterprise case studies on migrating BizTalk Server to Azure
INTEGRATE 2023 London | JUNE 5-7, 2023 | London, UK | BizTalk Server to Azure Integration Services migration
Azure Logic Apps Community Day 2023 | June 22, 2023 | Online | A walk in the park with the new Logic App Data Mapper
Integration Down Under | June 29, 2023 | Online | A walk in the park with the new Logic App Data Mapper
BizTalk to Azure – The Migration Journey event | September 28, 2023 | Gothenburg, Sweden | Elevating Integration – The Roadmap from BizTalk Server to Azure
BizTalk to Azure – The Migration Journey event | September 28, 2023 | Gothenburg, Sweden | Azure Integration in Action – BizTalk to Azure Transition Case Studies
CONNECTED Conference 2023 | November 15, 2023 | Online | API Management: Best practices, tips and tricks
Porto.DATA #90 Christmas edition – Lightning talks | December 19, 2023 | Online | A walk in the park with the new Logic App Data Mapper
Another thing that I started doing more often was publishing videos on my YouTube channel alongside my coworker, Luis Rigueira. We ended up publishing 14 new videos I especially like:
Finally, this was a year full of training. I was able to deliver 10 training courses (in person and online) focused on BizTalk Server and Azure Integration Services to several partners and organizations on topics like:
Logic App Training Course
Azure Integration Services Training Course
BizTalk Server Developing Training Course
BizTalk Server Administration Training Course
BizTalk Server Dev and Admin Training Course
Star Wars…
Finally, I couldn’t endup without speaking this. If you saw some of my speaking engagements, you notice that at the end I finish the session with this slide:
Well, my son (and me) is a Star Wars fan, and every time I go to the computer at night to write articles and blogs, prepare sessions, or travel to lectures, I tell him I will earn money for our LEGO! So, I decided to create this buy-me-a-coffee thing for those who like my community work and want to contribute.
We were not even close to raising the amount for the Millennium Falcon (not the biggest one, nor the small one :)), but I decided to tell him that we did it! And here he is, saying thank you to all the people who helped us achieve our goal!
The 2024 goal will be once again the LEGO Star Wars Millennium Falcon (75192) or Chewbacca (75371)!
For all of you…
Once again, thanks for following me, and for reading my blog, and I promise that I will continue to share my knowledge during 2024.
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.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
As the snowflakes gently settle (in theory because here in Porto, there is no snow!) and the jingle bells echo in the distance, we find ourselves at the magical juncture of the year where warmth (in theory again because it is cold), joy, and togetherness take center stage. It’s that time again when twinkling lights and festive cheers fill the air — yes, Christmas is here, and a New Year is just around the corner!
Thanks in advance for all the support and encouragement given throughout this year. We hope that the next year will be filled with new, distinct contributions. We will promise that we will continue to share knowledge, hoping that they can help someone.
May your holiday season be filled with moments of laughter, love, and shared joy with family and friends. As we bid farewell to 2023, we look forward to the adventures that await us in 2024 and remember the sage advice: “Start using proper names from day one!“. With a touch of intergalactic flair, we send our wishes for a Stellar Holiday Season and an Out-of-This-World New Year.
Let’s continue to reach for the stars and dream beyond the limits of the universe. May the Force be with you!
Greetings from Diogo, Luis, and Sandro!
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.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
This is just another post for the sake of my mental sanity because I’m always tired of looking up for this over and over again. While working on BizTalk Server projects and in many other scenarios, like optimizing the BizTalk Server environment, I want to check how many SQL Server Jobs I have in my SQL Server Instance in order to optimize and properly configure the maximum job history log. This way, I know that none of the jobs is going to be without execution history on the logs, and I can easily monitor and troubleshoot them.
Normally, I have a few SQL Server Jobs, and it is easy to count them manually, nevertheless annoying! But sometimes I get SQL Server Instances hosting applications databases used by BizTalk Server with more than 60 jobs… and counting them manually is not an annoying task but instead an insane task!
So the million dollar question is, How to easily count the number of Jobs in SQL Server Agent Jobs?
