Zaheer Tariq

Sitecore Contributions 2024

I have been working with Sitecore since 2011 but never really got a chance to participate due to my busy work and personal life. I would like to appreciate Sitecore MVP Mentorship program who gave me a starting point into this exciting new world where I have a lot more opportunities to learn, explore and share. This is the first year where I dedicated sometime to the community despite having super busy work life and leading a huge and very complicated RePlatforming project.

I would specially like to thank Sandeep Pote who was my mentor this year and have given me constant guidance through out the year. I always feel that I could have done more but when I look back to where I was a year ago, I also feel proud that I have come a long way.

In this blog post, I will summarize my contributions to Sitecore for the year 2024.

Blog Posts

  1. Sitecore on Vercel: Tips for Optimizing Your Application Usage and Keeping Costs Down
  2. How Sitecore’s Default Next.js Dictionary Implementation Can Hurt Performance and Bandwidth Usage
  3. Enhancing Sitecore Author Experience: Part 1 – Adding View Published Page option
  4. Leveraging Vanity URLs with Sitecore and Next.js to Ensure Customers Always Access the Latest Product Versions
  5. Video Tutorial – Sitecore AKS Cluster Version Upgrade
  6. Sitecore Move Solr from one Server to Another
  7. Sitecore Nextjs Error serializing .componentProps[“b53f473e-4cf1-4570-b6e5-aa46c9872634”].fields.title returned from getStaticProps
  8. Capture and use UTM parameters in Sitecore Website
  9. Video Tutorial – Installing Sitecore 10.4 on Windows 11 with SQL Server 2022 and creating Windows 11 VM in Azure
  10. Streamlining Success: How Automated Data Exports from Sitecore Empower Business and Content Teams
  11. Exporting Sitecore Item Data Through SQL Queries: A Powerful Approach to Data Management
  12. Export Sitecore Items data through ASP.NET ASPX Page
  13. How to Request a new Managed Cloud Environment from Sitecore
  14. Cache Revalidation in Sitecore Website Built Using Next.js Incremental Static Site Generation
  15. Next.js API Route for On-Demand Cache Revalidation using pages or app folder
  16. Sitecore PowerShell Export Items to List, CSV, Excel, HTML, Json and XML
  17. Find Duplicate Items Fast Through Sitecore PowerShell
  18. Sitecore Error discovering identity provider
  19. Fix Duplicate Item Names in Sitecore
  20. Avoid Duplicate Item Names in Sitecore

Videos

  1. Sitecore AKS Cluster Version Upgrade
  2. Installing Sitecore 10.4 on Windows 11 from Scratch – Step by Step Guide

Code Samples (Gists)

  1. https://github.com/zaheer-tariq/Sitecore-Blog-Gists/blob/main/NextJs/app/api/revalidate/route.ts
  2. https://github.com/zaheer-tariq/Sitecore-Blog-Gists/blob/main/NextJs/pages/%5B%5B…path%5D%5D.tsx
  3. https://github.com/zaheer-tariq/Sitecore-Blog-Gists/blob/main/NextJs/src/layout-factory.ts
  4. https://github.com/zaheer-tariq/Sitecore-Blog-Gists/blob/main/Pages/PDF/ReadPDFFromImageLibraryUsingiKvmNET.aspx
  5. https://github.com/zaheer-tariq/Sitecore-Blog-Gists/blob/main/Pages/PDF/ReadPDFFromImageLibraryUsingiTextSharp.aspx
  6. https://github.com/zaheer-tariq/Sitecore-Blog-Gists/blob/main/Pages/Reports/ItemReport.aspx
  7. https://github.com/zaheer-tariq/Sitecore-Blog-Gists/blob/main/PowerShell/Find/FindDuplicateItemNamesOnSameLevel.ps1
  8. https://github.com/zaheer-tariq/Sitecore-Blog-Gists/blob/main/PowerShell/Find/FindDuplicateItemNamesOnSameLevelWithSQLQuery.ps1
  9. https://github.com/zaheer-tariq/Sitecore-Blog-Gists/blob/main/PowerShell/Rename/RenameDuplicateItemNamesOnSameLevel.ps1
  10. https://github.com/zaheer-tariq/Sitecore-Blog-Gists/blob/main/PowerShell/Reports/GetAllRedirects.ps1

