Develop powerful cross-platform applications with Xamarin About This Book Write native cross-platform applications with Xamarin Design user interfaces that can be shared across Android, iOS, and Windows Phone using Xamarin.Forms Practical cross-platform development strategies Who This Book Is For If you are a developer with experience in C# and are just getting into mobile development, this is the book for you. This book will give you a head start with cross-platform development and will be the most useful to developers who have experience with desktop applications or the web. What You Will Learn Apple’s MVC design pattern The Android activity lifecycle Share C# code across platforms and call native Objective-C or Java libraries from C# Create a real web service back end in Windows Azure using SQL Azure as database storage Set up third-party libraries such as NuGet and Objective Sharpie in many different ways, and port a desktop .NET library to Xamarin Use Xamarin.Mobile for camera, contacts, and location In Detail Xamarin is a leading cross-platform application development tool used by top companies such as Coca-Cola, Honeywell, and Alaska Airlines to build apps. Version 4 features significant updates to the platform including the release of Xamarin.Forms 2.0 and improvements have been made to the iOS and Android designers. Xamarin was acquired by Microsoft so it is now a part of the Visual Studio family. This book will show you how to build applications for iOS, Android, and Windows. You will be walked through the process of creating an application that comes complete with a back-end web service and native features such as GPS location, camera, push notifications, and other core features. Additionally, you’ll learn how to use external libraries with Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms to create user interfaces. This book also provides instructions for Visual Studio and Windows. This edition has been updated with new screenshots and detailed steps to provide you with a holistic overview of the new features in Xamarin 4. Style and approach This book offers a tutorial style approach to teach you the skills required to develop end-to-end cross-platform solutions with Xamarin.

Harness the power of Drupal 8 to create enterprise-grade, highly scalable websites About This Book Build complete, complex websites with no prior knowledge of web development entirely using the intuitive Drupal user interface Ensure your sites are modern, responsive and mobile-friendly through utilizing the full features available in Drupal 8 Quickly master theme administration, custom block layouts, views, and the Twig template structure Who This Book Is For This course is suitable for web developers, designers, as well as web administrators who are keen on building modern, scalable websites using Drupal 8 and its wide range of new features. What You Will Learn Set up a local “stack” development environment and install your first Drupal 8 site Find out what is available in the Drupal 8 core Integrate third-party front-end and back-end libraries with Drupal Understand the plugin system that powers many of Drupal 8's new APIs to extend its functionality Build custom block layouts with reusable and fieldable blocks Work with the new Twig PHP templating engine Develop a theme from scratch following a step-by-step project outline In Detail This Drupal 8 course takes you through the journey of building, extending, and customizing websites to build highly scalable and enterprise-ready websites. The first part—Learning Drupal 8—takes you step by step through building a Drupal 8 website. You will start with the basics, such as setting up a local “stack” development environment and installing your first Drupal 8 site, then we move on to image and media handling and extending Drupal modules. This section will help you get to grips with the modular nature of Drupal, and you’ll learn how to extend it by adding new functionalities to create your new modules. After learning to develop and manage a modern and responsive website using Drupal 8, you’ll start exploring different techniques to take advantage of the new Drupal 8 features. The next module—Drupal 8 Development Cookbook—is your go-to guide to experimenting with all of Drupal 8’s features through helpful recipes. You will explore techniques to customize and configure the Drupal environment, create blocks and custom modules, as well as make your web apps responsive by harnessing the mobile-first feature of Drupal 8. This module will also show you how to incorporate multilingual facilities in your sites, use web services and third-party plugins with your applications from inside Drupal 8, and test and deploy your apps. In the third part—Drupal 8 Theming with Twig—you will master Drupal 8’s new Twig templating engine to customize the look and feel of your website. This section will walk you through a real-world project to create a Twig theme from concept to completion while adopting best practices to implement CSS frameworks and JavaScript libraries. You will see just how quick and easy it is to create beautiful, responsive Drupal 8 websites while avoiding the common mistakes that many front-end developers make. By the end, you will have learned how to develop, manage, extend, and customize an enterprise-level website. 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: Learning Drupal 8 by Nick Abbott and Richard Jones Drupal 8 Development Cookbook by Matt Glaman Drupal 8 Theming with Twig by Chaz Chumley Style and approach This course offers a thorough coverage of developing, managing, extending, and designing highly scalable websites using the Drupal 8 platform. Filled with practical examples and recipes, this course is a great combination of example-driven learning complemented by interesting techniques to take advantage of the Drupal platform.