To easily count the number of SQL Server Agent Jobs in your SQL Server instance, you can use a simple SQL query. Here’s how you can do it:
SELECT COUNT(*) AS NumberOfJobs
FROM msdb.dbo.sysjobs;
This query counts the number of rows in the msdb.dbo.sysjobs table, which contains information about SQL Server Agent Jobs. The result will be the total number of jobs.
Keep in mind that you need the necessary permissions to query the msdbdatabase, which is where SQL Server Agent Jobs are stored. Typically, users with administrative roles or appropriate permissions can access this information.
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.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
In my previous update, I discussed my intention to release a new major version of my stencils. However, I’ve opted for a gradual approach, releasing minor updates along the way. This way, it becomes easier for me because I don’t need to spend long periods allocated to this task, and at the same time, all of you can start enjoying these new icons.
Keeping my promise, I’m presenting another update. I hope it meets your expectations! If you have any specific requests, don’t hesitate to share them with me.
What’s new in this version? (for now)
The main goal of this release was to provide the new icons present in the Azure Portal, on the Power Platform, and new existing Services. In this version, the changes and additions are:
New stencil packages: Additional stencil packages were incorporated into this project to enhance the discoverability of shapes:
MIS Azure Integration Services: this file contains shapes related to Azure Integration Service and messaging.
MIS Microsoft Fabric: this file contains shapes related to Microsoft Fabric – This was actually a request made by a community member. And credits to Sam Debruyn for these Microsoft SVG files. I only had the work to “convert” them into proper Visio stencils.
Move some shapes: I reorganized and relocated certain shapes to other files within this package.
SVG Files: Add new SVG files;
Special Highlights: API Center, Policy fragments, Event Grid, Event Grid: Namespace, Partner namespaces and Partner registrations or APIM Schemas
Microsoft Integration, Azure, Power Platform, Office 365, and much more Stencils Pack
Microsoft Integration, Azure, Power Platform, Office 365, and much more Stencils Pack it’s a Visio package that contains fully resizable Visio shapes (symbols/icons) that will help you to visually represent On-premise, Cloud or Hybrid Integration and Enterprise architectures scenarios (BizTalk Server, API Management, Logic Apps, Service Bus, Event Hub…), solutions diagrams and features or systems that use Microsoft Azure and related cloud and on-premises technologies in Visio 2016/2013:
BizTalk Server
Microsoft Azure
Integration
Integration Service Environments (ISE)
Logic Apps and Azure App Service in general (API Apps, Web Apps, and Mobile Apps)
Azure API Management
Messaging: Event Hubs, Event Grid, Service Bus, …
Azure IoT and Docker
AI, Machine Learning, Stream Analytics, Data Factory, Data Pipelines
SQL Server, DocumentDB, CosmosDB, MySQL, …
and so on
Microsoft Power Platform
Microsoft Flow
PowerApps
Power BI
Office365, SharePoint,…
DevOps and PowerShell
Security and Governance
And much more…
… and now non-related Microsoft technologies like:
SAP Stencils
The Microsoft Integration Stencils Pack is composed of 29 files:
Microsoft Integration Stencils
MIS Additional or Support Stencils
MIS AI and Machine Learning Stencils
MIS Apps and Systems Logo Stencils
MIS Azure Additional or Support Stencils
MIS Azure Integration Services
MIS Azure Mono Color
MIS Azure Old Versions
MIS Azure Others Stencils
MIS Azure Stencils
MIS Buildings Stencils
MIS Databases and Analytics Stencils
MIS Deprecated Stencils
MIS Developer Stencils
MIS Devices Stencils
MIS Files Stencils
MIS Generic Stencils
MIS Infrastructure Stencils
MIS Integration Fun
MIS Integration Patterns Stencils
MIS IoT Devices Stencils
MIS Microsoft Fabric
MIS Office365
MIS Power BI Stencils
MIS PowerApps and Flows Stencils
MIS SAP Stencils
MIS Security and Governance
MIS Servers (HEX) Stencils
MIS Users and Roles Stencils
You can use and resize without losing quality.
