Take your QlikView skills to the next level and master the art of creating visual data analysis for real business needs About This Book Explore how to create your own QlikView data laboratory and how to develop QlikView applications using agile project methods Implement advanced data visualization and analysis for common business requirements from the sales, finance, marketing, inventory, operations, and human resources departments Learn from real-life experience shared in this book that will give you the upper hand in your next QlikView project Who This Book Is For This book is intended for developers who want to go beyond their technical knowledge of QlikView and understand how to create analysis and data visualizations that solve real business needs. You should have a basic understanding of advanced QlikView functions. What You Will Learn Apply advanced QlikView techniques such as set analysis and nested aggregation in order to deliver common business requirements Understand real business requirements for sales, finance, marketing, and human resources departments Discover when to apply more advanced data visualization such as frequency polygons, bullet graphs, and XmR charts Go beyond native QlikView and include geographical analysis, planning, and sentiment analysis in your QlikView application Troubleshoot common errors we discover at the moment we visualize data in QlikView Develop a plan to master Qlik Sense data visualization In Detail Just because you know how to swing a hammer doesn't mean you know how to build a house. Now that you've learned how to use QlikView, it's time to learn how to develop meaningful QlikView applications that deliver what your business users need. You will explore the requirements and the data from several business departments in order to deliver the most amazing analysis and data visualizations. In doing so, you will practice using advanced QlikView functions, chart object property options, and extensions to solve real-world challenges. Style and approach This hands-on guide follows the story of a company implementing QlikView as its enterprise data discovery solution. Each chapter starts with an understanding of the business requirements and the data model, and then helps you create insightful analysis and data visualizations. Each chapter expands on what was done in the previous chapter as we follow this continuously improving iterative process.

Orchestrate the designing, development, testing, and deployment of web applications with Symfony About This Book Create a robust and reliable Symfony development pipeline using Amazon's cloud platform Cut development and maintenance costs by defining crystal clear features and possible scenarios for each feature before implementation Follow detailed examples provided in each chapter to create a task management application Who This Book Is For If you are a PHP developer with some experience in Symfony and are looking to master the framework and use it to its full potential, then this book is for you. Though experience with PHP, object-oriented techniques, and Symfony basics is assumed, this book will give you a crash course on the basics and then proceed to more advanced topics. What You Will Learn Install and configure Symfony and required third-party bundles to develop a task management application Set up a continuous integration server to orchestrate automatic builds every time you add a new feature to your project Reduce maintenance costs dramatically using Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) Create a slick user interface using the Bootstrap framework Design robust business logic using Doctrine Build a comprehensive dashboard and secure your project using the Sonata project Improve performance using Redis, Memcache, and Varnish Create customized Symfony commands and add them to your console In Detail In this book, you will learn some lesser known aspects of development with Symfony, and you will see how to use Symfony as a framework to create reliable and effective applications. You might have developed some impressive PHP libraries in other projects, but what is the point when your library is tied to one particular projectWith Symfony, you can turn your code into a service and reuse it in other projects. This book starts with Symfony concepts such as bundles, routing, twig, doctrine, and more, taking you through the request/response life cycle. You will then proceed to set up development, test, and deployment environments in AWS. Then you will create reliable projects using Behat and Mink, and design business logic, cover authentication, and authorization steps in a security checking process. You will be walked through concepts such as DependencyInjection, service containers, and services, and go through steps to create customized commands for Symfony's console. Finally, the book covers performance optimization and the use of Varnish and Memcached in our project, and you are treated with the creation of database agnostic bundles and best practices. Style and approach A step-by-step guide to mastering Symfony while developing a task management application. Each chapter comes with detailed examples.

Learn to solve scientific computing problems using Scala and its numerical computing, data processing, concurrency, and plotting libraries About This Book Parallelize your numerical computing code using convenient and safe techniques. Accomplish common high-performance, scientific computing goals in Scala. Learn about data visualization and how to create high-quality scientific plots in Scala Who This Book Is For Scientists and engineers who would like to use Scala for their scientific and numerical computing needs. A basic familiarity with undergraduate level mathematics and statistics is expected but not strictly required. A basic knowledge of Scala is required as well as the ability to write simple Scala programs. However, complicated programming concepts are not used in the book. Anyone who wants to explore using Scala for writing scientific or engineering software will benefit from the book. What You Will Learn Write and read a variety of popular file formats used to store scientific data Use Breeze for linear algebra, optimization, and digital signal processing Gain insight into Saddle for data analysis Use ScalaLab for interactive computing Quickly and conveniently write safe parallel applications using Scala's parallel collections Implement and deploy concurrent programs using the Akka framework Use the Wisp plotting library to produce scientific plots Visualize multivariate data using various visualization techniques In Detail Scala is a statically typed, Java Virtual Machine (JVM)-based language with strong support for functional programming. There exist libraries for Scala that cover a range of common scientific computing tasks – from linear algebra and numerical algorithms to convenient and safe parallelization to powerful plotting facilities. Learning to use these to perform common scientific tasks will allow you to write programs that are both fast and easy to write and maintain. We will start by discussing the advantages of using Scala over other scientific computing platforms. You will discover Scala packages that provide the functionality you have come to expect when writing scientific software. We will explore using Scala's Breeze library for linear algebra, optimization, and signal processing. We will then proceed to the Saddle library for data analysis. If you have experience in R or with Python's popular pandas library you will learn how to translate those skills to Saddle. If you are new to data analysis, you will learn basic concepts of Saddle as well. Well will explore the numerical computing environment called ScalaLab. It comes bundled with a lot of scientific software readily available. We will use it for interactive computing, data analysis, and visualization. In the following chapters, we will explore using Scala's powerful parallel collections for safe and convenient parallel programming. Topics such as the Akka concurrency framework will be covered. Finally, you will learn about multivariate data visualization and how to produce professional-looking plots in Scala easily. After reading the book, you should have more than enough information on how to start using Scala as your scientific computing platform Style and approach Examples are provided on how to use Scala to do basic numerical and scientific computing tasks. All the concepts are illustrated with more involved examples in each chapter. The goal of the book is to allow you to translate existing experience in scientific computing to Scala.