Sitecore Certification

Sitecore Learning

  1. Study Guide: Sitecore Personalize Certification Exam 2024
  2. Getting Started with Sitecore Search

Social Media Posts

LinkedIn

  1. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_sitecore-on-vercel-tips-for-optimizing-your-activity-7266510450547204096-Yfqc
  2. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_how-sitecores-default-nextjs-dictionary-activity-7258972516969275392-oQFb
  3. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_enhancing-sitecore-author-experience-part-activity-7238681305012404226-7cgC
  4. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_leveraging-vanity-urls-with-sitecore-and-activity-7233258272638570496-_bmk
  5. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_sitecore-aks-cluster-version-upgrade-sitecore-activity-7225534103624839168-m5Yz
  6. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_sitecore-move-solr-from-one-server-to-another-activity-7223093488760868864-A-95
  7. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_capture-and-use-utm-parameters-in-sitecore-activity-7220899822822690816-hFtL
  8. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_installing-sitecore-104-on-windows-11-from-activity-7218424384141598720-BRMy
  9. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_streamlining-success-how-automated-data-activity-7217877506803023873-cdfp
  10. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_maximizing-sitecore-cms-potential-through-activity-7215347909842653185-lMLs
  11. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_sitecore-10-net-developer-certification-activity-7215029907066634241-YbbF
  12. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_cache-revalidation-in-sitecore-website-built-activity-7211123755446632448-MtN4
  13. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sitecore_drum-rollsitecore-xp-104-has-officially-activity-7191059474336419842-DIY-
  14. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_sitecore-xm-cloud-developer-certification-activity-7179613743297748992-2Xln
  15. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_fix-duplicate-item-names-in-sitecore-activity-7178162953995620353-VE0l
  16. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/zaheertariq_nextjs-static-site-generation-ssg-vs-server-side-activity-7045734304441675777-7xG6

Twitter (X)

  1. https://x.com/mzaheertariq/status/1805359259988660706
  2. https://x.com/mzaheertariq/status/1805359399172485354
  3. https://x.com/mzaheertariq/status/1805359583621447997
  4. https://x.com/mzaheertariq/status/1862422383690121458

Sitecore StackExchange

  1. https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/25421/programmatically-read-content-of-pdf-media-file/37354#37354
  2. https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/37353/sitecore-exmerror-exception-system-data-sqlclient-sqlexception/37355#37355
  3. https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/37357/trouble-getting-getpageitemprocessor-implemented/37359#37359

Sitecore Community

  1. https://community.sitecore.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=e1b3a0f3c349ca9000c6acdc7a013117
  2. https://community.sitecore.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=70ee3268c3718e1000c6acdc7a01312a

G2 Business Survey

https://www.g2.com/products/sitecore-digital-experience-platform/reviews/sitecore-digital-experience-platform-review-10558378

Product Feedback

  1. Sitecore Headless Next Js App outputs whole dictionary on each page
     I’ve registered a feature request for the product team so it will be considered for the further implementation. Thank you for reporting this to us.
    To track the future status of this feature requestreport, please use reference number JSS-4439. More information about public reference numbers can be found here:
    https://support.sitecore.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0853187
  2. Sitecore Nextjs page generates page with components not in final workflow step
    We were able to reproduce the reported issue. Can you please perform the following steps to solve the error:
    Upgrade your Sitecore ExperienceEdge Connector to version 21.0.1 by installing the corresponding version: 
    https://developers.sitecore.com/Downloads/Sitecore_Headless_Rendering/21x/Sitecore_Headless_Rendering_2101
    Then, please use the following URL to download the following hotfix: 
    https://sitecore1.sharepoint.com/:u:/s/Team-ProductSupport-HotFixes2/EelZBzOQR71DjO_0affpEKAB6frplPl4KfNUjhhdcwu7TQ?e=pkhjTC 
  3. Custom URL’s don’t work with Sitecore Edge Preview GraphQL endpoint
  4. System.TimeoutException: Timeout waiting for Acknowledgement from Edge
  5. DEF images for XP not found
  6. Docker Image not found sitecore-def-xm1-assets:8.0-ltsc2022
  7. Cannot Fetch Versioned Image from Experience Edge with LanguageFallback

Meetups Attended

  1. Mastering the MVP Application: Tips with Tamas Varga – Wednesday, Sep 4, 2024
  2. Getting Comfy with Self-Promotion – Thursday, Aug 1, 2024
  3. Sitecore Website Journey – Hosted by Sitecore team

Internal Trainings Given

  1. Trained new content team who never worked in Sitecore, guiding them to work with Sitecore content editing, workflows, versioning and publishing etc.
  2. Trained and lead a new team working on Sitecore Headless solution

2025 Goals

I look forward to the new Year and will do my best to participate even more. Few areas that I would love to explore

  • Learn explore and Implement Sitecore Personalize in my organization. Complete Sitecore Personalize Certification
  • Learn and explore Sitecore search to present a comparison use case to our business teams for potentially replacing our current Search with Sitecore search.
  • Explore new Sitecore offerings like Sitecore Stream
  • Explore areas where we can Utilize AI to improve our Sitecore implementation
  • Help others and spread the word and knowledge about Sitecore
Posted in Sitecore, Sitecore CMS