Break it! Fix it!


 One of the items on my bucket list was to do a live stream. This item always went to procrastinate bucket. There were multiple reasons for it. First, the most apparent one is "FEAR", fear of doing something new that I never tried before. Then comes the second hurdle, okay now I have decided I will do it but what topic shall I pick.  Now whatsoever topic you choose, you will see someone in some part of the world has already delivered that topic. Okay, now for instance topic is also decided, and now how to engage the audience when you cannot see them. And after getting answers to all the questions, what if you are stuck and things are not moving in the middle of the stream? The damn tense situation you are in. So, in this blog, I will discuss my first-time experience on a live stream. First-time experiences always hold importance in your life and are it good or bad are always remembered.

I did my first live stream on the MuleSoft community twitch channel and TwitterπŸ₯³πŸ₯³πŸ₯³πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰.

The Right Time

I am a MuleSoft mentor(a program run by the MuleSoft community, you can learn more from the link). One day, while scrolling through the messages on the MuleSoft official slack channel, I found an invitation from Alex Martinez for the live stream. I saw one line in the description: "All you need to do is come live and try whatever you want". Okay! now this is the right time and I signed up for this. The first hurdle is crossed. Now comes the biggest of all "TOPIC"😡.

Topic

I got a suggestion from Alex to watch previous live streams. While watching I saw we can try any tutorial which is there over the Internet and follow the steps listed there and hope for everything runs as expected 😜. Now my hunt for topic selection started. I juggled around various topics, some couldn't be done in the specified time, some were too short, and a few of them require some extra license or some involved cost, huh!. What to do...?

Finally, I found one tutorial to customize EDI X12 Schema in MuleSoft. This is a great use case. Sometimes partners have a requirement for having additional fields in the EDI message structure apart from the standard document. This tutorial walks us through customizing the EDI X12 855 v4010 (Purchase order Acknowledgement) document. But let's have some twists and alter the 850 EDI X12 v4010 (Purchase Order).

D-Day

Finally, the day and time arrived. Oh! but there is a catch, the time I selected was 1:30 A.M. 12th October 22), midnight, a quiet time free from any distortions. I am ready with all my configurations and a bit nervous since it is for the first time.


Technical Information

EDI Electronic Data Interchange is used as a standard to transmit data among various systems. This format needs to be translated and fed to the end system for actual processing. MuleSoft x12 and EDIFACT connectors come real handy in all these.

X12 Connectorhttps://docs.mulesoft.com/x12-edi-connector/2.9/
EDIFACT Connectorhttps://docs.mulesoft.com/edifact-edi-connector/2.7/

Experience

I was live on twitch and Twitter with our great host Alex. At first, it was awesome. Things were going smoothly. Whatever is written in the tutorial I was able to perform live, sharing the screen with Anypoint Studio.

The moment I started testing things, now the error started popping up. This was actually going in the back of my mind when everything was going smoothly. As a developer for me nothing runs properly in the first go, it has to fail first 😜. Now, stuck with one error, it took a while for me to understand the issue was just missing the keyword..yuk. While things went sideways, Alex was super supportive and kept on motivating me to fix it. I had only one thing in mind at that moment I have to fix it no matter what. The developer's favorite tool to debug is the logs, for me they are always the savior. The moment one error was fixed, it was a breakthrough from the deadlock.

One error is fixed another pops up 🀣. Then it's like a never-ending loop


I kept on trying and fixing errors one by one. And finally, the moment of satisfaction came when the code finally ran and what was required from the complete session was achieved.

Overall a great experience, to follow the tutorial, break things, identify the issue fix the issue, and then moment for celebration and satisfaction.

BREAK IT! FIX IT!

I hope to have sessions more in the future...
Please do let me know your views πŸ˜‡πŸ˜‡πŸ˜‡


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