A foundational yet practical approach to UX that delivers more creative, collaborative, holistic, and mature design solutions, regardless of your background or experience About This Book Improve your UX design awareness and skills Gain greater confidence to know when you have delivered a “good” UX design Learn by example using a book designed by a UX mind for a UX mind Who This Book Is For This book is written for the beginner as well as the experienced UX practitioner, regardless of team size, company size, or job title. It is also intended for anyone with an interest in UX, engages with UX, is involved in any way in interactive problem solving and design, or simply wants to learn more about what we do, how we do it, and why those in the UX field are so passionate about wanting to do it better. What You Will Learn Awaken your UX mind and dispel the myths of non-UX thinkers Create the six optimal conditions for your best ideas to appear Identify and incorporate the ten design principles found in all good UX design Develop a broader understanding of Information Architecture (IA) to better engage, guide, and inform Develop a fundamental understanding of patterns and the properties that create them Raise your level of UX maturity with a strategy that transforms your approach to problem solving and helps others understand the true value of your work Utilize important tools of the UX trade that never go out of style Increase your knowledge of UX, incorporate valuable ideas and insights into your work, and look at design from a very unique perspective In Detail Written in an easy-to-read style, this book provides real-world examples, a historical perspective, and a holistic approach to design that will ground you in the fundamental essentials of interactive design, allow you to make more informed design decisions, and increase your understanding of UX in order to reach the highest levels of UX maturity. As you will see, UX is more than just delighting customers and users. It is also about thinking like a UX practitioner, making time for creativity, recognizing good design when you see it, understanding Information Architecture as more than just organizing and labeling websites, using design patterns to influence user behavior and decision making, approaching UX from a business perspective, transforming your client’s and company’s fundamental understanding of UX and its true value, and so much more. This book is an invaluable resource of knowledge, perspective, and inspiration for those seeking to become better UX designers, increase their confidence, become more mature design leaders, and deliver solutions that provide measurable value to stakeholders, customers, and users regardless of project type, size, and delivery method. Style and approach An in-depth, easy to read, and entertaining journey into and through the world of UX using real-world examples, thoughtful illustrations, and engaging quotes to inspire and explain fully the how and why of UX in a practical and impactful way and used immediately in your own work.

Become a QGIS power user and master QGIS data management, visualization, and spatial analysis techniques About This Book Explore and create time-based visualizations and build interactive maps Maximize your use of the QGIS features, plugins and toolbox automation Packed with lots of sample datasets to enable a better understanding of the code Who This Book Is For If you are an intermediate GIS user, with either previous experience in QGIS or any other GIS application, this is the book for you. The recipes can be used to learn more advanced techniques in QGIS or to replicate the functionalities equivalent to other GIS platforms. This book assumes that you already have a working QGIS system in place. What You Will Learn Import and export common tricky spatial data formats Perform classic vector and raster analysis with QGIS Utilize spatial databases and data management tools Use and create geographic web services and maps Explore and create time-based visualizations Perform network building and routing analysis Extend QGIS capabilities with popular plugins and toolbox automation Make beautiful and unique maps with customized cartography In Detail QGIS is a user-friendly, cross-platform desktop geographic information system used to make maps and analyze spatial data. QGIS allows users to understand, question, interpret, and visualize spatial data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps. This book is a collection of simple to advanced techniques that are needed in everyday geospatial work, and shows how to accomplish them with QGIS. You will begin by understanding the different types of data management techniques, as well as how data exploration works. You will then learn how to perform classic vector and raster analysis with QGIS, apart from creating time-based visualizations. Finally, you will learn how to create interactive and visually appealing maps with custom cartography. By the end of this book, you will have all the necessary knowledge to handle spatial data management, exploration, and visualization tasks in QGIS. Style and approach This book covers practical examples, with step-by-step instructions on how to use real world data covering common GIS operations and the different analysis techniques. It provides detailed explanations and applications of QGIS concepts that will allow the user to effectively analyze spatial data.