Download
You can download Microsoft Integration, Azure, BAPI, Office 365, and much more Stencils Pack for Visio from GitHub here:
Hope you find this helpful! So, if you liked the content or found it helpful and want to help me write more content, you can buy (or help buy) my son a Star Wars Lego!
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.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
We live in an era where people seem to give titles and labels to everything, not just IT, but IT is a jungle! Systems designer, Systems analyst, Application support analyst, IT manager, IT coordinator, Solutions Architect, Web designer, Web development project manager, User interface (UI) designer, Webmaster, UX/UI specialist, SEO manager, Front-end developer, Back-end developer, Full-stack developer, Technology manager, Technology assistant, Business systems analyst, Information security engineer, Computer forensic investigator and so many more! And then we have that fancy one like Chief Digital Officer (CDO), Digital Transformation Specialist, Technology Evangelist, Chief Innovation Officer (CIO), Cybersecurity Ninja, Data Scientist, DevOps Guru, and the list is endless. Personally, I don’t like titles, and I consider myself an Enterprise Integration Consultant, which means that depending on the client’s needs, I can have different responsibilities. I can perform simple developer tasks or more responsible tasks like architecture and guidance.
By reading this book, the first impression I got was that the author was defending and/or selling the Solution Architect title almost as the mastermind behind everything, bordering on arrogance by using sentences like:
“That is when an SA has to switch to their guardian angel hat and come to the rescue.”
“That being said, SAs are not called guardian angels just for defending the developers but also are of great help if the team is short of hands…”
“As the name itself suggests, SAs have ownership of their solution, It’s creation. They designed it and they will be the ones who will have the final say.”
“As the SA, you won’t think about why you should do this, but you know that you are the only one who has to do it”
“… you have to be involved in the day-to-day operations of development, testing, user acceptance testing (UAT), and deployment phases.”
“…you will face some situations where developers are frustrated to know you design a solution the way you did, …”
And many more. The reality is that some of these behaviors and sentences do not correspond to reality or the best way to approach and bring a solution to a successful conclusion. And to be honest, if I have to sell my “title” like this, probably the client won’t need me…
However, abstracting from this somewhat arrogant behavior, in my opinion of the author about the highly inflated profile of an SA, the book touches on some very interesting points in the life cycle of a solution and to each intends to become a solutions architect or a project manager. And although in certain parts the author particularizes the text for RPA solution, as well as the name of the book mentions, in my opinion, most of the book is written generically. An Enterprise Integration solution architect or a BI solution architect has to have the same concepts, responsibilities, and skills as an RPA solution architect.
Even so, for those who want to be responsible for the management and architecture of solutions, it is a pleasant book to read. However, be more humble, try to integrate all those involved in the decisions on solutions, and make them part of the project. If people have a sense of belonging, they give 100%.
RPA Solution Architect’s Handbook Book Description
RPA solution architects play an important role in the automation journey and initiatives within the organization. However, the implementation process is quite complex and daunting at times. RPA Solution Architect’s Handbook is a playbook for solution architects looking to build well-designed and scalable RPA solutions.
You’ll begin by understanding the different roles, responsibilities, and interactions between cross-functional teams. Then, you’ll learn about the pillars of a good design: stability, maintainability, scalability, and resilience, helping you develop a process design document, solution design document, SIT/UAT scripts, and wireframes. You’ll also learn how to design reusable components for faster, cheaper, and better RPA implementation, and design and develop best practices for module decoupling, handling garbage collection, and exception handling. At the end of the book, you’ll explore the concepts of privacy, security, reporting automated processes, analytics, and taking preventive action to keep the bots healthy.
By the end of this book, you’ll be well equipped to undertake a complete RPA process from design to implementation efficiently.
What you will learn
Understand the architectural considerations for stability, maintainability, and resilience for effective RPA solution design.
Interact with cross-functional teams for seamless RPA implementation.
Write effective RPA documentation, non-functional requirements, and effective UAT scripts.
Demo RPA solutions, receive feedback, and triage additional requirements based on complexity, time, and cost.
Design considerations for intelligent automation and learn about RPA as a service.
