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Thank you to all of our MuleSoft Community Leaders and members for your dedication, effort, and continued support throughout 2020. This last quarter, we had the honor of recognizing top MuleSoft Community members, hosting the first-ever Women Who Mule Meetup event, and announcing the winners of our debut MuleSoft Hackathon! Our Community also contributed high-quality blogs, created YouTube tutorials, and answered tough MuleSoft questions on social media and the Help Center. 

Earning a feature in our Community Roundup is a great accomplishment and means you have helped our Community — whether by answering questions, providing tips and tricks, or mentoring other MuleSoft Developers and Architects. We are always looking for new contributors to feature. If you are interested in sharing your own blogs and videos, use #MuleSoftDeveloper on social media, post on @MuleSoftDevelopers, and submit your content here!

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Check out all of the top Q4 MuleSoft Community contributors below.:

Special shout outs

First-ever Women Who Mule event

As part of our initiative to support diversity in our MuleSoft Community, we held the first-ever Women Who Mule Meetup event with 300 RSVPS! Thank you to our founders and leaders from Accenture, Nisha Sharma; Managing Director Global MuleSoft Director, Maria Chinwala; Technology Architecture Sr. Manager, Aysha Qureshi; Technology Analyst, MuleSoft Ambassadress Alexandra Martinez; and the wonderful Muleys (Amy Olthouse and Sanjna Vernma) who helped make this group come to life. 

While this group is dedicated to supporting women developers and architects, all are welcome to join! Their next event is March 4 celebrating Women’s day. Join the group today to be notified of all upcoming events.

MuleSoft Hackathon winners

During Q4, our first-ever MuleSoft Hackathon concluded and our first champion was announced! Congrats again to Pat O’Hora, Solutions Architect at Cook Medical for winning first place, Darren Ingram, Sr. Software Engineer at Cardiovascular Systems for placing second, and Tirthankar Kundu, Lead Software Engineer at Persistent Systems for placing third. You can learn more about their projects and the top 10 runners-up in our MuleSoft Hackathon announcement blog series.

Community Awards 2020

We also celebrated our MuleSoft Community and recognized the best of the best in the Community. From Allstar Meetup Leaders to top individual contributors, the individuals recognized go above and beyond to mentor others in the MuleSoft Community. Congratulations to everyone who won an award! You can find more information about each of our Community Awards 2020 winners here.

MuleSoft blog features

This past quarter, the MuleSoft Community was busy contributing content to our MuleSoft blog! Topics range from Anypoint Studio best practices, Runtime Fabric, and a panel discussion on careers in the integration ecosystem. Check out the various blogs below:

Pros of the Quarter

Each quarter, we feature one to two MuleSoft-Certified developers and/or architects who share their MuleSoft journey and offer tips for anyone looking to become MuleSoft Certified! This quarter we are excited to have Diane Kesler, MuleSoft Administrator at Perspecta, and Olga Kepa, Integration Associate at Infomentum, share their individual journeys.

Diane Kesler, MuleSoft Administrator at Perspecta

Recently, Diane shared that she finally reached her MuleSoft certification goal by becoming a MuleSoft Certified Platform Architect. She holds four MuleSoft certifications in total and is extremely active in the MuleSoft Community. We asked her a few questions about her journey, how becoming MuleSoft Certified has impacted her career, and to provide advice for other women looking to become certified. Here is what she had to say:

“My last two certifications were driven by my passion to gain the tool sets needed to make a difference by architecting enterprise systems. I originally fell in love with MuleSoft while working on a Masters degree in IT Management (MSITM). During my tenure as a Systems Administrator (aka Solutions Facilitator) for a healthcare facility, I was faced with the frustration of fragmented health care records, depreciated and/or siloed databases, and the available solutions offered only made both of these situations even worse. To top it off, I personally had healthcare issues that brought this even closer and motivated me to find a positive solution.

Being Mule certified certainly does indicate mastery in the specific areas of the certifications and has boosted my career in more ways that I can express. As many of you know, these exams require discipline to learn the material, tenacity to study the practice exams, and diligence to conquer each exam objective. Sometimes it does take more than one attempt, as it did me! But remaining steadfast, reaching out to others for assistance, and facing the exam again, equates to success!