Get started with the essentials of Apache Maven and get your build automation system up and running quickly About This Book Explore the essentials of Apache Maven essentials to arm yourself with all the ingredients needed to develop a comprehensive build automation system Identify the extension points in Apache Maven and learn more about them in-depth Improve developer productivity by optimizing the build process with best practices in Maven using this compact guide Who This Book Is For The book is ideal for for experienced developers who are already familiar with build automation, but want to learn how to use Maven and apply its concepts to the most difficult scenarios in build automation. What You Will Learn Comprehend the key concepts in Apache Maven Build your own custom plugins and get to know how Maven extension points are used Troubleshoot build issues with greater confidence Optimize Maven’s configuration settings Write custom lifecycles and extensions Get hands-on and create a Maven assembly Explore the best practices to design a build system that improves developer productivity In Detail Maven is the #1 build tool used by developers and it has been around for more than a decade. Maven stands out among other build tools due to its extremely extensible architecture, which is built on of the concept of convention over configuration. It’s widely used by many open source Java projects under Apache Software Foundation, Sourceforge, Google Code, and more. Maven Essentials is a fast-paced guide to show you the key concepts in Maven and build automation. We get started by introducing you to Maven and exploring its core concepts and architecture. Next, you will learn about and write a Project Object Model (POM) while creating your own Maven project. You will also find out how to create custom archetypes and plugins to establish the most common goals in build automation. After this, you’ll get to know how to design the build to prevent any maintenance nightmares, with proper dependency management. We then explore Maven build lifecycles and Maven assemblies. Finally, you will discover how to apply the best practices when designing a build system to improve developer productivity. Style and approach This book is a practical and compact guide that will show you how to use Apache Maven in an optimal way to address enterprise build requirements. It provides technical guidance to get you started with Maven and build automation.

Leverage the power of Wireshark to troubleshoot your networking issues by using effective packet analysis techniques and performing improved protocol analysis About This Book Gain hands-on experience of troubleshooting errors in TCP/IP and SSL protocols through practical use cases Identify and overcome security flaws in your network to get a deeper insight into security analysis This is a fast-paced book that focuses on quick and effective packet captures through practical examples and exercises Who This Book Is For If you are a network or system administrator who wants to effectively capture packets, a security consultant who wants to audit packet flows, or a white hat hacker who wants to view sensitive information and remediate it, this book is for you. This book requires decoding skills and a basic understanding of networking. What You Will Learn Utilize Wireshark's advanced features to analyze packet captures Locate the vulnerabilities in an application server Get to know more about protocols such as DHCPv6, DHCP, DNS, SNMP, and HTTP with Wireshark Capture network packets with tcpdump and snoop with examples Find out about security aspects such as OS-level ARP scanning Set up 802.11 WLAN captures and discover more about the WAN protocol Enhance your troubleshooting skills by understanding practical TCP/IP handshake and state diagrams In Detail Wireshark provides a very useful way to decode an RFC and examine it. The packet captures displayed in Wireshark give you an insight into the security and flaws of different protocols, which will help you perform the security research and protocol debugging. The book starts by introducing you to various packet analyzers and helping you find out which one best suits your needs. You will learn how to use the command line and the Wireshark GUI to capture packets by employing filters. Moving on, you will acquire knowledge about TCP/IP communication and its use cases. You will then get an understanding of the SSL/TLS flow with Wireshark and tackle the associated problems with it. Next, you will perform analysis on application-related protocols. We follow this with some best practices to analyze wireless traffic. By the end of the book, you will have developed the skills needed for you to identify packets for malicious attacks, intrusions, and other malware attacks. Style and approach This is an easy-to-follow guide packed with illustrations and equipped with lab exercises to help you reproduce scenarios using a sample program and command lines.

Develop vision-aware and intelligent Android applications with the robust OpenCV library About This Book This is the most up-to-date book on OpenCV Android programming on the market at the moment. There is no direct competition for our title. Based on a technology that is increasing in popularity, proven by activity in forums related to this topic. This book uniquely covers applications such as the Panoramic viewer and Automatic Selfie, among others. Who This Book Is For If you are an Android developer and want to know how to implement vision-aware applications using OpenCV, then this book is definitely for you. It would be very helpful if you understand the basics of image processing and computer vision, but no prior experience is required What You Will Learn Identify and install all the elements needed to start building vision-aware Android applications Explore image representation, colored and gray scale Recognize and apply convolution operations and filtering to deal with noisy data Use different shape analysis techniques Extract and identify interest points in an image Understand and perform object detection Run native computer vision algorithms and gain performance boosts In Detail Starting from the basics of computer vision and OpenCV, we'll take you all the way to creating exciting applications. You will discover that, though computer vision is a challenging subject, the ideas and algorithms used are simple and intuitive, and you will appreciate the abstraction layer that OpenCV uses to do the heavy lifting for you. Packed with many examples, the book will help you understand the main data structures used within OpenCV, and how you can use them to gain performance boosts. Next we will discuss and use several image processing algorithms such as histogram equalization, filters, and color space conversion. You then will learn about image gradients and how they are used in many shape analysis techniques such as edge detection, Hough Line Transform, and Hough Circle Transform. In addition to using shape analysis to find things in images, you will learn how to describe objects in images in a more robust way using different feature detectors and de*ors. By the end of this book, you will be able to make intelligent decisions using the famous Adaboost learning algorithm. Style and approach An easy-to-follow tutorial packed with hands-on examples. Each topic is explained and placed in context, and the book supplies full details of the concepts used for added proficiency.

