A fast-paced guide to get you up and running with Android application development using Android Studio 2 About This Book Configure, build, and run Android projects with Android Studio 2 Test your apps using the Android emulator and learn how to manage virtual devices Explore how Android Studio 2 can be made a part of your workflow to reduce the overall development time Who This Book Is For If you are an Android developer looking to quickly take advantage of Android Studio 2 and add it to your workflow, then this book is for you. It is assumed that you are familiar with the OOP paradigm and Java. You are recommended to have prior knowledge of the main characteristics of the Android mobile system to get the most out of this book. What You Will Learn Install Android Studio on your system and configure the Android Software Development Kit Create your first project and explore its structure Manage a project in Android Studio 2 with Gradle Improve your productivity while programming by getting the best of the code editor Design the user interface using layouts and see how to handle various user events Integrate Google Play services into your project efficiently Monitor your app while it's running and constantly improve its performance In Detail Android Studio 2, the official IDE for Android application development, dramatically improves your workflow by letting you quickly see changes running on your device or emulator. It gives developers a unique platform by making app builds and deployment faster. This book will get you up and running with all the essential features of Android Studio 2 to optimize your development workflow. Starting off with the basic installation and configuration of Android Studio 2, this book will help you build a new project by showing you how to create a custom launcher icon and guiding you to choose your project. You will then gain an insight into the additional tools provided in Android Studio, namely the Software Development Kit (SDK) Manager, Android Virtual Device (AVD) Manager, and Javadoc. You’ll also see how to integrate Google Play Services in an Android project. Finally, you’ll become familiar with the Help section in Android Studio, which will enable you to search for support you might require in different scenarios. Style and approach A comprehensive and practical guide that will give you the essential skills required to develop Android applications quickly using Android Studio. With the help of a real-world project, this book will show how to make Android Studio a part of your development process and optimize it.

Build up your e-learning development skills with Articulate Storyline About This Book Develop interactive e-learning projects using advanced techniques Impress your clients and/or audience with out-of-the-box interactions Step-by-step walkthroughs provide practical solutions Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone experienced in using the basic functions of Articulate Storyline who are yearning to learn more. It’s designed to provide a brief overview of key concepts, to help you refresh your knowledge of common functions, and teach you how to push Storyline to the limit! What You Will Learn Familiarize yourself with best practices for e-learning development Review key Storyline concepts before diving in deep with development Discover new ways of working within Storyline to extend slide content and enhance interactivity Personalize your story with advanced variable-based interactions See how JavaScript can be used in your stories to do some really neat things Assess your learners using customized assessment options and find out how to troubleshoot common issues Customize the learning experience by modifying the player properties and publishing settings Customize your story and prepare it for publishing In Detail Storyline is a powerful e-learning authoring tool that allows you to take your creativity to the next level. However, more often than not, projects don't require such complex interactions, leaving Storyline's full capabilities untapped. This book will provide you with the information you need to take your Storyline development up a notch by leveraging the full suite of possibilities Storyline has to offer. You will be provided with a refresher of the key concepts before we take you deep into the exciting world of enhanced interactivity, variables, and even some JavaScript—oh my! With downloadable activities, you can either follow along and compare your output, use the activities as they are, modify the activities to suit your own needs, or reverse-engineer the activities to better understand how they were developed. Style and approach You’ll get hands-on working with project files that were created with you in mind. As you move through each chapters, the practical, step-by-step approach will get you using some of the more advanced features of Storyline to create polished and snazzy interactions.

Create real-time server-side applications with this practical, step-by-step guide About This Book Learn about server-side JavaScript with Node.js and Node modules through the most up-to-date book on Node.js web development Understand website development both with and without the Connect/Express web application framework Develop both HTTP server and client applications Who This Book Is For This book is for anybody looking for an alternative to the "P" languages (Perl, PHP, and Python), or anyone looking for a new paradigm of server-side application development. You should have at least a rudimentary understanding of JavaScript and web application development. What You Will Learn Install and use Node.js for both development and deployment Use the Express application framework Configure Bootstrap for mobile-first theming Use data storage engines such as MySQL, SQLITE3, and MongoDB Understand user authentication methods, including OAuth, with third-party services Deploy Node.js to live servers, including microservice development with Docker Perform unit testing with Mocha Perform functional testing of the web application with CasperJS In Detail Node.js is a server-side JavaScript platform using an event driven, non-blocking I/O model allowing users to build fast and scalable data-intensive applications running in real time. Node.js Web Development shows JavaScript is not just for browser-side applications. It can be used for server-side web application development, real-time applications, microservices, and much more. This book gives you an excellent starting point, bringing you straight to the heart of developing web applications with Node.js. You will progress from a rudimentary knowledge of JavaScript and server-side development to being able to create and maintain your own Node.js application. With this book you'll learn how to use the HTTP Server and Client objects, data storage with both SQL and MongoDB databases, real-time applications with Socket.IO, mobile-first theming with Bootstrap, microservice deployment with Docker, authenticating against third-party services using OAuth, and much more. Style and Approach This book is a practical guide for anyone looking to develop striking and robust web applications using Node.js.

