{"id":124,"date":"2025-09-24T10:06:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T10:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/?p=124"},"modified":"2026-05-26T10:07:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T10:07:29","slug":"behind-the-screens-how-this-website-was-built","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/?p=124","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Screens: How This Website Was Built"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a cybersecurity student, I spend a lot of time analyzing complex infrastructures, auditing policies, and looking at how data flows securely across networks. But today, I\u2019m turning the lens inward. As part of a mandatory requirement for this project, I want to take you behind the scenes and explain exactly how this website came to life, the tech stack behind it, and why I made certain design choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019ve ever wondered what powers this portfolio, here is the architectural breakdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Infrastructure: Hosting and Domain Via Academic Software<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every website needs a home (hosting) and an address (the domain name). Because I am a student at <strong>Howest<\/strong>, I have access to <strong>Academic Software<\/strong>, a platform that provides students with licenses for various digital tools and services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through Academic Software, I was able to secure a student license for <strong>Combell<\/strong>, one of Belgium&#8217;s leading hosting providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Domain Registration:<\/strong> My custom domain name was officially registered through Combell&#8217;s system.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Web Hosting:<\/strong> Combell also provides the server infrastructure where all the files, blog posts, and images for this site securely live.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Using an industry-standard provider like Combell gave me a first-hand look at domain management, DNS configurations, and server provisioning\u2014the foundational building blocks of the web.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Platform: Content Management via WordPress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When it came to deciding <em>how<\/em> to build the site, I chose <strong>WordPress<\/strong>, the world\u2019s most popular Content Management System (CMS). WordPress allows for a highly modular approach to web development, letting you separate the underlying code from the day-to-day content creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Design Choice: Function Over Form (Focusing on Content)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a developer or IT student, it\u2019s easy to get caught up in the &#8220;rabbit hole&#8221; of writing custom HTML, CSS, and JavaScript from scratch. However, I made a very deliberate strategic decision for this project: <strong>I used a pre-formatted, clean WordPress site template.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why? Because my primary goal for this website was to focus heavily on the <strong>content<\/strong> rather than the visual design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In cybersecurity and GRC, communication is everything. I wanted to channel my time and energy into documenting my journey, sharing my internship projects at the CCB, writing about the tech meetups I attend, and highlighting the community building we do at Campus Stack. By leveraging a well-structured, pre-made layout, I could ensure the site was highly readable, professional, and accessible right out of the box, allowing me to do what I do best: share meaningful insights with the IT and security community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Final Blueprint<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To summarize the tech stack:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Domain &amp; Hosting:<\/strong> Combell (via Howest Academic Software student license)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>CMS:<\/strong> WordPress<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Design Philosophy:<\/strong> Pre-formatted, content-first layout<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Building this site was a great exercise in deploying an end-to-end web project, from domain registration to content management. Thanks for stopping by and checking out the results!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Questions about the setup?<\/strong> If you&#8217;re a fellow student trying to deploy your own site via Academic Software and need some help with the Combell integration, feel free to drop a comment below or reach out!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a cybersecurity student, I spend a lot of time analyzing complex infrastructures, auditing policies, and looking at how data flows securely across networks. But today, I\u2019m turning the lens inward. As part of a mandatory requirement for this project, I want to take you behind the scenes and explain exactly how this website came [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125,"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}