Learn to build modern native iOS and Android applications using JavaScript and the incredible power of React About This Book Learn to design and build a fully-featured application using the newest cutting-edge framework from Facebook Leverage your JavaScript skills to become a native app developer Develop custom UI components, implement smooth navigation, and access native features such as geolocation and local storage Who This Book Is For This book is for web developers who want to learn to build fast, good-looking, native mobile applications using the skills they already have. If you already have some JavaScript knowledge or are using React on the web, then you will be able to quickly get up and running with React Native for iOS and Android. What You Will Learn Set up the React Native environment on both devices and emulators Gain an in-depth understanding of how React Native works behind the scenes Write your own custom native UI components Learn the ins and outs of screen navigation Master the art of layout and styles Work with device-exclusive data such as geolocation Develop native modules in Objective-C and Java that interact with JavaScript Test and deploy your application for a production-ready environment In Detail React Native is a game-changing approach to hybrid mobile development. Web developers can leverage their existing skills to write mobile applications in JavaScript that are truly native without using cross-compilation or web views. These applications have all of the advantages of those written in Objective-C or Java, combined with the rapid development cycle that JavaScript developers are accustomed to. Web developers who want to develop native mobile applications face a high barrier to entry, because they are forced to learn platform-specific languages and frameworks. Numerous hybrid technologies have tried to simplify this process, but have failed to achieve the performance and appearance that users expect. This book will show you all the advantages of true native development that React Native has without the steep learning curve, leveraging the knowledge you already have. We do this by getting you up and running quickly with a sample application. Next, we’ll introduce you to the fundamentals of creating components and explain how React Native works under the hood. Once you have established a solid foundation, you will dive headfirst into developing a real-world application from start to finish. Along the way, we will demonstrate how to create multiple screens and navigate between them,use layout and style native UI components, and access native APIs such as local storage and geolocation. Finally, we tackle the advanced topic of Native modules, which demonstrates that there are truly no limits to what you can do with React Native. Style and approach This book provides a simple and easy way to build mobile applications in JavaScript. Each topic takes you through the life cycle of creating a fully-functional native app, with detailed explanations of the entire process.

Become familiar with the LLVM infrastructure and start using LLVM libraries to design a compiler About This Book Learn to use the LLVM libraries to emit intermediate representation (IR) from high-level language Build your own optimization pass for better code generation Understand AST generation and use it in a meaningful way Who This Book Is For This book is intended for those who already know some of the concepts of compilers and want to quickly get familiar with the LLVM infrastructure and the rich set of libraries that it provides. What You Will Learn Get an introduction to LLVM modular design and LLVM tools Convert frontend code to LLVM IR Implement advanced LLVM IR paradigms Understand the LLVM IR Optimization Pass Manager infrastructure and write an optimization pass Absorb LLVM IR transformations Understand the steps involved in converting LLVM IR to Selection DAG Implement a custom target using the LLVM infrastructure Get a grasp of C’s frontend clang, an AST dump, and static analysis In Detail LLVM is currently the point of interest for many firms, and has a very active open source community. It provides us with a compiler infrastructure that can be used to write a compiler for a language. It provides us with a set of reusable libraries that can be used to optimize code, and a target-independent code generator to generate code for different backends. It also provides us with a lot of other utility tools that can be easily integrated into compiler projects. This book details how you can use the LLVM compiler infrastructure libraries effectively, and will enable you to design your own custom compiler with LLVM in a snap. We start with the basics, where you’ll get to know all about LLVM. We then cover how you can use LLVM library calls to emit intermediate representation (IR) of simple and complex high-level language paradigms. Moving on, we show you how to implement optimizations at different levels, write an optimization pass, generate code that is independent of a target, and then map the code generated to a backend. The book also walks you through CLANG, IR to IR transformations, advanced IR block transformations, and target machines. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to easily utilize the LLVM libraries in your own projects. Style and approach This book deals with topics sequentially, increasing the difficulty level in a step-by-step approach. Each topic is explained with a detailed example, and screenshots are included to help you understand the examples.

Over 60 recipes to help you build, configure, and orchestrate RHEL 7 Server to make your everyday administration experience seamless About This Book Create fully unattended installations and deploy configurations without breaking a sweat Discover and kick-start the newest RHEL 7 configuration and management tools through an easy-to-follow, practical approach for a lazy system management Be guided by an experienced RHEL expert who is a certified Linux engineer with a passion for open source and open standards Who This Book Is For Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Cookbook is for RHEL 7 system administrators and DevOps in need of a practical reference guide to troubleshoot common issues and quickly perform tasks. What You Will Learn Set up and configure RHEL 7 Server Use NetworkManager to configure all aspects of your network Manage virtual environments using libvirt Set up software repositories Secure and monitor your RHEL environment Configure SELinux, and create and apply its policies Create kickstart *s to automatically deploy RHEL 7 systems Use Orchestration and configuration management tools to manage your environment In Detail Dominating the server market, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system gives you the support you need to modernize your infrastructure and boost your organization’s efficiency. Combining both stability and flexibility, RHEL helps you meet the challenges of today and adapt to the demands of tomorrow. This practical Cookbook guide will help you get to grips with RHEL 7 Server and automating its installation. Designed to provide targeted assistance through hands-on recipe guidance, it will introduce you to everything you need to know about KVM guests and deploying multiple standardized RHEL systems effortlessly. Get practical reference advice that will make complex networks setups look like child’s play, and dive into in-depth coverage of configuring a RHEL system. Also including full recipe coverage of how to set up, configuring, and troubleshoot SELinux, you’ll also discover how secure your operating system, as well as how to monitor it. Style and approach This practical guide is packed full of hands-on recipes that provide quick solutions to the problems faced when building your RHEL 7 system from scratch using orchestration tools. Each topic is explained sequentially in the process of setting up a system and binding everything together.