A beginner's guide to help you design, deploy and administer your System Center Operations Manager 2016 and 2012 R2 environments About This Book Discover how to monitor complex IT environments with System Center Operations Manager using tips, tricks and best practice recommendations from industry experts. Learn how to create eye-catching dashboards and reports to help deliver a tangible return on investment back to your organization. Optimize, troubleshoot and perform disaster recovery in Operations Manager using step by step examples based on real-world scenarios. Who This Book Is For The target audience for this book is the IT Pro or System Administrator who wants to deploy and use System Center Operations Manager but has no previous knowledge of the product. As a ‘Getting Started’ book, our primary objective is to equip you with the knowledge you need to feel comfortable when working with common monitoring scenarios in OpsMgr. With this in mind, deep-diving into less-common OpsMgr features such as Audit Collection Services (ACS), Agentless Exception Monitoring (AEM) and Application Performance Monitoring (APM) has been intentionally omitted. What You Will Learn Install a new System Center 2016 Operations Manager Management Group Design and provision custom views to relevant support teams. Understand how to deploy agents Work with management packs Monitor network devices Model your IT services with distributed applications Create dashboards and custom visualizations Tune, optimize, maintain and troubleshoot System Center Operations Manager In Detail Most modern IT environments comprise a heterogeneous mixture of servers, network devices, virtual hypervisors, storage solutions, cross-platform operating systems and applications. All this complexity brings a requirement to deliver a centralized monitoring and reporting solution that can help IT administrators quickly identify where the problems are and how best to resolve them. Using System Center Operations Manager (OpsMgr), administrators get a full monitoring overview of the IT services they have responsibility for across the organization - along with some useful management capabilities to help them remediate any issues they've been alerted to. This book begins with an introduction to OpsMgr and its core concepts and then walks you through designing and deploying the various roles. After a chapter on exploring the consoles, you will learn how to deploy agents, work with management packs, configure network monitoring and model your IT services using distributed applications. There’s a chapter dedicated to alert tuning and another that demonstrates how to visualize your IT using dashboards. The final chapters in the book discuss how to create alert sub*ions, manage reports, backup and recover OpsMgr, perform maintenance and troubleshoot common problems. Style and approach A beginner’s guide that focuses on providing the practical skills required to effectively deploy and administer OpsMgr with walkthrough examples and tips on all the key concepts.

Learn how to build native, cross-platform mapping apps with this comprehensive and practical guide, using the MVVM pattern About This Book Enhance the user experience with the power of ArcGIS runtime SDK for .NET. This clear, well segregated book has all the information you need on ArcGIS Runtime SDK. Just name it—this book has it! This highly practical book empowers you to build your own custom application! Get to know the inner details of ArcGIS Runtime SDK from our experts, in this book written by Ron Vincent, with 24 years' experience in the GIS industry and many in GIS training. Who This Book Is For This book caters to long-term users of Esri’s technologies that are new to mobile development or are transitioning from older Esri technologies such as ArcGIS Engine. It is also for users who are unfamiliar with Esri or GIS and are in need of a mapping solution for either their desktop or a mobile platform, or both. The book requires knowledge of .NET. What You Will Learn Understand and implement the MVVM pattern using MVVM Light Create and add layers from offline and online resources such as ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS for Server Create a 2D or 3D map and decide what kind of symbology to use Symbolize the layers based on the geometry Search and find objects in the layers Geocode an address and create a route using an address Edit layer objects from online content and offline content Test the application using test-driven development and then build and release the application for the intended audience In Detail ArcGIS is a geographic information system (GIS) that enables you to work with maps and geographic information. It can be used to create and utilize maps, compile geographic data, analyze mapped information, share and discover geographic information and manage geographic information in a database. This book starts by showing you where ArcGIS Runtime fits within Esri’s overall platform strategy. You'll create an initial map using the SDK, then use it to get an understanding of the MVVM model. You'll find out about the different kinds of layers and start adding layers, and you'll learn to transform maps into a 3D scene. The next chapters will help you comprehend and extract information contained in the maps using co-ordinates and layer objects. Towards the end, you will learn to set the symbology, decide whether to use 2D or 3D, see how to implement 2D or 3D, and learn to search and find objects. You'll also get to grips with many other standard features of the Application Programming Interface (API), including create applications and finally testing, licensing, and deploying them. Once completed, you will be able to meet most of the common requirements of any mapping application for desktop or mobile platforms. Style and approach This comprehensive book takes a completely practical approach, where every chapter explains the important concepts and demonstrates a practical application of them in a hands-on manner.

