2019 Year In Review

I came into 2019 with a lot of momentum as a Sitecore developer, and sure enough, the year didn't slow down. Here's a look back at the hectic 2019 that kept me busy as a Sitecore MVP and developer.

Major Events

• Released Sitecore Publish Queue Reporting Tool: As content authors make changes to content, items get added to the incremental publish queue. There is no built-in way to see what content items are queued for publish, but this one-file drop-in tool does just that. I released this in hopes of making the life of Sitecore administrators easier. Get it here on GitHub.

• Co-hosted Winter Denver SUG: In 2018 I helped create the Denver Sitecore User Group (in conjunction with @SitecoreSandbox), and we kicked off 2019 with an awesome Winter Denver SUG. Community rockstars Corey Smith, Rick Bauer, and Jason Wilkerson presented to an eager group of developers and marketers from the Denver metro area.

• Co-hosted Denver Sitecore Ski Trip: The day after the Winter Denver SUG meeting, a group of MVPs and friends drove up to Winter Park Resort for a Sitecore ski trip! A few of us skiing, drinks, food, and great company rounded out a long day on the slopes.

• Hosted Spring Denver SUG: Fast-forward a few months, and I hosted the Spring Denver SUG, this time featuring a fantastic SXA talk by Justin Laster and very special guest Sebastian Winter.

• Presented SPE Talk: My new talk for 2019, Empower Your Content Authors with Sitecore PowerShell Extensions, was presented internally at Perficient Digital to a very receptive audience that found many new uses for SPE. I iterated on feedback from that presentation for versions presented later in the year.

• CATS 1.5.0 Released: Content Author Tokens for Sitecore allows Sitecore authors to easily create and manage content-replacement tokens. It focuses on ease-of-use and raw speed (leaning heavily on output caching). The 1.5.0 update fixed a few bugs and ensured compatibility with Sitecore 9.2. It's open source and available on GitHub.

• SPRK 2.0.0 Released: My other module, Sitecore Publish Reporting Kit, provides detailed item-level publishing logs and reporting. Version 2.0.0 fixed critical bugs related to Sitecore 9 and ensured Sitecore 9.2 compatibility. Source code is available on GitHub.

• Presented at Queen City SUG: I visited frigid New Hampshire in November to speak in person at the Queen City SUG. Hosted by Mike Reynolds and Amitabh Vyas, I presented Empower Your Content Authors with Sitecore PowerShell Extensions, an overview of SPE tooling and best practices for supporting Sitecore content authors.

Blogging Highlights

While I've blogged all year long, here are the most popular posts from 2019 based on pageviews and Twitter audience.

• Understanding the Differences Between Geolocation and GeoIP: I visited the topic of GeoIP a few times in 2018, and this post wrapped up that topic.

• The Sitecore API vs Glass Mapper vs Synthesis: This kicks off a deep-dive into the nuances between different ORM tooling in Sitecore. I'm way overdue on writing part 2 (but stay tuned).

• A Back-End Developer's Guide to Sitecore JavaScript Services: JSS was the new hotness for Sitecore development in 2019, and I took a look at JSS from the perspective of a purebred backend MVC developer.

• Sitecore JSS: Questions & Answers for Back-End Developers: My previous JSS post generated lots of chatter and questions on Twitter, and this was a direct response to those questions.

• Implementation Differences Between Sitecore CustomCache and Generics CustomCache: I found myself working with custom Sitecore caches on a project and learned a bit about internal caching classes.

• What Safari and iPadOS Mean for Device Detection in Sitecore: iPadOS (in conjunction with iOS 13) introduced significant changes in the browser experience on iPad, and this article digs into the technical details behind those changes and how Sitecore's device detection is affected.

• Perficient Digital: Is The Sky Really Falling for Developers? Let's Examine Sitecore's SaaS Future: I do occasionally write for the Perficient Digital Sitecore blog, and after the Sitecore Symposium opening keynote, I immediately had to get some thoughts out about the Sitecore's upcoming SaaS offering. Spoiler alert: we'll be fine.

Looking Ahead to 2020

The future of Sitecore is very exciting (SaaS, anyone?), and I'm looking forward to another jam-packed year:

• My modules, SPRK and CATS, will be updated with new features, bugfixes, and compatibility updates to keep up with Sitecore 9.3 (and future versions).

• Spark will be getting a small facelift in early 2020, with a larger focus on blogging and discovering Sitecore community resources.

• Because I travel so much, I'm looking to speak at new Sitecore user groups in 2020, featuring both my SPE talk from 2019 and a new topic or two on module development and Sitecore's SaaS developer experience.

• Finally, I'm planning to focus on blogging topics regarding Sitecore's new SaaS offering as that product becomes relevant.

Do you have questions, comments, or corrections for this post? Find me on Twitter: @BrandonMBruno