Post no. 005: Technology Used

During the start of the website plan, I was thinking of only making website about 'Maps of Bangladesh'. For this purpose I've purchased one domain named 'manchitro.org' back in 2010. Manchitro means Map on Bangla (Bengali). I've no prior knowledge about CMSs back then. Only basic HTML knowledge I've that time. So I started making the site in HTML after purchasing the domain. This was a very bad plan to follow. I messed up making the website with HTML. So I moved to blogger and created a blog site focused only on 'Maps of Bangladesh' (url: mapofbangladesh.blogspot.com) and it was a huge success that time. When I've decided to close the blog, it was getting 1500+ pageviews per day. And was ranked 1st for search of map of any part of Bangladesh. But I've to push the KILL switch anyway.

After making the blogger site and it's success, I plan to move to my own domain. But before moving I want to make the site this time. So I started developing the site in my localhost. And back that time I've only very little knowledge about Joomla!. So I started developing the site using Joomla! CMS. I've loose all of my data 2/3 times during the development time and develop again from scratch. And finally when I was ready with my Joomla! site, it was the era of Wordpress. But I decided to stick with Joomla!.
Only Joomla core can't fulfill all my needs for making the site 'The Bangladesh Network', I've to use enormous number of extensions along with the core installation.

List of major extensions are below:

1. JA T3 for templating/design.

2. Focal Point for showing interesting points (places, hotels, restaurants etc.) into a map.

3. JCH optimization for optimizing the site.

4. Geocode Factory Package for showing kml maps of any area.
5. Lazy Load for Joomla! for load images when scrolled to images.

Will update the list of extensions used over time.

Mahamud, The Bangladesh Network.

Post no. 004: Hosting

Hello Again.

So, I got my domain but hosting still not finalized. So I was looking for some free hosting provider and find some good ones. Start using the old 'Byethost.com' with my domain name. After a very small time (like 25-30 days), byethost banned me for using higher resources. Then I went to another free hosting which was regularly down for maintenance and ban its users after 3 days of inactivity. Again my site goes down. And I moved from all kinds of free hosting also. One thing I've learned, "No service is free and it'll never be. Every service will cost you. One way or another."

Then I came to know about a Bangladeshi company named InnovateBlu who are new and their service is good. They also offer so many other services like domain registration, DNS, Web Development and much more. I'm using their service for almost 3 years without any big issue.

There are also so many other good hosting providers like:

1. Bluehost
2. Inmotionhosting
3. Godaddy
4. 1 & 1
5. Hostgator

etc.

So that is all about hosting for now. I'll write about Joomla & some of its extensions (components, modules, plugins) used in developing the site in future posts. Thanks for stopping by. Se you all in near future.

Mahamud, The Bangladesh Network.

Post no. 003: Development History & The Domain Name

So as I said, I started developing a website about "Maps of Bangladesh" locally for using my leisure time after trying different options & expiration of my only domain (manchitro.org).

For my development, I was using Joomla. And the problem I was facing is templates. There were so many different types of templates but unfortunately, nothing suits me. And I was unable to make Joomla template. After searching for a long time I started developing with a basic three column template. So I have Joomla installed locally, got my template and having all the maps. So I started developing a user-friendly image map website. I spent months & years for creating, rearranging & destroying my own work. After a very long time, the website comes into a shape. And finally, I'm almost ready to go online.

But unfortunately, my laptop crashed along with all my website data. All I have left was a bunch of image maps of Districts & Upazilas of Bangladesh. I thought I was out of this forever. So I stop re-development of my old work & let the time fly. Then one day I found out more detailed maps of Bangladesh in a Government organization of Bangladesh. That's LGED (www.lged.gov.bd) website. They have full featured GIS department to develop detailed maps. I started downloading again. It took months to collect all the maps from LGED website. At this point, I got transferred to the area where my family lives.

I think I was addicted of developing a map website. So I start to developing again. This time I develop locally and also on a free hosting server (Byethost may be). As I've finalized the pattern of my website last time, this time my development becomes easier & less time-consuming. As I can't afford to lose the site data again, I was developing locally & updating the free server site regularly. And also I was looking for a domain name.

Suddenly one day I found the domain THEBANGLADESH.NET is free for registration. I was very happy to get the domain registered for myself. And also I questioned myself why this domain left unregistered! Finally, I find out that this domain was previously registered to some online newspaper. They left & I got my domain registered at NameCheap.

NameCheap is an affordable domain name registrar who also has excellent service and I recommend them to everyone I know who want to buy domains. And the customer service of NameCheap is also top notch. Recently I mistakenly buy one domain name using one of my colleague's credit card, and after contacting with NameCheap's customer service, they processed my request and refund to my colleague's card within very short time. Special thanks to 'Ksenia Tabaka' for taking all the hassles for me. That's all for today. Thanks for reading.

Mahamud, The Bangladesh Network.

Post no. 002: History of Development

Hello. This is Mahamud. Again.

As you've already known that the first interest of 'The Bangladesh Network' is Maps of Bangladesh. It becomes the first interest as I'm also very interested to maps. During my undergraduate study, I took a course on GIS (Global Information System). I forgot almost everything that I was taught in that course. BUT that course makes me very much interested to maps.

After completing my Graduation, I got a job & posted to a remote area. I was the only man living in attached housing of the office other than cooks & security guards. So I started to find something interesting for myself to do. I went for some software training (by myself) like AutoCAD, ETABS etc. But those can't hold me for a long time. Then I went for movies and got bored after few days as well (internet connection was slow that time). I try some other things also in my leisure time but nothing clicked.

Then I started to look for maps to work with some GIS software. Actually, I'm very good at searching things over the internet. But this time I got disappointed. I only find 2 (two) sites having detailed maps of Bangladesh up to Upazila level. One is Banglapedia (www.banglapedia.org) by Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. And another one is maps-of-bangladesh.blogapot.com. But the problem in both the site is that the maps are very difficult to find. So I collect all the District & Upazila maps from those two sites and thinking of developing a unique website for "Maps of Bangladesh".

For this purpose, I bought one domain for one year. The domain was www.manchitro.org. I was determined to develop the website in Joomla CMS platform. And one year has passed by not finalizing anything about the site. Then I also went for developing the site in my localhost with Joomla. By this time, I was only looking to make a website about Maps of Bangladesh. But things changes afterward.

Mahamud, The Bangladesh Network.

Post no. 001: Who am I?

Hello. This is Mahamud. I'm a Civil Engineer working in Construction Business. Married and father of twin sons. That's the basic of myself. And I'm very sure that you are here to know some other things than these details.

OK. Let's do it again. This is Mahamud. And I'm going to explain about who "The Bangladesh Network" is.

"The Bangladesh Network" is a network of information about Bangladesh. It focuses on different items of Bangladesh over time.

1. First interest was "Maps of Bangladesh".
2. Second interest was "Tourism of Bangladesh".
• Places of Interest,
• Places of Interest by District,
• Emergency Contact,
• Restaurants,
• Transportation,
• Accommodation etc.
3. Third interest will be "Online Directory of Bangladesh".
4. Fourth interest will be a "Search Engine Focused on Bangladesh".
5. Fifth interest will be "Scholars of Bangladesh".
6. Sixth interest will be "Face of Bangladesh".
7. Seventh interest will be "Help Individuals to Grow".

These are the interests as of now. May be these will grow over time. Or may be one individual interest will grow as a very large one that will consume all the interests. We'll see.

Mahamud, The Bangladesh Network.