My Sitecore Contributions 2023

Every year I try to contribute to the Sitecore community as much as possible. This year has been no different. If anything, I'm thrilled and proud at the fact that my contributions this year were much more when compared to yesteryear. In this blog, I want to capture all the contributions I've made for this year.

Content

I normally share my writings on my WordPress blog: https://getsitecore.wordpress.com/ and at the start of the year I did write a couple of blogs there. However, mid-year I thought of trying hashnode, a blogging platform on the rise to share technical musings. Moving to hashnode has been wonderful and I like the simple, intuitive features of this platform that make it easier to write content. I also wrote a couple of blogs for my current organization, Iquality. Below are the details of each of the blogs written:

• Containerize your Sitecore solution - https://getsitecore.wordpress.com/2023/01/22/containerize-your-sitecore-solution/

In this blog, I've shared how can we transition from a non-container Sitecore solution to a containerized one.

• Sugcon Europe 2023 experience - https://www.iquality.com/blog/sugcon-2023

Here I shared my experience and learnings of attending the Sugcon Europe in Malaga. The Sugcons, in my opinion, are the best events to attend to connect with fellow Sitecore community members and also a wonderful opportunity to learn.

• How Sitecore Spatial Search works under the hood - https://getsitecore.wordpress.com/2023/07/31/how-sitecore-spatial-search-works-under-the-hood/

Starting Sitecore 9, Spatial Search is included out of the box as part of Sitecore Solr Configuration. In my blog, I try to explain its workings so that it's easier to understand, debug any issues, and add customizations if need be.

• Tips for Local Development with Sitecore Containers - https://sumitupadhyay.hashnode.dev/tips-for-local-development-with-sitecore-containers

This year I've spent a lot of time working with Sitecore 10 in Dockers. In this blog, I shared some real-world handy tips to work with Sitecore and Docker locally with optimum speed and performance.

• Troubleshoot issues with Sitecore Docker containers - https://sumitupadhyay.hashnode.dev/troubleshoot-issues-with-sitecore-docker-containers

Running Dockers for the first time could be intimidating. Especially for those well-versed with the IIS way of working. As such, when there is an issue of the container not starting, we are stumped and puzzled. In my blog, I've tried to list down some common and not-so-common issues around Docker and it not starting up.

• Sitecore xConnect: Sync Token is no longer valid error - https://sumitupadhyay.hashnode.dev/sitecore-xconnect-sync-token-is-no-longer-valid-error-part-2

In September 2020, I came across this issue and I blogged about it on how to resolve it. I faced this issue once more this year and thought of creating this blog. While the earlier blog was a quick fix more for local development, the latest one is for higher environments.

Speaking Engagements

I am proud that I was able to present on a fairly niche topic "Deploying Solr with Solr Operator in Azure Kubernetes" at two Sitecore User Groups. Below are the details:

1. Sitecore User Group Bangalore: http://sugblr.in/events/2023/11/deploying-solr-with-solr-operator-in-aks.html

   The video for the presentation could be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InqAXruUaKo

2. Sitecore User Group France: https://www.meetup.com/sitecore-user-group-france/events/296989048/

   The video for the presentation can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5llOZ_3qP_c&t=90s

I've published the code used for the above presentations at my Github: https://github.com/sumitupadhyay01/Solr-Operator. This would be helpful for community members in getting started and deploying their own Solr Operator in Azure Kubernetes.

Sitecore Community

This year I've tried to be part of the Sitecore Community website as well and have tried to ask questions as well as help others seeking answers. Below are some of the questions I've raised and answers I've provided to help other members:

1. https://community.sitecore.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=1a2c6b781be8ed10722d4042b24bcb27

2. https://community.sitecore.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=0b78caea1b3b1510722d4042b24bcb1b&view_source=searchResult

3. https://community.sitecore.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=f881a13d1b14755038a46421b24bcb26

4. https://community.sitecore.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=24151f061b74fd10efd0ec22604bcb0b

5. https://community.sitecore.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=b6cef7911b787510efd0ec22604bcb2d

6. https://community.sitecore.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=2257cd811bed7d50b8954371b24bcb62

Sitecore StackExchange

I was in the top 24% of the Sitecore StackExchange contributors for this year reaching out to 28k people.

Below are some of the answers I provided in the StackExchange platform:

1. https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/35865/generating-custom-error-pages-using-sxa-docker-container-aks/35868#35868

2. https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/35866/how-to-add-analyzer-and-tokenizer-in-our-customfieldtype/35867#35867

3. https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/35565/is-it-possible-to-serialize-single-item-or-tree-from-sitecore-cms-using-sitecore/35592#35592

4. https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/35507/how-to-sort-the-renderings-by-alphabetical-order-in-the-select-a-rendering-dia/35512#35512

5. https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/33843/hosting-xdb-on-same-database-server-as-content-database-onprem/33849#33849

6. https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/33475/speed-up-rebuilding-reporting-database/33554#33554

Social Media

Through my posts (and sometimes helpful reposts), I was able to make just under 40,000 impressions

My top-performing posts are listed below:

1. https://bit.ly/sitecore-transition-myget-to-nuget

2. https://bit.ly/rocking-sugcon

3. https://bit.ly/containerize-sitecore-solution

I've shared my experience in attending the Sitecore Symposium Takeaways which took place in December 2022 in Amsterdam here: https://bit.ly/sitecore-symposium-takeaways-amsterdam

I also tried to answer questions related to Sitecore on LinkedIn here: https://bit.ly/how-do-you-keep-up-sitecore-updates

The entire LinkedIn Activities can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumit-upadhyay/recent-activity/all/

I've also posted (and reposted) the content in X (Twitter) and it can be found here: https://twitter.com/isumit001

I also try to be active in Sitecore Slack and help out the Sitecore community members whenever possible as well as raise questions myself in need.

Sitecore Events Attended

I had the pleasure of attending 3 events from Sitecore last year:

1. Sitecore Symposium Takeaways, Amsterdam: Sitecore Amsterdam 2022

2. SUGCON Europe, Malaga: SUGCON Europe - Sitecore User Group Conference Europe

3. Sitecore Customer Event, Amsterdam: Sitecore Customer Event Amsterdam| Sitecore

Apart from this, I'm a regular attendee at the Sitecore User Group Netherlands: Sitecore® User Group Nederland (sugnl.net) I also like to attend other Sitecore User Groups whenever possible.

Sitecore survey, feedback, and support:

I was able to provide my input to the "Study Guide: Sitecore XM Cloud Developer Certification Exam" survey. I also provided feedback for the SUGCON Europe event in Malaga.

I've raised multiple Sitecore support cases when I have had troubles with a feature and would like to thank them for the help they've provided to resolve the case.

Over the last year, I'm pleased with the contributions I've made to the Sitecore community. But I know this is a continuous process and the more we do is actually less. For the next year, I would like to keep this up and do more.