Create and customize your very own Minecraft server using Java and the Spigot API About This Book Set up a Minecraft server that you control Use object-oriented programming to modify Minecraft regardless of your level of experience This interactive guide will help you create a unique experience for you and your friends Who This Book Is For This book is great for anyone who is interested in customizing their Minecraft server. Whether you are new to programming, Java, Bukkit, or even Minecraft itself, this book has you covered. All you need is a valid Minecraft account. If you are interested in programming as a career or hobby, this book will get you started. If you are simply interested in playing Minecraft with your friends, then this book will help you make that experience even more enjoyable. What You Will Learn Install and run a Spigot server for free on your home PC Adjust the server settings to customize Minecraft to your liking Install an IDE and configure a project to write code Install and test plugins on a Spigot server Test your plugins through debugging the code Program in game commands and permissions Get to know advanced programming concepts such as event-driven programming, configuration files, saving/loading data, and scheduled tasks Implement configuration files to make your plugins customizable Save and load your plugin's data to persist across server restarts In Detail Minecraft is a sandbox game that allows you to play it in any way you want. Coupled with a multiplayer server powered by Spigot, you can customize the game even more! Using the Bukkit API, anyone interested in learning how to program can control their Minecraft world by developing server plugins. This book is a great introduction to software development through the wonderful world of Minecraft. We start by instructing you through how to set up your home PC for Minecraft server development. This includes an IDE complete with the required libraries as well as a Spigot server to test on. You will be guided through writing code for several different plugins. Each chapter teaches you new skills to create plugins of increasing complexity, and each plugin adds a new concept of the Bukkit API By the end of the book, you will have all the knowledge you need about the API to successfully create any type of plugin. You can then practice and build your Java skills through developing more mods for their server. Style and approach This hands-on guide is filled with interactive examples to help you modify Minecraft. Programming terms and concepts are explained along the way so even those who have never written code before can keep up.

Master the fundamentals of Gradle using real-world projects with this quick and easy-to-read guide About This Book Write beautiful build *s for various types of projects effortlessly Become more productive by harnessing the power and elegance of the Gradle DSL Learn how to use Gradle quickly and effectively with this step-by-step guide Who This Book Is For This book is for Java and other JVM-based language developers who want to use Gradle or are already using Gradle on their projects. No prior knowledge of Gradle is required, but some familiarity with build-related terminologies and an understanding of the Java language would help. What You Will Learn Master the Gradle DSL by identifying the building blocks Learn just enough Groovy for Gradle Set up tests and reports for your projects to make them CI ready Create library, stand-alone, and web projects Craft multi-module projects quickly and efficiently Migrate existing projects to a modern Gradle build Extract common build logic into plugins Write builds for languages like Java, Groovy, and Scala In Detail Gradle is an advanced and modern build automation tool. It inherits the best elements of the past generation of build tools, but it also differs and innovates to bring terseness, elegance, simplicity, and the flexibility to build. Right from installing Gradle and writing your first build file to creating a fully-fledged multi-module project build, this book will guide you through its topics in a step-by-step fashion. You will get your hands dirty with a simple Java project built with Gradle and go on to build web applications that are run with Jetty or Tomcat. We take a unique approach towards explaining the DSL using the Gradle API, which makes the DSL more accessible and intuitive. All in all, this book is a concise guide to help you decipher the Gradle build files, covering the essential topics that are most useful in real-world projects. With every chapter, you will learn a new topic and be able to readily implement your build files. Style and approach This step-by-step guide focuses on being productive with every chapter. When required, topics are explained in-depth to give you a good foundation of the Gradle fundamentals. The book covers most aspects of builds required for conventional JVM-based projects, and when necessary, points you towards the right resources.