Over 70 practical recipes to gain operational data intelligence with Splunk Enterprise About This Book This is the most up-to-date book on Splunk 6.3 and teaches you how to tackle real-world operational intelligence scenarios efficiently Get business insights using machine data using this easy-to-follow guide Search, monitor, and analyze your operational data skillfully using this recipe-based, practical guide Who This Book Is For This book is intended for users of all levels who are looking to leverage the Splunk Enterprise platform as a valuable operational intelligence tool. The recipes provided in this book will appeal to individuals from all facets of business, IT, security, product, marketing, and many more! Also, existing users of Splunk who want to upgrade and get up and running with Splunk 6.3 will find this book invaluable. What You Will Learn Use Splunk to gather, analyze, and report on data Create dashboards and visualizations that make data meaningful Build an operational intelligence application with extensive features and functionality Enrich operational data with lookups and workflows Model and accelerate data and perform pivot-based reporting Build real-time, *ed, and other intelligence-driven alerts Summarize data for longer term trending, reporting, and analysis Integrate advanced JavaScript charts and leverage Splunk's API In Detail Splunk makes it easy for you to take control of your data, and with Splunk Operational Cookbook, you can be confident that you are taking advantage of the Big Data revolution and driving your business with the cutting edge of operational intelligence and business analytics. With more than 70 recipes that demonstrate all of Splunk’s features, not only will you find quick solutions to common problems, but you’ll also learn a wide range of strategies and uncover new ideas that will make you rethink what operational intelligence means to you and your organization. You’ll discover recipes on data processing, searching and reporting, dashboards, and visualizations to make data shareable, communicable, and most importantly meaningful. You’ll also find step-by-step demonstrations that walk you through building an operational intelligence application containing vital features essential to understanding data and to help you successfully integrate a data-driven way of thinking in your organization. Throughout the book, you’ll dive deeper into Splunk, explore data models and pivots to extend your intelligence capabilities, and perform advanced searching to explore your data in even more sophisticated ways. Splunk is changing the business landscape, so make sure you’re taking advantage of it. Style and approach Splunk is an excellent platform that allows you to make sense of machine data with ease. The adoption of Splunk has been huge and everyone who has gone beyond installing Splunk wants to know how to make most of it. This book will not only teach you how to use Splunk in real-world scenarios to get business insights, but will also get existing Splunk users up to date with the latest Splunk 6.3 release.

100 recipes that teach you how to perform various machine learning tasks in the real world About This Book Understand which algorithms to use in a given context with the help of this exciting recipe-based guide Learn about perceptrons and see how they are used to build neural networks Stuck while making sense of images, text, speech, and real estateThis guide will come to your rescue, showing you how to perform machine learning for each one of these using various techniques Who This Book Is For This book is for Python programmers who are looking to use machine-learning algorithms to create real-world applications. This book is friendly to Python beginners, but familiarity with Python programming would certainly be useful to play around with the code. What You Will Learn Explore classification algorithms and apply them to the income bracket estimation problem Use predictive modeling and apply it to real-world problems Understand how to perform market segmentation using unsupervised learning Explore data visualization techniques to interact with your data in diverse ways Find out how to build a recommendation engine Understand how to interact with text data and build models to analyze it Work with speech data and recognize spoken words using Hidden Markov Models Analyze stock market data using Conditional Random Fields Work with image data and build systems for image recognition and biometric face recognition Grasp how to use deep neural networks to build an optical character recognition system In Detail Machine learning is becoming increasingly pervasive in the modern data-driven world. It is used extensively across many fields such as search engines, robotics, self-driving cars, and more. With this book, you will learn how to perform various machine learning tasks in different environments. We’ll start by exploring a range of real-life scenarios where machine learning can be used, and look at various building blocks. Throughout the book, you’ll use a wide variety of machine learning algorithms to solve real-world problems and use Python to implement these algorithms. You’ll discover how to deal with various types of data and explore the differences between machine learning paradigms such as supervised and unsupervised learning. We also cover a range of regression techniques, classification algorithms, predictive modeling, data visualization techniques, recommendation engines, and more with the help of real-world examples. Style and approach You will explore various real-life scenarios in this book where machine learning can be used, and learn about different building blocks of machine learning using independent recipes in the book.

Start pulling the strings of your infrastructure with Puppet – learn how to configure, customize, and manage your systems more intelligently About This Book Explore the wider Puppet ecosystem of useful tools Design and manage your Puppet architecture for optimum performance Write more efficient code that keeps your infrastructure more robust Who This Book Is For If you are a Puppet user, this book will help you on different levels. If you a beginner, we summarize the key Puppet components and give you the elements to have a broader vision. For more experienced users, you will be surprised by with topics on designing, implementing, adapting, and deploying Puppet architectures. If you are expert, you will find topics and information that is rarely exposed in other books, giving you an insight into Puppet's future and its usage on alternative devices. What You Will Learn Learn the principles of Puppet language and ecosystem Extract the features of Hiera and PuppetDB’s power usage Explore the different approaches to Puppet architecture design Use Puppet to manage network, cloud, and virtualization devices Manage and test the Puppet code workflow Tweak, hack, and adapt the Puppet extension points Get a run through of the strategies and patterns to introduce Puppet automation Master the art of writing reusable modules In Detail Puppet has changed the way we manage our systems, but Puppet itself is changing and evolving, and so are the ways we are using it. To tackle our IT infrastructure challenges and avoid common errors when designing our architectures, an up-to-date, practical, and focused view of the current and future Puppet evolution is what we need. With Puppet, you define the state of your IT infrastructure, and it automatically enforces the desired state. This book will be your guide to designing and deploying your Puppet architecture. It will help you utilize Puppet to manage your IT infrastructure. Get to grips with Hiera and learn how to install and configure it, before learning best practices for writing reusable and maintainable code. You will also be able to explore the latest features of Puppet 4, before executing, testing, and deploying Puppet across your systems. As you progress, Extending Puppet takes you through higher abstraction modules, along with tips for effective code workflow management. Finally, you will learn how to develop plugins for Puppet - as well as some useful techniques that can help you to avoid common errors and overcome everyday challenges. Style and approach This is a collection of specific information about multiple topics related to Puppet and its ecosystem. Starting from a review of the very basics to more advanced topics, mixing practical advice with important theory and broader perspective, along with implementation details.