Explore best practices for decoupling, handling garbage collection, and exception handling.
Who is this book for
This book is for RPA developers, RPA Sr. developers, or RPA analysts looking to become RPA solution architects. If you are an RPA solution architect, this book can help you advance your understanding and become more efficient. Familiarity with RPA documentation like SDD, and PDD, along with hands-on experience with either one or more RPA tools, will be helpful but is not mandatory.
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.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
This is just another post for the sake of my mental sanity because I’m always tired of looking up for this over and over again. While working on BizTalk Server projects, and in many other scenarios, we have to check if a specific user has access to specific resources in a file share or the file share itself, and we don’t want to disconnect (log off) from the machine and log on on the same machine using a different account. Sometimes, this account doesn’t have remote desktop access either.
So, the main question is: How to run Windows File Explorer as a different user?
There are several ways to accomplish this, but if you need to run File Explorer as a different user, the simplest way to accomplish that is by:
Open the File Explorer, normally as we usually do, and access the following folder:
C:Windows
Scroll down until you find the explorer.exe executable, or search for this file in the search field in the upper right corner.
Press the Shift key, and with the Shift key pressed, right-click on the explorer.exe file, and on the context menu, select Run as different user.
In the Windows Security window that appears, you need to specify the name and password of the user under whose account you want to run the application and click OK.
After this, a new File Explorer is open, running under the specified user account.
Any Windows user can run a program in his current session on behalf of another user using RunAs. This feature allows you to run any scripts (.bat, .cmd, .vbs, .ps1), executable files (.exe), or install applications (.msi, .cab) with the permissions of another user without the need to log off and log in on the machine with different users/credentials.
Hope you find this helpful! So, if you liked the content or found it helpful and want to help me write more content, you can buy (or help buy) my son a Star Wars Lego!
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.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
I always love Microsoft Visio to create my Enterprise Integration documentation. That passion led me to create the Microsoft Integration and Azure Stencils Pack for Visio – a Visio package that contains fully resizable Visio shapes (symbols/icons) that will help you to visually represent On-premise, Cloud or Hybrid Integration and Enterprise architectures scenarios (BizTalk Server, API Management, Logic Apps, Service Bus, Event Hub…), solutions diagrams and features or systems that use Microsoft Azure and related cloud and on-premises technologies in Visio. Most of you may know me for being a Microsoft Azure MVP, where my focus is Enterprise Integration, but I’m also a former Visio MVP. All of this just to say that I had expectations high for this book!
To be honest, based on the title of this book: Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio, I was expecting different content with more real cases and complex scenarios explained in detail, different implementation strategies, and advanced designing tips. But I soon realized that the book would guide me differently. Did I get disappointed with the book? No. I choose the book by the name without reading the description and table of content. And I cannot criticize a book just for its title or for my mistakes. In fact, I was surprised by how many small things I have learned from this book.
For me, this book is an excellent guide for professionals seeking to learn or enhance their Visio skills, not to design complex processes. Nevertheless, the authors will give you some best practices to archive that. The book will guide you to the different types of diagrams and different types of Visio versions. Of course, how to work with Visio and how you can manually create your flow diagrams. How to utilize data sources, share (security include) or collaborate, and integrate Visio with Microsoft Apps or /and BPMN.
In resume, I enjoyed the book, and I will recommend it to anyone seeking to learn or enhance their Visio skills.
Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio Book Description
Every business has process flows, but not all of them are fully described to or verified for accuracy with each stakeholder. This not only presents a risk for business continuity but also removes the ability to make insightful improvements. To make these complex interactions easy to grasp, it’s important to describe these processes visually using symbology that everybody understands. Different parts of these flows should be collaboratively developed and stored securely as commercial collateral.
Visualize Complex Processes with Microsoft Visio helps you understand why it is crucial to use a common, systematic approach to document the steps needed to meet each business requirement. This book explores the various process flow templates available in each edition of Microsoft Visio, including BPMN. It also shows you how to use them effectively with the help of tips and techniques and examples to reduce the time required for creating them, as well as how you can improve their integration and presentation.