Master the development of 2D games by learning to use the powerful GameMaker Language and tools provided by the GameMaker: Studio workspace and engine! About This Book Rapidly develop games using the powerful yet easy easy-to to-use GameMaker: Studio engine Comprehensive: This is a comprehensive guide to help you learn and implement GameMaker’s features. Go through step-by-step tutorials to design and develop unique games Who This Book Is For If you have at least some basic programming experience of JavaScript or any other C-like languages, then this book will be great for you. No experience beyond that is assumed. If you have no game development experience and are looking for a hobby, are an experienced game developer looking to master some advanced features, or fit anywhere in that spectrum, then you will find GameMaker: Studio and this book to be very useful in helping you create exciting games. What You Will Learn Understand the GameMaker: Studio interface and tools to quickly create the various assets used in your games Translate some of the GameMaker: Studio drag and drop functions to the GameMaker language Create games with random elements for exciting gameplay Use the basic GameMaker file I/O and encryption systems Utilize the GameMaker networking functions to create multiplayer games Give AI routines to your enemies to make challenging gameplay Create particle systems to give your game exciting graphics Understand the various debugging techniques available in GameMaker: Studio In Detail This book is excellent resource for developers with any level of experience of GameMaker. At the start, we’ll provide an overview of the basic use of GameMaker: Studio, and show you how to set up a basic game where you handle input and collisions in a top-down perspective game. We continue on to showcase its more advanced features via six different example projects. The first example game demonstrates platforming with file I/O, followed by animation, views, and multiplayer networking. The next game illustrates AI and particle systems, while the final one will get you started with the built-in Box2D physics engine. By the end of this book, you have mastered lots of powerful techniques that can be utilized in various 2D games. Style and approach A This step-by-step guide that follows and with details ons different topics throughout the creation of various examples.

Create and develop exciting games from start to finish using SFML About This Book Familiarize yourself with the SFML library and explore additional game development techniques Craft, shape, and improve your games with SFML and common game design elements A practical guide that will teach you how to use utilize the SFML library to build your own, fully functional applications Who This Book Is For This book is intended for game development enthusiasts with at least decent knowledge of the C++ programming language and an optional background in game design. What You Will Learn Create and open a window by using SFML Utilize, manage, and apply all of the features and properties of the SFML library Employ some basic game development techniques to make your game tick Build your own code base to make your game more robust and flexible Apply common game development and programming patterns to solve design problems Handle your visual and auditory resources properly Construct a robust system for user input and interfacing Develop and provide networking capabilities to your game< In Detail Simple and Fast Multimedia Library (SFML) is a simple interface comprising five modules, namely, the audio, graphics, network, system, and window modules, which help to develop cross-platform media applications. By utilizing the SFML library, you are provided with the ability to craft games quickly and easily, without going through an extensive learning curve. This effectively serves as a confidence booster, as well as a way to delve into the game development process itself, before having to worry about more advanced topics such as “rendering pipelines” or “shaders.” With just an investment of moderate C++ knowledge, this book will guide you all the way through the journey of game development. The book starts by building a clone of the classical snake game where you will learn how to open a window and render a basic sprite, write well-structured code to implement the design of the game, and use the AABB bounding box collision concept. The next game is a simple platformer with enemies, obstacles and a few different stages. Here, we will be creating states that will provide custom application flow and explore the most common yet often overlooked design patterns used in game development. Last but not the least, we will create a small RPG game where we will be using common game design patterns, multiple GUI. elements, advanced graphical features, and sounds and music features. We will also be implementing networking features that will allow other players to join and play together. By the end of the book, you will be an expert in using the SFML library to its full potential. Style and approach An elaborate take on the game development process in a way that compliments the reader’s existing knowledge, this book provides plenty of examples and is kind to the uninitiated. Each chapter builds upon the knowledge gained from the previous one and offers clarifications on common issues while still remaining within the scope of its own subject and retaining clarity.

Leverage the capability of Banana Pi with exciting real-world projects About This Book Delve into the expanse of Banana Pi’s self-managing functionalities and develop real-world projects Gain hands-on experience of developing various wireless, multimedia, robotic, and sensor-based applications with Banana Pi Develop your applications using Banana Pi through a project-based approach Who This Book Is For This book is designed for those who are interested in exploring the capabilities of Banana Pro. Basic know-how of Linux and embedded systems would be an added advantage. What You Will Learn Remotely connect to Banana Pro and program the embedded board Use Banana Pro as a hotspot or provide an AirPlay server for wireless audio transmission Find out about the different programming languages that can be used with Banana Pro Build and program your own multimedia centre in order to watch television and movies Connect peripherals such as a camera, LCD, or hard disk to Banana Pro Manage and regulate your Linux system with Banana Pro Stream music wirelessly from your mobile phone to Banana Pro In Detail This book follows a tactical plan that will guide you through the implementation of Banana Pro and its configurations. You will then learn the various programming languages used with Banana Pi with the help of examples. In no time at all, you’ll be working on a wireless project that implements AirPlay servers, hotspots, and so on. Following this, you’ll develop a retro-style arcade kiosk game. Then we’ll move on to explore the multimedia features of Banana Pro by designing and building an enclosure for it. After this, you’ll learn to build a remote-controlled smart car and we’ll examine how to control a robotic arm. The book will conclude with the creation of a home sensor system that has the ability to expand or shrink to suit any home. Style and approach This book follows a project-based approach that covers the most important features of Banana Pro. Every chapter dives into the practical side of the implementation.