Maximize the power of Magento 2 to create productive online stores About This Book Updated for Magento 2, this book offers a comprehensive coverage of all the new features of Magento to build modern online stores Exploit little-known techniques to extend, tune, and manage your Magento installation Detailed coverage to make your store run faster, better, and more productively Who This Book Is For This book is for web designers, developers, or e-commerce store-owners who design or manage Magento stores for their clients and want to gain an in-depth understanding of the various features of Magento 2. What You Will Learn Discover what makes Magento 2 different — and even more powerful Develop strategies to create multi-store environments Find out how to create themes and extend the functionality of Magento 2 Create sound development practices to insure code integrity and security Know the why, as well as the how, behind using Magento 2 In Detail The long-awaited release of the world's most popular online solution, Magento 2, is now out with an all new interface and several enhancements. This book offers you advanced guidance on managing, optimizing, and extending your store while taking advantage of the new features of Magento 2. This is a comprehensive guide to using the all new features and interface of Magento 2 to build, extend, and design online stores. From planning your Magento installation through to advanced techniques designed to make your store as successful as possible, this book is your roadmap to managing your Magento store. Focusing on Magento's Community version, the book covers everything from creating and managing multiple stores to fine-tuning Magento for speed and performance. You’ll learn how to manage categories, products, design themes, extensions, and more. Style and Approach This book will be a straightforward guide that will dive deep into both aspects of developing and administering beautiful and secure stores. Get a firm idea of the different tools that the latest version has to offer to ensure the best customer experience.

Over 40 recipes to help you set up and configure Linux networks About This Book Move beyond the basics of how a Linux machine works and gain a better understanding of Linux networks and their configuration Impress your peers by setting up and configuring a Linux server and its various network elements like a pro This is a hands-on solution guide to building, maintaining, and securing a network using Linux Who This Book Is For This book is targeted at Linux systems administrators who have a good basic understanding and some prior experience of how a Linux machine operates, but want to better understand how various network services function, how to set them up, and how to secure them. You should be familiar with how to set up a Linux server and how to install additional software on them. What You Will Learn Route an IPv6 netblock to your local network Modify your named instance to support setting hostnames for your IPv6 addresses Use SSH for remote console access Configure NGINX with TLS Secure XMPP with TLS Leverage iptables6 to firewall your IPv6 traffic Configure Samba as an Active Directory compatible directory service In Detail Linux can be configured as a networked workstation, a DNS server, a mail server, a firewall, a gateway router, and many other things. These are all part of administration tasks, hence network administration is one of the main tasks of Linux system administration. By knowing how to configure system network interfaces in a reliable and optimal manner, Linux administrators can deploy and configure several network services including file, web, mail, and servers while working in large enterprise environments. Starting with a simple Linux router that passes traffic between two private networks, you will see how to enable NAT on the router in order to allow Internet access from the network, and will also enable DHCP on the network to ease configuration of client systems. You will then move on to configuring your own DNS server on your local network using bind9 and tying it into your DHCP server to allow automatic configuration of local hostnames. You will then future enable your network by setting up IPv6 via tunnel providers. Moving on, we’ll configure Samba to centralize authentication for your network services; we will also configure Linux client to leverage it for authentication, and set up a RADIUS server that uses the directory server for authentication. Toward the end, you will have a network with a number of services running on it, and will implement monitoring in order to detect problems as they occur. Style and approach This book is packed with practical recipes and a task-based approach that will walk you through building, maintaining, and securing a computer network using Linux.

Kali Linux: a complete pentesting toolkit facilitating smooth backtracking for working hackers About This Book Conduct network testing, surveillance, pen testing and forensics on MS Windows using Kali Linux Footprint, monitor, and audit your network and investigate any ongoing infestations Customize Kali Linux with this professional guide so it becomes your pen testing toolkit Who This Book Is For If you are a working ethical hacker who is looking to expand the offensive skillset with a thorough understanding of Kali Linux, then this is the book for you. Prior knowledge about Linux operating systems and the BASH terminal emulator along with Windows desktop and command line would be highly beneficial. What You Will Learn Set up Kali Linux for pen testing Map and enumerate your Windows network Exploit several common Windows network vulnerabilities Attack and defeat password schemes on Windows Debug and reverse-engineer Windows programs Recover lost files, investigate successful hacks and discover hidden data in innocent-looking files Catch and hold admin rights on the network, and maintain backdoors on the network after your initial testing is done In Detail Microsoft Windows is one of the two most common OS and managing its security has spawned the discipline of IT security. Kali Linux is the premier platform for testing and maintaining Windows security. Kali is built on the Debian distribution of Linux and shares the legendary stability of that OS. This lets you focus on using the network penetration, password cracking, forensics tools and not the OS. This book has the most advanced tools and techniques to reproduce the methods used by sophisticated hackers to make you an expert in Kali Linux penetration testing. First, you are introduced to Kali's top ten tools and other useful reporting tools. Then, you will find your way around your target network and determine known vulnerabilities to be able to exploit a system remotely. Next, you will prove that the vulnerabilities you have found are real and exploitable. You will learn to use tools in seven categories of exploitation tools. Further, you perform web access exploits using tools like websploit and more. Security is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain. Passwords are often that weak link. Thus, you learn about password attacks that can be used in concert with other approaches to break into and own a network. Moreover, you come to terms with network sniffing, which helps you understand which users are using services you can exploit, and IP spoofing, which can be used to poison a system's DNS cache. Once you gain access to a machine or network, maintaining access is important. Thus, you not only learn penetrating in the machine you also learn Windows privilege’s escalations. With easy to follow step-by-step instructions and support images, you will be able to quickly pen test your system and network. Style and approach This book is a hands-on guide for Kali Linux pen testing. This book will provide all the practical knowledge needed to test your network's security using a proven hacker's methodology. The book uses easy-to-understand yet professional language for explaining concepts.