By the end of this book, you’ll have mastered the skills needed to create data-integrated business flowcharts with Microsoft Visio, learned how to effectively use these diagrams collaboratively, but securely, and understood how to integrate them with other M365 apps, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Power Automate.
What you will learn
Choose an appropriate flowchart diagram type to describe the process steps.
Develop the skills to efficiently use Visio to draw process flowcharts.
Discover how to create process flows diagrams to meet the BPMN standard.
Find out how to synchronize Excel tables with Visio process flowcharts.
Store flowcharts that can also be used for collaboration securely.
Understand how to export flowcharts and data to other M365 apps.
Discover how Visio ShapeSheet functions can increase productivity.
Who is this book for
Suppose you’re a manager, analyst, or designer of business processes. In that case, this book will help you create professional process diagrams effectively and consistently to improve the accuracy of communication and facilitate impactful insights. This book will also be helpful for beginners or power users seeking tips and techniques to capture process flows from context and customize diagrams to meet academic and corporate standards.
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.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
The last time I released a new version of my stencil, it was on January 26 of 2022. A long time ago indeed, so it is fair to say that I do need to release a new major version of my stencils, and that will be a long work and process. However, I decided to do this task progressively and release minor updates during this “journey”. This way, it becomes easier for me because I don’t need to spend long periods allocated to this task, and at the same time, all of you can start enjoying these new icons.
What’s new in this version? (for now)
The main goal of this release was to provide the new icons present in the Azure Portal, on the Power Platform, and new existing Services. In this version, the changes and additions are:
New shapes: New shapes added on MIS Databases and Analytics Stencils, MIS Azure Additional or Support Stencils, Microsoft Integration Stencils, MIS Azure Stencils, and MIS Power Platform Stencils;
SVG Files: Add new SVG files;
Special Highlights: Microsoft Fabric and the new Logic App Data Mapper
Microsoft Integration, Azure, Power Platform, Office 365, and much more Stencils Pack
Microsoft Integration, Azure, Power Platform, Office 365, and much more Stencils Pack it’s a Visio package that contains fully resizable Visio shapes (symbols/icons) that will help you to visually represent On-premise, Cloud or Hybrid Integration and Enterprise architectures scenarios (BizTalk Server, API Management, Logic Apps, Service Bus, Event Hub…), solutions diagrams and features or systems that use Microsoft Azure and related cloud and on-premises technologies in Visio 2016/2013:
BizTalk Server
Microsoft Azure
Integration
Integration Service Environments (ISE)
Logic Apps and Azure App Service in general (API Apps, Web Apps, and Mobile Apps)
Azure API Management
Messaging: Event Hubs, Event Grid, Service Bus, …
Azure IoT and Docker
AI, Machine Learning, Stream Analytics, Data Factory, Data Pipelines
SQL Server, DocumentDB, CosmosDB, MySQL, …
and so on
Microsoft Power Platform
Microsoft Flow
PowerApps
Power BI
Office365, SharePoint,…
DevOps and PowerShell
Security and Governance
And much more…
… and now non-related Microsoft technologies like:
SAP Stencils
The Microsoft Integration Stencils Pack is composed of 27 files:
Microsoft Integration Stencils
MIS Additional or Support Stencils
MIS AI and Machine Learning Stencils
MIS Apps and Systems Logo Stencils
MIS Azure Additional or Support Stencils
MIS Azure Mono Color
MIS Azure Old Versions
MIS Azure Others Stencils
MIS Azure Stencils
MIS Buildings Stencils
MIS Databases and Analytics Stencils
MIS Deprecated Stencils
MIS Developer Stencils
MIS Devices Stencils
MIS Files Stencils
MIS Generic Stencils
MIS Infrastructure Stencils
MIS Integration Fun
MIS Integration Patterns Stencils
MIS IoT Devices Stencils
MIS Office365
MIS Power BI Stencils
MIS PowerApps and Flows Stencils
MIS SAP Stencils
MIS Security and Governance
MIS Servers (HEX) Stencils
MIS Users and Roles Stencils
That you can use and resize without losing quality, in particular, the new shapes.
