The Journey to Creating my own Hub

It is no secret that the web today is a crucial part of society. That is why a digital presence is so significant. And also why, when one lacks such a presence, it is considered a notable disadvantage in this connected online matrix, we live in. The idea of my own website has been living in my head rent-free for years. I started learning HTML and CSS back in 2016 and kept on trying, failing, and scrapping the whole project again and again. This time, I made sure to commit from start to end, no matter the result. And as you can see, the result was well worth it.

Ultimately, ihsen.me is a hub for my various passions. It is my way to access the world and share what changed my life and might hopefully change yours. That is why, it focuses a lot on my passions for technology, photography (with the New Eye extension), and soon writing to name a few.

The first and most important function of my personal website is presenting myself. This is probably the first thing people will discover about me. So I made sure to make it easy by having an FAQ in the “Know me Fast” section and meaningful about me in the “Know me Well” section.

I am grateful to so many people that shared their knowledge with me. Without their precious time and genuine effort, I wouldn’t be writing this today. Out of that deep gratefulness, stems my love for sharing. I don’t want the chain to stop here. Instead, I want to be a beacon to share their knowledge further. That is why I am documenting every project and posting it on the internet for everyone to see. Sharing knowledge brings joy to my heart. Simply put, I hope what I share helps someone else out there in their unique journeys!

A website nowadays is usually separated into 3 parts; The Frontend, the Backend, and the Database. The Frontend is what a person sees when visiting the website. You can think of it as the mouth. It is the part that presents information to others. In this case, through text, images, and buttons. The backend is the brain. It handles the more complicated logic and bridges the communication between the mouth and memory. The memory in this context is called the database. Because it is simply the base of the data. No shit, Sherlock. But on a serious note, all it does is remember information for later use and consumption. Congrats, now you understand the whole worldwide web, well almost.

Nextjs is at the heart and brain of the website. It is a framework based on the famous React UI Library. What I specifically love about React is the relatively easier learning curve (compared to other frameworks like Angular). Although things get noticeably harder the deeper you dig. One big downside/feature to React is that it doesn’t handle everything a website needs on purpose. It lets you pick the rest on your own to make a complete, personalized tech stack. That is, however, especially overwhelming for a beginner. Nextjs comes to the rescue by building on top of React and providing most of what you will need, like routing, API Routes, and TypeScript Support, out of the box. It also functions as the backend, as it allows the developer to define serverless functions (think of this as parts of the brain). That simply means functions that don’t need a dedicated computer running 24/7. Hurray! Feel overwhelmed yet? Well, we are done with the hard stuff.

I am using MongoDB, a NoSQL database. For the less tech-savvy, it means that instead of storing data in table-like structures, it does so in documents. You can think of this as Excel sheets versus forms. Imagine a 2-meter-long table filled from top to bottom against a 2-meter-high stack of documents. While each technology has its benefits and drawbacks, I really think that both are equally good and will get the job done. So just chose what fits your style and brings you to your goal faster. For me, that was the awesome MongoDB!

It was quite a journey to bring this platform to life. An emotional rollercoaster, filled with doubt and deception. But guess what, it might have taken years of relentless learning and stubborn determination, but it definitely paid off in the end.

As of the time of writing, ihsen.me has been up for more than a year. During that year, I basically rewrote all the code behind it, made several extensions, and kept on adding new features consistently. So, it is safe to say, this is just the beginning. And you? When will you start your beginning?