Software Heroes - 5 year anniversary
We started this blog about 5 years ago and would like to celebrate the anniversary with you today. What has changed in the 5 years, where was the focus and what did not work so well.
Table of contents
Today probably a very personal blog from my side. That's why today I'm only referring to my perspective and the content on this blog. Almost 5 years ago the first article was published on this blog, which published the basic goals and what to expect here. So let's sum up the past time together.
To person
Who actually writes the majority of the articles and takes care of the content of the blog? My name is Björn and I am currently the lead developer in the ABAP development department at one of the large food retailers here in Germany. During my work, I deal a lot with the innovation topics in the SAP area, the innovations, the cloud, but also simple things like code quality, guidelines and development processes. I have been working in the SAP area since 2008 and over the years have gained various experiences in development, but also in consulting, so I am also familiar with some specialist modules.
Photo by Fotis Fotopoulos on Unsplash
In my private life, I keep looking left and right to see what else is out there in the world of technology and development. I've also had a lot of fun developing my own apps over the past few years and seeing what the whole architecture behind it actually looks like. I rely heavily on Google's Flutter framework because it gives me the most flexibility and I wanted to learn a new language that is based on known concepts.
I have looked at many programming languages over the years and would personally divide them into deep (Visual Basic, PHP, ABAP, Dart) and superficial (Pascal, Javascript, Java, Python) knowledge. Basically you only need a programming language, which you learn in detail and the different concepts, the rest consists of a little abstraction and learning new frameworks in the languages.
Website
The website software-heroes.com came about from the idea of a new project, I had read a lot about the so-called web apps and was just about to familiarize myself with the topic of app development. At the same time, in the ABAP area, I was in the process of learning all things Modern ABAP. I noticed that the new things weren't that widespread among my colleagues and some didn't have the time to familiarize themselves with the topics. At this point, the idea came up to capture the newly learned things and share them with the world. The focus should be on the new and everyday things.
Many functions of the website were written by myself, I learned about encryption, website security, website structure, animations and multilingualism. I built a framework to be able to implement new content and new pages quickly and easily manage them while leaving plenty of room for more. So today I am very flexible in this area and the experiences on the web also have a positive effect on my knowledge of ABAP and the new Fiori world.
On the website you will also find small apps that you can use if you create an account. These were the first attempts at web apps and the integration of additional building blocks on the website. I can certainly imagine implementing more of the small applications in the future.
There is now also an official logo for the website, which can already be found in a number of places on the web, but has not yet found its way into the blog. But I don't want to withhold that from you and will certainly be seen more often in the future.
Subjects
I originally went about it with different ideas, but right from the start I wanted to keep the blog open to the big topics from the SAP world, but also use the space for other programming languages and topics. I would like to post reports on the subject of technology and draw attention to learning from other frameworks and languages. As a developer, looking left and right is interesting, but also important for personal development and for developing more know-how and penetrating new areas.
Unfortunately, the many topics at the beginning later became more of a focus on ABAP. You'll find some guides and articles on other areas like Flutter or the web, but that's more of a minority on this blog. However, it is still planned to take a closer look at other areas and to provide insights into the development.
Funding
I had thought about the financing and the topic of advertising for a long time. The website and its operation cost money every year, so I looked at how I could keep the costs relatively low and made small experiments with advertising, especially at the beginning, but quickly realized that this did not fit my concept.
Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash
I wanted to be more voluntary, so I added the support sub-item to the website. I rely on voluntary donations if you like the project here or on the purchase of content, such as our ABAP Quick Guides. But basically I would like to avoid annoying advertising, pop-ups and cookie banners in order to generate the most added value for you as a reader, but also because the topic annoys me on other websites. I don't think anything will change in the next few years.
Future
In the future, we will continue to focus heavily on the topic of ABAP and Fiori in order to provide the best content and most information here. But other topics should also play a role again in order to provide insights into other areas and to share experiences.
Photo by Jack Blueberry on Unsplash
An average project or hobby lasts around 7 years, but as new topics will continue to emerge, there will also be more articles and insights into working with SAP.
Conclusion
The blog is now 5 years old, but there are no fewer topics. The backlog is well filled with articles, suggestions and topics. SAP also has a lot planned and is currently developing strongly, especially in the cloud business. The new, innovative and complex topics will not decrease in the near future and will also require many tutorials, tips and hands-ons in the future.