Leverage the power of digital forensics for Windows systems About This Book Build your own lab environment to analyze forensic data and practice techniques. This book offers meticulous coverage with an example-driven approach and helps you build the key skills of performing forensics on Windows-based systems using digital artifacts. It uses specific open source and Linux-based tools so you can become proficient at analyzing forensic data and upgrade your existing knowledge. Who This Book Is For This book targets forensic analysts and professionals who would like to develop skills in digital forensic analysis for the Windows platform. You will acquire proficiency, knowledge, and core skills to undertake forensic analysis of digital data. Prior experience of information security and forensic analysis would be helpful. You will gain knowledge and an understanding of performing forensic analysis with tools especially built for the Windows platform. What You Will Learn Perform live analysis on victim or suspect Windows systems locally or remotely Understand the different natures and acquisition techniques of volatile and non-volatile data. Create a timeline of all the system actions to restore the history of an incident. Recover and analyze data from FAT and NTFS file systems. Make use of various tools to perform registry analysis. Track a system user's browser and e-mail activities to prove or refute some hypotheses. Get to know how to dump and analyze computer memory. In Detail Over the last few years, the wave of the cybercrime has risen rapidly. We have witnessed many major attacks on the governmental, military, financial, and media sectors. Tracking all these attacks and crimes requires a deep understanding of operating system operations, how to extract evident data from digital evidence, and the best usage of the digital forensic tools and techniques. Regardless of your level of experience in the field of information security in general, this book will fully introduce you to digital forensics. It will provide you with the knowledge needed to assemble different types of evidence effectively, and walk you through the various stages of the analysis process. We start by discussing the principles of the digital forensics process and move on to show you the approaches that are used to conduct analysis. We will then study various tools to perform live analysis, and go through different techniques to analyze volatile and non-volatile data. Style and approach This is a step-by-step guide that delivers knowledge about different Windows artifacts. Each topic is explained sequentially, including artifact analysis using different tools and techniques. These techniques make use of the evidence extracted from infected machines, and are accompanied by real-life examples.

Combine the powerful UE4 with Blender to create visually appealing and comprehensive game environments About This Book The only resource that shows how you can incorporate Blender into your Unreal Engine 4 Game environment Create amazing 3D game environments by leveraging the power of Blender and Unreal Engine 4 Practical step-by-step approach with plenty of illustrative examples to get you started immediately Who This Book Is For This book would be ideal for 3D artists and game designers who want to create amazing 3D game environments and leverage the power of Blender with Unreal Engine 4. 3D design basics would be necessary to get the most out of this book. Some previous experience with Blender would be helpful but not essential What You Will Learn Create a fully functioning game level of your own design using Blender and Unreal Engine 4 Customize your level with detailed 3D assets created with Blender Import assets into Unreal Engine 4 to create an amazing finished product Build a detailed dynamic environment with goals and an ending Explore Blender’s incredible animation tools to animate elements of your game Create great environments using sound effects, particle effects, and class blueprints In Detail Unreal Engine 4 now has support for Blender, which was not available in earlier versions. This has opened up new possibilities and that is where this book comes in. This is the first book in the market combining these two powerful game and graphic engines. Readers will build an amazing high-level game environment with UE4 and will show them how to use the power of Blender 3D to create stunning animations and 3D effects for their game. This book will start with creating levels, 3D assets for the game, game progression, light and environment control, animation, and so on. Then it will teach readers to add amazing visual effects to their game by applying rendering, lighting, rigging, and compositing techniques in Blender. Finally, readers will learn how to smoothly transfer blender files to UE4 and animate the game assets. Each chapter will add complexities to the game environment. Style and approach This will have a clear, step-by-step approach to creating game assets in Blender and then importing them to UE4 to create stunning game environments. All asset creation techniques are explained in detail along with tips on how to use them to create your own game environments. The book offers end-to-end coverage of how to design a game level from scratch.