I encourage anyone who is just getting started to dive in, have fun with the courses, be sure to do the DIY projects, and set your goals firmly. If you fail, it’s ok! It is not how many times you fall, but how quickly you get back up.”

Olga Kepa, Integration Associate at Infomentum

The other amazing woman we wanted to feature as a “Pro of the Quarter” is Olga Kepa! She recently shared how she pursued her dream to become a MuleSoft Developer and transitioned from an MSc in Physics and Medical Engineering in her blog. We asked her to share a little about her journey and share advice for others looking to make a career change in the MuleSoft ecosystem.

“When I started my internship at Infomentum and got introduced to MuleSoft, I became curious. What makes MuleSoft one of most popular integration platforms? I quickly learned the answer! MuleSoft simplifies the process of integration. With the right API-led approach, integration assets can be reused across projects again and again. It’s incredible how much more efficient and faster the integration development with MuleSoft is, especially compared to messy point-to-point integration. Once I realized its potential, it made me want to stay in the MuleSoft ecosystem for good. I’m keen to learn more to discover its advanced features and cool tips.

From my career perspective, moving into the MuleSoft ecosystem was a wise decision. The prospects are endless, and demand for these skills is high and still growing as more businesses are choosing MuleSoft as their digital transformation enabler. I highly recommend moving into MuleSoft if you are considering a career in IT. My introduction to MuleSoft was smooth as there are loads of great training resources available. There is also a fantastic community where you can join Meetups worldwide to enhance your skills and meet other Muleys. Everyone has been exceptionally helpful and eager to help with problems and share their knowledge and experience.”

Community blogs of the quarter

Each quarter we highlight the best blogs our MuleSoft Community has contributed to help other developers and architects solve their integration problems or expand their MuleSoft skills. These top 10 blogs are high-quality, educational resources for you to use.

Mule 4 Proxy API by Ankur Bhuyan, Integration Engineer at Shell. In this blog, Ankur shares how to create a proxy API to hide complex backend APIs from clients. 

Using Salesforce search in Mule 4 by Edgar Moran, IT Apps Engineer at Twitter. Edgar writes for ProstDev and in this blog, he shares how to use Salesforce Object Search Language (SOSL) instead of using query for every Salesforce integration with MuleSoft.

Typical B2B transaction challenges by Manik Magar, MuleSoft Ambassador and Architect at AVIO Consulting. Learn how the Anypoint Partner Manager can accelerate business by resolving typical B2B transaction challenges in this blog. 

The Circuit Breaker Module by Patryk Bandurski, MuleSoft Ambassador and Integration Subject Matter expert at PwC Poland. Patryk shares how he created an open-source module to open and close a circuit in an API, which can be integrated into a Mule 4-based application. 

MuleSoft and Slack integration using OAuth 2 by Ravneet Bhardwaj, Technical Lead at Stryker. Learn how to post a message from Slack to MuleSoft by integrating MuleSoft and Slack using OAuth 2 in this blog. 

Create multiple nested records using Salesforce Composite API MuleSoft Connector by Sarah Khalid, Salesforce Technical Architect at MedPro Group. In Sarah’s latest blog, learn how to create multiple nested records using the Salesforce Composite API. 

An external API for custom alerts creation with Mule 4 by Sasho Rajchinoski, Sr. Technical Consultant at IWConnect. Sasho details how he developed an API for fast monitoring, alerting, creating JIRA tickets, and auto restarting MuleSoft applications in this blog. 

Scaling with Microservices? Here’s why Service Mesh is a must by Shouvojit Sarker, Software Developer at Agile Digital. This blog details how MuleSoft Service Mesh offers better insights and control over microservices specifically, as they scale the data flow of your organization. 

Parallel For-Each Scope (Mule 4) by Vikalp Bhalia, MuleSoft Ambassador and Consultant at Capgemini. Vikalp discusses the Parallel For-Each Scope including what it is, how it works, and possible use cases. 

Use 6 Cryptographic Hash Functions in your next Mule app by Whitney Akinola, Software Engineering Associate Manager, at Accenture. Learn more about the importance of cybersecurity and how cryptographic hash functions used in DataWeave can ensure your Mule applications are secure in Whitney’s blog.

Video tutorials of the quarter

Similar to the best blogs contributed, we also highlight the top video tutorials contributed by MuleSoft Community members over the last quarter. These video tutorials are easy to follow, range in difficulty level from beginner to advanced, and are another useful resource for our Community.