Harness the power of VMware vRealize Operations to efficiently manage your IT infrastructure About This Book Extract the optimum performance, availability, and capacity of your IT infrastructure with the help of vRealise Operations Manager Leverage the power of strategic reports to drive tactful decision-making within the IT department A pragmatic guide to proficiently manage your applications and storage Who This Book Is For If you are a vSphere administrator and wish to optimize your virtual environment, this book is your go-to guide on vRealize Operations. As a vSphere administrator, it is assumed that you have a good understanding of both physical and virtual infrastructure. A basic knowledge of application monitoring and log analysis would be useful when we dive into the capabilities of the solution. What You Will Learn Architect, design, and install vRealize Operations Migrate from the previous vCenter Operations Manager 5.x version, configure vR Ops policies, and create custom groups Use out-of-the-box Dashboards, Views, and Reports and create your own customized Dashboards, Views, and Reports Apply the Alerting framework of Symptoms, Recommendations, and Actions, and create your own Alerting content Leverage the power of Capacity Planning to maximize the utilization of your virtual infrastructure Manage the rest of your infrastructure, including storage and applications, with vRealize Operations Management Packs Extend the solution with vRealize Hyperic and Log Insight In Detail This book will enable you to deliver on the operational disciplines of Performance, Health, Capacity, Configuration, and Compliance by making the best use of solutions provided by vRealize Operations. Starting with architecture, design, and sizing, we will ensure your implementation of vRealize Operations is a success. We will dive into the utilization of a solution to manage your vSphere infrastructure. Then, we will employ out-of-the-box Dashboards and the very powerful Views and Reporting functionality of vRealize Operations to create your custom dashboards and address your reporting requirements. Next, we go through the Alerting framework and how Symptoms, Recommendations, and Actions are used to achieve efficient operations. Later you will master the topic of Capacity Planning, where we look at how important it is to craft appropriate policies to match your requirements, and we’ll consider attitude toward capacity risk, which will aid you to build future project requirements into your capacity plans. Finally, we will look at extending the solution to manage Storage, Applications, and other IT infrastructures using Management Packs from Solution Exchange, as well as how the solution can be enhanced with the integration of Log Insight. Style and approach This book is a pragmatic, step-by-step guide that will quickly build your knowledge of the key capabilities of vRealize Operations. As well as learning about the solution, we will provide you with real-world examples that will help you customize and enhance your virtual environment.

Learn all the Java and Android skills you need to start making powerful mobile applications About This Book Kick-start your Android programming career, or just have fun publishing apps to the Google Play marketplace A first-principles introduction to Java, via Android, which means you’ll be able to start building your own applications from scratch Learn by example and build three real-world apps and over 40 mini apps throughout the book Who This Book Is For Are you trying to start a career in programming, but haven’t found the right way inDo you have a great idea for an app, but don’t know how to make it a realityOr maybe you’re just frustrated that “to learn Android, you must know java.” If so, Android Programming for Beginners is for you. You don’t need any programming experience to follow along with this book, just a computer and a sense of adventure. What You Will Learn Master the fundamentals of coding Java for Android Install and set up your Android development environment Build functional user interfaces with the Android Studio visual designer Add user interaction, data captures, sound, and animation to your apps Manage your apps’ data using the built-in Android SQLite database Find out about the design patterns used by professionals to make top-grade applications Build, deploy, and publish real Android applications to the Google Play marketplace In Detail Android is the most popular OS in the world. There are millions of devices accessing tens of thousands of applications. It is many people's entry point into the world of technology; it is an operating system for everyone. Despite this, the entry-fee to actually make Android applications is usually a computer science degree, or five years’ worth of Java experience. Android Programming for Beginners will be your companion to create Android applications from scratch—whether you’re looking to start your programming career, make an application for work, be reintroduced to mobile development, or are just looking to program for fun. We will introduce you to all the fundamental concepts of programming in an Android context, from the Java basics to working with the Android API. All examples are created from within Android Studio, the official Android development environment that helps supercharge your application development process. After this crash-course, we’ll dive deeper into Android programming and you’ll learn how to create applications with a professional-standard UI through fragments, make location-aware apps with Google Maps integration, and store your user’s data with SQLite. In addition, you’ll see how to make your apps multilingual, capture images from a device’s camera, and work with graphics, sound, and animations too. By the end of this book, you’ll be ready to start building your own custom applications in Android and Java. Style and approach With more than 40 mini apps to code and run, Android Programming for Beginners is a hands-on guide to learning Android and Java. Each example application demonstrates a different aspect of Android programming. Alongside these mini apps, we push your abilities by building three larger applications to demonstrate Android application development in context.