Use new features of PHP 7 to solve practical, real-world problems faced by PHP developers like yourself every day. About This Book .This course covers the new features of version 7.x, best practices for server-side programming, and MVC frameworks .Leverage the potential of PHP for server-side programming, memory management, and Object-Oriented Programming to improve your programming productivity .This course also illustrates the development of a complete modular application using PHP 7 in detail Who This Book Is For If you are an aspiring web developer, mobile developer, or back-end programmer, who has basic experience in PHP programming and wants to develop performance-critical applications, then this course is for you. It will take your PHP programming skills to next level. What You Will Learn .Solve practical real-world programming problems using PHP 7 .Discover where and when PHP 5 code needs to be re-written to avoid backwards-compatibility breaks .Use advanced PHP 7 features such as the Abstract Syntax Tree, Uniform Variable Syntax, Scalar Type Hints, Generator Delegation, Anonymous Classes, and the Context Sensitive Lexer .Set up a high performance development and production environment for PHP 7 .Discover new OOP features in PHP 7 to achieve high performance .Discover the new features of PHP 7 that are relevant to modular application development .Explore the ins and outs of the Symfony framework .Build a set of modules based on the Symfony framework that comprise a simple web shop app In Detail PHP is a great language for developing web applications. It is essentially a server-side *ing language. PHP 7 is the latest version, providing major backward-compatibility breaks and focusing on improved performance and speed. This course follows a learning path which is divided into three modules. Each module is a mini course in its own right, taking your basic PHP programing skills to the next level by showing you intermediate to advanced PHP techniques with a focus on PHP 7. This way, get you equipped with the tools and skills required to develop professional and efficient applications for your websites and enterprises. The first module of the book is a programming cookbook that consists over 80 recipes! Each recipe is designed to solve practical, real-world problems faced by PHP developers like yourself every day. This course also covers new ways of writing PHP code made possible only in version 7. The second module of the course is designed to improve the performance and productivity of your application. We’ll introduce you to the concepts of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) in PHP 7, then shed some light on how to improve the performance of your PHP 7 applications and database. Throughout this module you will be introduced to benchmarking tools. With all important concepts of PHP covered up you will move on to third module. In this module you will gain a deep insight into the modular programming paradigm and how to achieve modularity in your PHP code. Modular design techniques help you build readable, manageable, reusable, and more efficient codes. PHP 7, which is a popular open source *ing language, is used to build modular functions for your software. This Learning Path combines some of the best that Packt has to offer in one complete, curated package. It includes content from the following Packt products: .PHP 7 Programming Cookbook, Doug Bierer .Learning PHP 7 High Performance, Altaf Hussain .Modular Programming with PHP 7, Branko Ajzele Style and approach This book takes a practical, step-by-step approach with real-world examples that serve as building blocks for your application development and guide you through improving the quality of your code.

Learn how to create effective data visualizations with Tableau and unlock a smarter approach to business analytics. It might just transform your organization About This Book Create stylish visualizations and dashboards that explain complexity with clarity Learn effective data storytelling to transform how your business uses ideas and makes decisions Explore all the new features in Tableau 10 and start to redefine what business analytics means to your organization Who This Book Is For Got dataNot sure what to make of itThis is the guide for you – whether you’ve been working with Tableau for years or are just beginning your adventure into business analytics. What You Will Learn Find out how to build effective visualizations and dashboards Prepare and clean your data so you can be sure Tableau is finding answers to your questions – not raising more problems Discover how to create advanced visualizations that explain complexity with clarity and style Dig deeper into your data with clustering and distribution models that allow you to analyze trends and make forecasts Learn how to use data storytelling to aid decision-making and strategy Share dashboards and visualizations to cultivate a culture where data is available and valued In Detail Tableau has for some time been one of the most popular Business Intelligence and data visualization tools available. WhyBecause, quite simply, it’s a tool that’s responsive to the needs of modern businesses. But it’s most effective when you know how to get what you want from it – it might make your business intelligent, but it isn’t going to make you intelligent… We’ll make sure you’re well prepared to take full advantage of Tableau 10’s new features. Whether you’re an experienced data analyst that wants to explore 2016’s new Tableau, or you’re a beginner that wants to expand their skillset and bring a more professional and sharper approach to their organization, we’ve got you covered. Beginning with the fundamentals, such as data preparation, you’ll soon learn how to build and customize your own data visualizations and dashboards, essential for high-level visibility and effective data storytelling. You’ll also find out how to so trend analysis and forecasting using clustering and distribution models to inform your analytics. But it’s not just about you – when it comes to data it’s all about availability and access. That’s why we’ll show you how to share your Tableau visualizations. It’s only once insights are shared and communicated that you – and your organization – will start making smarter and informed decisions. And really, that’s exactly what this guide is for. Style and approach Practical yet comprehensive, this Tableau guide takes you from the fundamentals of the tool before diving deeper into creating advanced visualizations. Covering the latest features found in Tableau 10, this might be the guide that transforms your organization.