Extracting digits from a string in DataWeave 2.0 using flatten, scan, joinby by Alexandra Martinez, MuleSoft Ambassadress and Sr. MuleSoft Developer at Bits in Glass. This video offers quick tutorials on how to extract all the digits from a string containing different characters in DataWeave 2.0 in under 30 seconds! 

Expose an API over HTTPS in MuleSoft | TLS Context | KeyStore Configuration | Mule4.x| by Arul ChristhuRaj Alphonse, Sr. Integration Architect at Cognizant. Learn how to expose an API over HTTPS in MuleSoft in this YouTube tutorial! Arul explains how to generate a key pair for KeyStore configuration to help. 

Creating API specs in Anypoint Studio 7.7 by Ashish Pardhi, Principal Engineer at Pramati Technologies. After watching this tutorial, you will have a better understanding of how to write and test RAML using Anypoint Studio and mock services, how to sync API specs with Anypoint Design Center, and more. 

MuleSoft API Integration with SensorPush Temperature IoT devices by Jason Estevan, MuleSoft Ambassador and independent MuleSoft consultant/contractor. As part of his Hackathon submission, Jason created a video showcasing how he created an IoT solution using MuleSoft to control the temperature in his two-year-old son’s bedroom..

Utilizing MuleSoft JSON logger connector by Max Fedorov, Owner of Nebulent and Netflexity. Max explains why JSON logger is essential for every organization that wants to enforce proper logging standards and promote essential logging best practices in this YouTube tutorial. 

Mule 4 – Create MUnit Test Cases using MUnit Test Recorder feature | MUnits for Error Scenarios by Sravan Lingam, MuleSoft Ambassador and Sr. Integration Developer and Architect at Billenium. Learn how to create MUnite test cases using MUnit Test Recorder in Sravan’s tutorial. He also shares a few tips for creating MUnit tests for various error scenarios. 

Using Server-Side Encrypt Data AWS KMS to Integrate With Mule-4 AWS-S3 Connector by Sadik Ali, Solution Architect at Kellton Technologies. Sadik shares how to integrate the Mule 4 AWS S3 Connector with the server-side Encrypt Data AWS KMS. 

Top social contributor:

Our MuleSoft Developer groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter allow our Community to stay updated, connected, and share their expertise with thousands of community members.

This past quarter, MuleSoft Ambassador Rajesh Kumar, was a leading social contributor on the MuleSoft Developers LinkedIn page. In addition to answering tough questions and sharing technical content, Rajesh took the time to encourage new MuleSoft Certified Developers and Architects by sharing their good news, congratulating them, and helping us recognize them as well. He has also helped drive more awareness to our new MuleSoft Developers LinkedIn page to help keep the Community informed. Thank you Rajesh for being an inspiring voice of the  MuleSoft Community!

Top helpers of the quarter:

The MuleSoft Forum is a great resource for developers and architects with technical questions requiring help from the MuleSoft Community. These three Community contributors on the Help Center are being recognized for the quality of their answers and willingness to help other community members with their toughest MuleSoft questions on the Forum:

We would also like to give a special shout out to our moderators Ryan Andal and Manish Yadav, both MuleSoft Ambassadors, who keep the Forum running smoothly and are always ready to answer questions

MuleSoft Meetups highlights:

We had another amazing quarter of MuleSoft Meetups! Here are a few highlights from all of the awesome virtual Meetup events this past quarter.

  • Our Meetup groups held 94 events in Q4, closing the year with 335 events!
  • We welcomed 22 new Meetup Leaders in Santiago, Glasgow, New York City, Goa, Barcelona, and many more fun cities!
  • 16 groups held their first virtual Meetups!
  • Our Online Group held a special Meetup for the MuleSoft Hackathon, our Sydney group held a career panel, and we started the Women Who Mule Meetup group.
  • Some top topics included: Anypoint CLI, Mule 4, CI/CD, Runtime Fabric, and DataWeave. 

You can find all upcoming events here and be sure to join a local group or our global Online Group to be notified of all upcoming events. We also feature upcoming Meetups each month in a blog!

As you can see, this last quarter was fueled with awesome Community contributions and initiatives to continue connecting and learning virtually! Next quarter, we are looking forward to even more contributions. Join our Developer Community to stay connected and continue learning.