Download
You can download Microsoft Integration, Azure, BAPI, Office 365, and much more Stencils Pack for Visio from GitHub here:
Hope you find this helpful! So, if you liked the content or found it helpful and want to help me write more content, you can buy (or help buy) my son a Star Wars Lego!
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.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
In our Integration projects, especially nowadays on Azure Integration Services, sometimes we have the need to work with Base64 strings format. This is very common in some connectors inside Logic App, where the request or response is in Base64, like the Service Bus or the HTTP. And when we need to debug or troubleshoot our solution or business process, we need to understand what is the request and response payload. That means that we need most of the time to decode the Base64 string.
And I know what you guys are thinking… I also was thinking that way! Why do you need a Windows tool if we have plenty of online tools like https://www.base64decode.org/ that can easily do the job simply and fashionably?
And my straightforward and honest answer is privacy/security! The problem with using these online tools is that we never know behind the scenes what they are doing. Are you sure that they are not keeping logs of the inputs we provide and the result outputs? That is the magic question because we often have sensitive (private) information on those Base64 strings, like a connection string or usernames and passwords. And we need to be careful about where we put this information.
I have an amazing Ethical hacking friend, Nino Crudele, and every time I speak with him about security, I’m always more suspicious about how to use specific tools available on the web or, in general, how to secure my personal stuff and my solutions. And even speaking with Michael Stephenson, something that we try to do regularly, we share these concerns, and it was Michael that raised my suspicions about the decode online tools. Since that talk, I have stopped using them and decided to create my personal tool.
Base64 Decode Windows tool
This is a very simple Windows tool that allows you to decode your data. This is a handy tool if you have to deal with Base64 format.
To not raise the same suspicions about this tool, the source code is available on GitHub!
Download
Hope you find this useful! So, if you liked the content or found it useful and want to help me write more content, you can buy (or help buy) my son a Star Wars Lego!
Credits
Luis Rigueira | Member of my team and one of the people responsible for developing this tool.
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.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
2022… back to normality! Yes and no, nothing will be the same as it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic brought many bad things, that we all know, but like everything, there are always two sides to the coin. The reality is that the pandemic forced us to change our existing living style, and with that came also good stuff like remote work (for good) and more freedom of working hours… but yes, it was a year that we recovered more and more our life normality and freedom.
It was a year that I returned to perform live events… especially at my favorite event: INTEGRATE 2022 London + Remote! (I say this without discrediting all the other events, I like them all, but this one I helped create from day one 11/12 years ago!)
and see so many friends I made during these years!
It was also the year I released my SECOND book! This time alongside my dear friends Tom Canter and Lex Hegt: Migrating to BizTalk Server 2020
And was a year, I decided to do more online training courses about Microsoft Enterprise Integration, which means:
BizTalk Server on Administration or development topics
and Azure Integrations Services (Logic Apps Standard and Consumption, API Management, Azure Service Bus, and Functions)
One of these examples is this short and intense BizTalk Server training course that I do alongside my friends Stephen W. Thomas and Lex Hegt.
My Blog has still solid numbers and growing every year…
The numbers of my blog kept solid in terms of visitors and new content, and 2022 was again a very productive year:
Publish 70 new posts on my blog;
More than 364,107 visits to my blog.
Coming from 212 countries across the world in the past year (and more than 15,191 cities).
And the countries that most visited my blog are once again the top 3 maintains unchanged: the United States, followed by India, the United Kingdom, and, this time, Canada got the fourth position.
In terms of cities, Hyderabad got the first position followed closely by London and Bengaluru.
For me, this is amazing considering the fact I decided this year to do different things, so I dedicate 70% of my community time to doing other stuff them my blog, something that I never did on this scale during these 12 years. And if we compare it to the previous years… not bad indeed:
2021: 375,328 visits, 210 countries, 77 new posts
2020: 392,535 visits, 214 countries, 92 new posts
2019: 431,000visits, 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.