Leverage the power of Xamarin to create stunning cross-platform and native apps About This Book Helps you get a clear practical understanding of creating professional-grade apps with Xamarin Covers Xamarin.Forms, Xamarin Android, and Xamarin iOS If you want to transform yourself from an amateur mobile developer into a professional app developer across multiple platforms, then this is the ideal book for you Who This Book Is For If you are a mobile developer looking to create interesting and fully featured apps for different platforms, then this book is the ideal solution for you. A basic knowledge of Xamarin and C# programming is assumed What You Will Learn Discover eight different ways to create your own Xamarin applications Improve app performance by using SQLite for data-intensive applications Set up a simple web service to feed JSON data into mobile applications Store files locally with Xamarin.Forms using dependency services Use Xamarin extension libraries to create effective applications with less coding In Detail Do you want to create powerful, efficient, and independent apps from scratch that will leverage the Xamarin framework and code with C#Well, look no further; you’ve come to the right place! This is a learn-as-you-build practical guide to building eight full-fledged applications using Xamarin.Forms, Xamarin Android, and Xamarin iOS. Each chapter includes a project, takes you through the process of building applications (such as a gallery Application, a text-to-speech service app, a GPS locator app, and a stock market app), and will show you how to deploy the application’s source code to a Google Cloud Source Repository. Other practical projects include a chat and a media-editing app, as well as other examples fit to adorn any developer’s utility belt. In the course of building applications, this book will teach you how to design and prototype professional-grade applications implementing performance and security considerations. Style and approach A project-based approach that will solve all your needs when it comes to creating native Android, iOS, and cross-platform apps efficiently and effectively.

Analyze your data and delve deep into the world of machine learning with the latest Spark version, 2.0 About This Book Perform data analysis and build predictive models on huge datasets that leverage Apache Spark Learn to integrate data science algorithms and techniques with the fast and scalable computing features of Spark to address big data challenges Work through practical examples on real-world problems with sample code snippets Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone who wants to leverage Apache Spark for data science and machine learning. If you are a technologist who wants to expand your knowledge to perform data science operations in Spark, or a data scientist who wants to understand how algorithms are implemented in Spark, or a newbie with minimal development experience who wants to learn about Big Data Analytics, this book is for you! What You Will Learn Consolidate, clean, and transform your data acquired from various data sources Perform statistical analysis of data to find hidden insights Explore graphical techniques to see what your data looks like Use machine learning techniques to build predictive models Build scalable data products and solutions Start programming using the RDD, DataFrame and Dataset APIs Become an expert by improving your data analytical skills In Detail This is the era of Big Data. The words ‘Big Data’ implies big innovation and enables a competitive advantage for businesses. Apache Spark was designed to perform Big Data analytics at scale, and so Spark is equipped with the necessary algorithms and supports multiple programming languages. Whether you are a technologist, a data scientist, or a beginner to Big Data analytics, this book will provide you with all the skills necessary to perform statistical data analysis, data visualization, predictive modeling, and build scalable data products or solutions using Python, Scala, and R. With ample case studies and real-world examples, Spark for Data Science will help you ensure the successful execution of your data science projects. Style and approach This book takes a step-by-step approach to statistical analysis and machine learning, and is explained in a conversational and easy-to-follow style. Each topic is explained sequentially with a focus on the fundamentals as well as the advanced concepts of algorithms and techniques. Real-world examples with sample code snippets are also included.

Use Hadoop to solve business problems by learning from a rich set of real-life case studies About This Book Solve real-world business problems using Hadoop and other Big Data technologies Build efficient data lakes in Hadoop, and develop systems for various business cases like improving marketing campaigns, fraud detection, and more Power packed with six case studies to get you going with Hadoop for Business Intelligence Who This Book Is For If you are interested in building efficient business solutions using Hadoop, this is the book for you This book assumes that you have basic knowledge of Hadoop, Java, and any *ing language. What You Will Learn Learn about the evolution of Hadoop as the big data platform Understand the basics of Hadoop architecture Build a 360 degree view of your customer using Sqoop and Hive Build and run classification models on Hadoop using BigML Use Spark and Hadoop to build a fraud detection system Develop a churn detection system using Java and MapReduce Build an IoT-based data collection and visualization system Get to grips with building a Hadoop-based Data Lake for large enterprises Learn about the coexistence of NoSQL and In-Memory databases in the Hadoop ecosystem In Detail If you have a basic understanding of Hadoop and want to put your knowledge to use to build fantastic Big Data solutions for business, then this book is for you. Build six real-life, end-to-end solutions using the tools in the Hadoop ecosystem, and take your knowledge of Hadoop to the next level. Start off by understanding various business problems which can be solved using Hadoop. You will also get acquainted with the common architectural patterns which are used to build Hadoop-based solutions. Build a 360-degree view of the customer by working with different types of data, and build an efficient fraud detection system for a financial institution. You will also develop a system in Hadoop to improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Build a churn detection system for a telecom company, develop an Internet of Things (IoT) system to monitor the environment in a factory, and build a data lake – all making use of the concepts and techniques mentioned in this book. The book covers other technologies and frameworks like Apache Spark, Hive, Sqoop, and more, and how they can be used in conjunction with Hadoop. You will be able to try out the solutions explained in the book and use the knowledge gained to extend them further in your own problem space. Style and approach This is an example-driven book where each chapter covers a single business problem and describes its solution by explaining the structure of a dataset and tools required to process it. Every project is demonstrated with a step-by-step approach, and explained in a very easy-to-understand manner.