Discover how to make your business data more interactive and engaging with SAP Lumira About This Book Create a powerful data discovery experience with the advanced capabilities of SAP Lumira Find business insights in your data through data blending, wrangling, transformation, and visualization A fast-paced guide packed with hands-on practical examples, real-world solutions, and best practices to get you started with SAP Lumira Who This Book Is For If you are a SAP user, business analyst, BI developer, or a junior data engineer who wants to use SAP Lumira to build creative visualizations, this book is for you. You should have a reasonable level of knowledge of SAP Business Objects and its components. What You Will Learn Deploy SAP Lumira on your computer and learn more about the SAP Lumira interface Extract data from different sources using SAP Lumira’s data connecters Prepare, filter, clean, and format your data Discover visualization techniques and data discovery methods Administrate and customize SAP Lumira to get basic knowledge of its SDK Create various charts to deliver fantastic data visualizations Connect to SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform and SAP HANA to extract, prepare, and visualize data In Detail SAP Lumira allows you to combine data from multiple sources into a single view and create engaging visualizations quickly and easily. It is a reporting platform that helps users access data and independently perform analysis. With the increasing interest in data discovery, self-service BI, and visualization around the world, tools like SAP Lumira help to eliminate the complexities of analyzing and discovering data. Learn data discovery techniques, build amazing visualizations, create fantastic stories, and share your visualizations through an electronic medium with one of the most powerful tools around—SAP Lumira. You will begin with an overview of the SAP Lumira family of products. You will then go through various data discovery techniques using real-world scenarios of an online e-commerce retailer through detailed recipes on the installation, administration, and customization of SAP Lumira. Next, you will work with data, starting from acquiring data from various data sources, then preparing and visualizing it using the rich functionality of SAP Lumira. Finally, you will present data via a data story or infographic and publish it across your organization or on the World Wide Web. Style and approach This is a step-by-step guide to learning SAP Lumira essentials packed with examples on real-world problems and solutions.

Measure, optimize, and improve the performance of your Python code with this easy-to-follow guide About This Book Master the do's and don'ts of Python performance programming Learn how to use exiting new tools that will help you improve your *s A step-by-step, conceptual guide to teach you how to optimize and fine-tune your critical pieces of code Who This Book Is For If you're a Python developer looking to improve the speed of your *s or simply wanting to take your skills to the next level, then this book is perfect for you. What You Will Learn Master code optimization step-by-step and learn how to use different tools Understand what a profiler is and how to read its output Interpret visual output from profiling tools and improve the performance of your * Use Cython to create fast applications using Python and C Take advantage of PyPy to improve performance of Python code Optimize number-crunching code with NumPy, Numba, Parakeet, and Pandas In Detail Simply knowing how to code is not enough; on mission-critical pieces of code, every bit of memory and every CPU cycle counts, and knowing how to squish every bit of processing power out of your code is a crucial and sought-after skill. Nowadays, Python is used for many scientific projects, and sometimes the calculations done in those projects require some serious fine-tuning. Profilers are tools designed to help you measure the performance of your code and help you during the optimization process, so knowing how to use them and read their output is very handy. This book starts from the basics and progressively moves on to more advanced topics. You’ll learn everything from profiling all the way up to writing a real-life application and applying a full set of tools designed to improve it in different ways. In the middle, you’ll stop to learn about the major profilers used in Python and about some graphic tools to help you make sense of their output. You’ll then move from generic optimization techniques onto Python-specific ones, going over the main constructs of the language that will help you improve your speed without much of a change. Finally, the book covers some number-crunching-specific libraries and how to use them properly to get the best speed out of them. After reading this book, you will know how to take any Python code, profile it, find out where the bottlenecks are, and apply different techniques to remove them. Style and approach This easy-to-follow, practical guide will help you enhance your optimization skills by improving real-world code.

A fast-paced developer's guide to using Symfony2 to make your everyday web development work more efficient Key Features Build web applications with the latest features of Symfony2 Focus on common tasks such as creating CRUD, creating an API, and providing a login Install and configure Symfony2 and evaluate it for your everyday needs Who This Book Is For This book is aimed at experienced programmers, especially those familiar with a closely related technology such as Yii or Laravel, but who now want to learn Symfony quickly. This book will also prove beneficial for experienced PHP developers who want to explore and evaluate new frameworks and their possibilities in day-to-day tasks. What You Will Learn Familiarise yourself with the Symfony framework, its latest features, and how to install it Discover the concept of bundles and their application Handle translations within Symfony, enable translations, and learn how to handle database translations Understand Symfony's security model, how to secure applications, and implement a custom authentication provider by using FOSUserBundle Explore the use of Twig, find best practices around its usage, and discover its common pitfalls Create internal commands that will handle sending e-mail reminders for your app Develop a plugin for the profiler to provide custom information about your application Deploy applications based on Symfony2 using various methods including simple FTP copying, rsync, CI deployment, and more In Detail Symfony is a free and open source PHP MVC web application development framework, which helps you create and maintain web applications and replace recurrent coding tasks. It integrates with an independent library, PHPUnit, to give you a rich testing framework. It is one of the best and most popular frameworks available on the market. Popular projects such as Drupal, Laravel, and phpBB also use Symfony. Its well-organized structure, clean code, and good programming practices make web development a breeze. Symfony2 Essentials will guide you through the process of creating a sample web application with Symfony2. You will create a To-Do application, using a few of the most commonly used Symfony2 components, and discover how to perform these development tasks efficiently. This book introduces you to the Symfony framework with a quick installation guide and a brief explanation of its key features including the MVC architecture, twig templating, dependency injection, and more. You will learn to manage dependencies, create controllers, views, and API calls, and secure your application. Next, you will go through the steps that are common for most web applications, which include writing CRUD and AJAX, handling forms, validation, translations, and the command-line interface, and e-mail sending features. The book ends with best practices, debugging, profiling, and deployment procedures. By the end of this book, you will have learned how to combine a Symfony2 framework with other open source code to speed up the development process. Style and approach A fast-paced, step-by-step guide with examples on how to write the most common pieces of code while developing typical web applications with Symfony.