Attractionsin 2022
I’m always surprised by this analysis because my estimates never come out right to what the community consumes but I always like to do this. So, these are the top 10 posts that got the most views in 2022:
I mentioned before that I dedicate 70% of my community time doing other stuff them my blog, but in reality, I spend that amount of time doing different things than the previous years. That means I dedicate less time writing in my blog and doing online events, just to refresh a little… don’t get me wrong I love doing events, but after 21 virtual sessions last year, I was a little tired. So I focus more on writing whitepapers and outside my blog and getting back to code and providing a lot of resources.
More Open Source Contributions…
Continue to improve the existing GitHub contributions and add new ones. Here are some samples:
BizTalk Business Activity Monitoring Management Utility Tool: this is a Windows Application tool that works on top of the BM.exe to modernize and simplify its use. It is the equivalent of the BAM Management utility (BM.exe) tool with a GUI.
ODBC File Decoder Pipeline Component: This is, as the name mentioned, a decode component that you can use in a receive pipeline to process DBF or Excel files. Still, it can be possible to process other ODBC types (maybe requiring minor adjustments). The component uses basic ADO.NET to parse the incoming DBF or Excel files into an XML document.
BizTalk PDF2Xml Pipeline Component: This is, as the name mentioned, a decode component that transforms the content of a PDF document to an XML message that BizTalk can understand and process.
Receive Location Name Property Promotion Pipeline Component: This isis a simple pipeline component to promote the Receive Location Name (ReceiveLocationName) property to the context of the message. Several BizTalk Server context properties are not promoted by default with BizTalk Server, which means that they are not available for routing.
Message Archive Pipeline Component: This is a pipeline component that can be used to arch incoming/outgoing messages from any adapters into a local or shared folder.
Archive Pipeline Component for BizTalk Server: This is based on the initial work of Randy Paulo‘s BizTalk Archiving SQL and File component that my team and I adjusted and migrated to Microsoft BizTalk Server 2020.
PDF Decoder Pipeline Component for BizTalk Server: This is, as the name suggests, a decode component that transforms the content of a PDF document into an XML message that BizTalk can understand and process. The component uses the iTextSharp library to extract the PDF content.
SQL Archive Pipeline Component: This was created initially by Johan Hedberg, and I decided to migrate to Microsoft BizTalk Server 2020.
This year, was also the year that I start publishing more blogs and more constantly on other sites, and on that my major partner in crime is Saravana Kumar:
Publish 19 guest blog posts on Serveless360 about Azure Integration Services on topics like Logic Apps, API Management, Azure App Configuration, and Power Automate.
Publish 20 guest blog posts on BizTalk360 about BizTalk Server.
Speaking engagements…
However, that is not all! I still was able to deliver 21 virtual sessions in several conferences and User Groups worldwide on topics like BizTalk Server, Logic Apps, and Power Automate:
M365 Below in Chicago! | January 14, 2022 | Power Automation: A new set of Best practices, tips and tricks
Global Automation Bootcamp | February 4, 2022 | How to monitor your integrations solutions with Automation Account
Azure Integration Bootcamp | February 5, 2022 | Logic Apps: New set of Best practices, Tips and Tricks
Global Power Platform Bootcamp 2022 – Münsterland | February 19, 2022 | How to create robust monitor solutions PowerShell, Azure Functions & Power Automate
aMS Lausanne 2022 | April 19, 2022 | LogicApps: New set of Best practices, Tips and Tricks
Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon | May 4, 2022 | Power Automation: Best practices, tips and tricks
Global Azure 2022 – Spain | May 6, 2022 | Logic Apps: New set of Best practices, Tips and Tricks
Global Azure Bootcamp 2022 Lüdinghausen | May 7, 2022 | Logic Apps: New set of Best practices, Tips and Trick
INTEGRATE 2022 | June 13-15, 2022 | Building Hybrid Integration Solutions with BizTalk Server
CONNECTED Conference 2022 | November 11, 2022 | Logic Apps: The good, the bad and the ugly
Porto.Data | December 20, 2022 | Logic Apps: Error Handling
For all of you…
Once again, thanks for following me, and for reading my blog, and I promise that I will continue to share my knowledge during 2023.
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.
View all posts by Sandro Pereira