Go beyond the basics and unleash the full power of QGIS with practical, step-by-step examples About This Book This book is your one-stop solution to all of your GIS needs using the open source QGIS Master QGIS by learning about database integration, geoprocessing tools, Python *s, advanced cartography, and custom plugins This example-rich, practical guide will help you create sophisticated analyses and maps Who This Book Is For If you are a GIS professional, a consultant, a student, or perhaps a fast learner who wants to go beyond the basics of QGIS, then this book is for you. It will prepare you to realize the full potential of QGIS. What You Will Learn Create and manage a spatial database Get to know advanced techniques to style GIS data Prepare both vector and raster data for processing Add heat maps, live layer effects, and labels to your maps Master LAStools and GRASS integration with the Processing Toolbox Edit and repair topological data errors Automate workflows with batch processing and the QGIS Graphical Modeler Integrate Python *ing into your data processing workflows Develop your own QGIS plugin In Detail QGIS is an open source solution to GIS. It is widely used by GIS professionals all over the world. It is the leading alternative to the proprietary GIS software. Although QGIS is described as intuitive, it is also by default complex. Knowing which tools to use and how to apply them is essential to producing valuable deliverables on time. Starting with a refresher on the QGIS basics, this book will take you all the way through to creating your first custom QGIS plugin. From the refresher, we will recap how to create, populate, and manage a spatial database. You’ll also walk through styling GIS data, from creating custom symbols and color ramps to using blending modes. In the next section, you will discover how to prepare vector, heat maps, and create live layer effects, labeling, and raster data for processing. You’ll also discover advanced data creation and editing techniques. The last third of the book covers the more technical aspects of QGIS such as using LAStools and GRASS GIS’s integration with the Processing Toolbox, how to automate workflows with batch processing, and how to create graphical models. Finally, you will see how to create and run Python data processing *s and write your own QGIS plugin with pyqgis. By the end of the book, you will understand how to work with all the aspects of QGIS, and will be ready to use it for any type of GIS work. Style and approach This step-by-step comprehensive guide will let you dig your teeth into working with spatial databases, creating your own QGIS plugins, and creating your own custom graphical models.

Unleash the power of the latest Spring MVC 4.x to develop a complete application About This Book Work through carefully crafted exercises with detailed explanations for each step will help you understand the concepts with ease You will gain a clear understanding of the end-to-end request/response life cycle, and each logical component’s responsibility This book is packed with tips and tricks that demonstrate industry best practices on developing a Spring-MVC-based application Who This Book Is For The book is for Java developers who want to exploit Spring MVC and its features to build web applications. Some familiarity with basic servlet programming concepts would be a plus, but is not a prerequisite. What You Will Learn Familiarize yourself with the anatomy of the Spring 4.X development environment Understand web application architecture and the Spring MVC request flow Integrate bean validation and custom validation Use error handling and exception resolving Get to grips with REST-based web service development and Ajax Test your web application In Detail Spring MVC helps you build flexible and loosely coupled web applications. The Spring MVC Framework is architected and designed in such a way that every piece of logic and functionality is highly configurable. Also, Spring can integrate effortlessly with other popular web frameworks such as Struts, WebWork, Java Server Faces, and Tapestry. The book progressively teaches you to configure the Spring development environment, architecture, controllers, libraries, and more before moving on to developing a full web application. It begins with an introduction to the Spring development environment and architecture so you're familiar with the know-hows. From here, we move on to controllers, views, validations, Spring Tag libraries, and more. Finally, we integrate it all together to develop a web application. You'll also get to grips with testing applications for reliability. Style and approach This book takes a pragmatic step-by-step approach to web application development using Spring MVC, with informative screenshots and concise explanation.

Utilize R to uncover hidden patterns in your Big Data About This Book Perform computational analyses on Big Data to generate meaningful results Get a practical knowledge of R programming language while working on Big Data platforms like Hadoop, Spark, H2O and SQL/NoSQL databases, Explore fast, streaming, and scalable data analysis with the most cutting-edge technologies in the market Who This Book Is For This book is intended for Data Analysts, Scientists, Data Engineers, Statisticians, Researchers, who want to integrate R with their current or future Big Data workflows. It is assumed that readers have some experience in data analysis and understanding of data management and algorithmic processing of large quantities of data, however they may lack specific skills related to R. What You Will Learn Learn about current state of Big Data processing using R programming language and its powerful statistical capabilities Deploy Big Data analytics platforms with selected Big Data tools supported by R in a cost-effective and time-saving manner Apply the R language to real-world Big Data problems on a multi-node Hadoop cluster, e.g. electricity consumption across various socio-demographic indicators and bike share scheme usage Explore the compatibility of R with Hadoop, Spark, SQL and NoSQL databases, and H2O platform In Detail Big Data analytics is the process of examining large and complex data sets that often exceed the computational capabilities. R is a leading programming language of data science, consisting of powerful functions to tackle all problems related to Big Data processing. The book will begin with a brief introduction to the Big Data world and its current industry standards. With introduction to the R language and presenting its development, structure, applications in real world, and its shortcomings. Book will progress towards revision of major R functions for data management and transformations. Readers will be introduce to Cloud based Big Data solutions (e.g. Amazon EC2 instances and Amazon RDS, Microsoft Azure and its HDInsight clusters) and also provide guidance on R connectivity with relational and non-relational databases such as MongoDB and HBase etc. It will further expand to include Big Data tools such as Apache Hadoop ecosystem, HDFS and MapReduce frameworks. Also other R compatible tools such as Apache Spark, its machine learning library Spark MLlib, as well as H2O. Style and approach This book will serve as a practical guide to tackling Big Data problems using R programming language and its statistical environment. Each section of the book will present you with concise and easy-to-follow steps on how to process, transform and analyse large data sets.