Technical writing by Matthias Blomme: IBM App Connect Enterprise, integration, modernization, AI tooling.https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ibm-champion-report/ibm-champion-report/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ibm-champion-report/ibm-champion-report/A custom Bob mode (and Claude skill) that assembles your IBM Champion act-of-advocacy submission, builds a prefilled form URL, and stops you retyping your Champion ID umpteen times a year.Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/Ace-MCP/ace-mcp-13.0.7-field-guide/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/Ace-MCP/ace-mcp-13.0.7-field-guide/What MCP looks like across ACE software and App Connect in containers, where the docs cover it, and where you still have to read the YAML.Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ace-support-case/ace-support-case/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ace-support-case/ace-support-case/A custom Bob mode that walks you through collecting diagnostics for an IBM App Connect Enterprise support case, and how to trigger an abend on purpose to test it.Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ace-mcp-minikube/setting_up_mcp_on_ace_minikube/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ace-mcp-minikube/setting_up_mcp_on_ace_minikube/Walking through the IBM App Connect Dashboard's MCP server wizard on a Minikube install at operand 13.0.6.2-r1. What works, what doesn't, and what you have to wire up yourself when you're not on OpenShift or IKS.Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/Ace-MCP/ace-mcp-runtime-callable-flow/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/Ace-MCP/ace-mcp-runtime-callable-flow/MCP.Runtime in ACE 13.0.7 turns a deployed REST API into MCP tools. Here is the whole thing end to end, json and all, plus the callable flow workaround at the end.Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/rest-request-basic-auth/rest-request-basic-auth/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/rest-request-basic-auth/rest-request-basic-auth/Two credential mechanisms, one pre-emptive and one reactive, and the silent "no error, no header" trap. Reproduced on ACE 12 and 13.Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/keeping-stuff-stopped/keeping-stuff-stopped/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/keeping-stuff-stopped/keeping-stuff-stopped/How to start an IBM ACE integration server without starting everything in it, and how to keep flows stopped across deployments.Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/Ace-Operator-Minikube/upgrading_ace_minikube/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/Ace-Operator-Minikube/upgrading_ace_minikube/A walkthrough of upgrading an existing ACE Operator + Dashboard + IntegrationRuntime install from 13.0.4.x to 13.0.6.2-r1 on Minikube, including the license-ID rebadge that silently blocks the upgrade.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/mqweb-upgrade/mqweb-upgrade/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/mqweb-upgrade/mqweb-upgrade/An MQ 9.4.0.21 cumulative security update killed mqweb in two different ways on the same morning, a broken TEMP path that Liberty refused to claim, and an ltpa.keys file the new JRE wouldn't decrypt. Here's what happened and what went into the runbook.Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/Ace-MCP/mcp_in_ace/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/Ace-MCP/mcp_in_ace/Enabling the MCP.Admin block in server.conf.yaml, hooking MCP Inspector up to a standalone ACE 13.0.7 integration server, and walking through every admin tool the runtime exposes , with the real JSON request and response for each.Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ace-migration/ace-migration/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ace-migration/ace-migration/A walkthrough of an ACE v13 migration, from Transformation Advisor through Java 17 cleanup to what actually breaks once you flip the switch.Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/setup-ace-vault/setup-ace-vault/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/setup-ace-vault/setup-ace-vault/Replacing mqsisetdbparms with the ACE vaultFri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ace-v13-new-features-overview/v13-new-features/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ace-v13-new-features-overview/v13-new-features/A summary of all the new features for ACE v13 up to 13.0.7.0Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/mqsirestart/mqsirestart/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/mqsirestart/mqsirestart/mqsirestart solves all your restart needs!Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/storage-days-2026/storage-days-2026/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/storage-days-2026/storage-days-2026/No middleware this time: two days of IBM StorageFri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/plex-trakt/plex-trakt/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/plex-trakt/plex-trakt/How to run PlexTraktSync in Docker to sync Plex watch history, ratings, and collections to Trakt, including fixes for Google login and Docker networking issues.Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/blog-hosting/blog-hosting/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/blog-hosting/blog-hosting/A look behind the scenes at how this blog is built and deployed, using MkDocs Material, a custom Python script for metadata generation, and GitHub Actions for automated publishing.Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/visdeurbel-automated-detection/01.visdeurbel-fish-detector/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/visdeurbel-automated-detection/01.visdeurbel-fish-detector/Detecting fish-like movement in the Dutch fish doorbell stream with Python, OpenCV and a mildly unreasonable amount of tuningFri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ibm-dfdl-tester/ibm-dfdl-tester/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ibm-dfdl-tester/ibm-dfdl-tester/This post shows how to validate a DFDL schema with IBM DFDL outside the Toolkit using a simpler CLI-based flow. It covers the setup and validation scripts I added to ibmDFDLCrossTester, support for ACE 12 and 13, useful trace output for debugging, and a few schema gotchas worth knowing up front.Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/containerization-series/06.upgrading-in-containers/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/containerization-series/06.upgrading-in-containers/The sixth installment in the Containerizing ACE series, tackling why upgrades become boring (in a good way) when you containerizeFri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/pgp-node/pgp-node/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/pgp-node/pgp-node/A practical, field-tested setup of the PGP SupportPac on ACE 13.0.6.0, from key generation to working encryption and decryption flows, including the runtime jar details that tend to get missed.Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/generic-log-node/generic-log-node/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/generic-log-node/generic-log-node/Using the Context Tree in a second real life use case, loggingSun, 18 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/running-granite-llm-on-android/run-granite-on-android/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/running-granite-llm-on-android/run-granite-on-android/An LLM that runs locally on your phone, I've got to give that a tryFri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/Ace-Operator-Minikube/installing_ace_minikube/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/Ace-Operator-Minikube/installing_ace_minikube/Even though we hardly ever see it, IBM App Connect Enterprise (ACE) is perfectly capable of running on plain Kubernetes.Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/techxchange-2025/techxchange-2025/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/techxchange-2025/techxchange-2025/TechXchange 2025, what you missedMon, 20 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/containerization-series/05.ace-startup-optimization/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/containerization-series/05.ace-startup-optimization/The fifth installment in the Containerizing ACE series, tackling why do ACE containers take so long to boot?.Fri, 26 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/containerization-series/04.scoping-your-runtime/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/containerization-series/04.scoping-your-runtime/The fourth installment in the Containerizing ACE series, tackling a number of ways to determine your container contentSat, 20 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/containerization-series/02.images-vs-artefacts/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/containerization-series/02.images-vs-artefacts/The seconf installment in the Containerizing ACE series, tackling images and artifactsThu, 11 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/containerization-series/03.things-to-consider-in-containers/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/containerization-series/03.things-to-consider-in-containers/The third installment in the Containerizing ACE series, tackling some container concepts to keep in mindThu, 11 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ace-ai-hursley-2025/ace-ai-hursley/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ace-ai-hursley-2025/ace-ai-hursley/IBM TechXchange Early eXperience 2025.Fri, 05 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/containerization-series/01.the-basics/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/containerization-series/01.the-basics/The first installment in the Containerizing ACE series, tackling the basics conceptsTue, 02 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/flow-order-context-tree/Stop-Copying-Messages-into-Environment-Use-Context-Tree/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/flow-order-context-tree/Stop-Copying-Messages-into-Environment-Use-Context-Tree/Using the new context tree in an actual functional use caseFri, 29 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/disable-weak-ciphers-ace/ace_disable_weak_ciphers/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/disable-weak-ciphers-ace/ace_disable_weak_ciphers/Managing your cipher securityWed, 20 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/creating-json-arrays/creating-json-arrays/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/creating-json-arrays/creating-json-arrays/How can we properly create clean JSON arraysMon, 18 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/eventlogmonitor/eventlogmonitor/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/eventlogmonitor/eventlogmonitor/Hyping the EventLogMonitor toolThu, 31 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/missing-query-param/missing-query-param/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/missing-query-param/missing-query-param/Aka "The Blog That Reads like an Agatha Christie Story" or "The Overly Dramatic Description of a Simple Problem".Thu, 31 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/select-the-row/select-the-row/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/select-the-row/select-the-row/Let's talk about SELECT in ESQL — and I don't mean database queries (although they are rather similar)Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/automating-standardizing-ace-install-powershell/automating-standardizing-ace-install-powershell/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/automating-standardizing-ace-install-powershell/automating-standardizing-ace-install-powershell/Automating windows installations of ACE through scriptingThu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/toolkit-unit-testing-custom-runtime/toolkit-unit-testing-custom-runtime/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/toolkit-unit-testing-custom-runtime/toolkit-unit-testing-custom-runtime/When working with IBM App Connect Toolkit, running unit tests on integration flows with custom configurations can be quite challenging.Fri, 04 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/customize-ace-palette/customize-ace-palette/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/customize-ace-palette/customize-ace-palette/Keeping a clean workspaceTue, 06 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/unit-test-ignore/unit-test-ignore/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/unit-test-ignore/unit-test-ignore/Making unit testing work for you, how to ignore specific dataTue, 06 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ace-hursley-2024/ace-hursley-2024/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/ace-hursley-2024/ace-hursley-2024/Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the IBM TechXchange early eXperience program for IBM App Connect Enterprise (ACE) at the historic Hursley HouseThu, 01 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/log-nodes-tips-tricks/log-node-tips-tricks/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/log-nodes-tips-tricks/log-node-tips-tricks/Utilizing JSONata in the new Log NodeMon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/logging-ace-exceptionlist/logging-ace-exceptionlist/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/logging-ace-exceptionlist/logging-ace-exceptionlist/Properly handing and parsing the ACE Exception list to retreive the most usefull information (with JSONata)Mon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/tad/tad/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/tad/tad/Prepare your ACE migrationFri, 01 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/btm/btm/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/btm/btm/I wanted to try the new (re-introduced in 12.0.2.0) ACE Business Transaction Monitoring to see what the added value could be for a company/team/environment that.Tue, 23 May 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/create-vs-package-bar/create-vs-pacakage-bar/https://embee.matthiashomeportal.be/blog/create-vs-package-bar/create-vs-pacakage-bar/Today automated builds and deployments are a must to support business demands. IBM App Connect Enterprise (ace) offers strong capabilities to automate build and.Tue, 23 May 2023 00:00:00 GMT