Customize your NAV applications About This Book ?Gain from the insights and methods of industry-leading experts and tailor your applications to best suit the needs of your business ?Learn through the detailed explanations and useful examples that are presented in a logical, step-by-step manner ?This comprehensive guide is written with the goals of being used as a classroom text, a self-study text, and as a handy in-depth reference guide Who This Book Is For This book will appeal to all those who want to learn about NAV's powerful and extensive built-in development capabilities. It assumes that you understand programming and are familiar with business application software, although you aren't expected to have worked with NAV before. ERP consultants and managers of NAV development will also find the book helpful. What You Will Learn ?Productively and effectively use the development tools that are built into Dynamics NAV ?Understand the strengths of NAV's development tools and how they can be applied to address functional business requirements ?Introduction to programming using the C/AL language in the C/SIDE Development Environment ?Explore functional design and development using C/AL ?Leverage advanced NAV development features and tools ?Get to know the best practices to design and develop modifications of new functionality integrated with the standard NAV software In Detail Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a full business solution suite, and a complete ERP solution, which contains a robust set of development tools to support customization and enhancement. These

"Key Features ?Get to the grips with the latest version of Apache Spark ?Utilize Spark's machine learning library to implement predictive analytics ?Leverage Spark's powerful tools to load, analyze, clean, and transform your data Book De*ion Spark ML is the machine learning module of Spark. It uses in-memory RDDs to process machine learning models faster for clustering, classification, and regression. This book will teach you about popular machine learning algorithms and their implementation. You will learn how various machine learning concepts are implemented in the context of Spark ML. You will start by installing Spark in a single and multinode cluster. Next you'll see how to execute Scala and Python based programs for Spark ML. Then we will take a few datasets and go deeper into clustering, classification, and regression. Toward the end, we will also cover text processing using Spark ML. Once you have learned the concepts, they can be applied to implement algorithms in either green-field implementations or to migrate existing systems to this new platform. You can migrate from Mahout or Scikit to use Spark ML. What you will learn ?Get hands-on with the latest version of Spark ML ?Create your first Spark program with Scala and Python ?Set up and configure a development environment for Spark on your own computer, as well as on Amazon EC2 ?Access public machine learning datasets and use Spark to load, process, clean, and transform data ?Use Spark's machine learning library to implement programs by utilizing well-known machine learning models ?Deal with large-scale text data, including feature extraction and using text data as input to your machine learning models ?Write Spark functions to evaluate the performance of your machine learning models "

A fun way to create interesting and cool apps for your Wearable device using Android programming. About This Book ? Create real-time Android Wear apps from scratch and become a pro Android Wear Developer ? Learn to create apps specially dedicated to the Android Wear platform ? Design custom Wear UIs and create interactive Watch faces Who This Book Is For The book is for Android developers with a good understanding of programming and developing applications on Android, but they need not have any experience of creating Wear apps. What You Will Learn ? Design and build Wear apps. ? Learn how to use offline storage in Wear apps. ? Understand sensors and how to work with them ? Work with standalone applications of the wear 2.0 API. ? Create a map application for Android Wear devices ? Write a watch face and understand more about Wear 2.0 ? Work with firebase realtime database and firebase functions ? Create a chatting application that has wear companion app In Detail Android Wear Projects is your opportunity to step into the exciting new world of Android Wear app development. This book will help you to master the skills in Android Wear programming and give you a complete insight on wear app development. You will create five different Android Wear apps just like the most popular Android Wear apps. You will create a To-do list, a city maps app, a Wear messenger, Wear fitness tracker and Watch face. While you create these apps you will learn to create custom notifications, receive voice inputs in notifications, add pages to notifications and stack notifications. You will see how to create custom wear app layouts, the custom UIs specially designed for Wear. You will learn to handle and manage data and syncing data with other devices, create interactive Watch faces and also ensure the safety and security of your Wear apps by testing and securing your apps before you deploy them on the app store. Style and approach This book will take a project based tutorial style approach where every chapter will create a separate android Wear app and highlight different features of android Wear apps.

Over 150 real-world recipes to simplify database management, automate repetitive tasks, and enhance your productivity About This Book This book helps you build a strong foundation to get you comfortable using PowerShell with SQL Server, empowering you to create more complex *s for your day-to-day job The book provides numerous guidelines, tips, and explanations on how and when to use PowerShell cmdlets, WMI, SMO, .NET classes, or other components It offers easy-to-follow, practical recipes to help you get the most out of SQL Server and PowerShell Who This Book Is For If you are a SQL Server database professional (DBA, developer, or BI developer) who wants to use PowerShell to automate, integrate, and simplify database tasks, this books is for you. Prior knowledge of *ing would be helpful, but it is not necessary. What You Will Learn Explore database objects and execute queries on multiple servers Manage and monitor the running of SQL Server services and accounts Back up and restore databases Create an inventory of database properties and server configuration settings Maintain permissions and security for users Work with CLR assemblies, XML, and BLOB objects in SQL Manage and deploy SSIS packages and SSRS reports In Detail PowerShell can be leveraged when automating and streamlining SQL Server tasks. PowerShell comes with a rich set of cmdlets, and integrates tightly with the .NET framework. Its *ing capabilities are robust and flexible, allowing you to simplify automation and integration across different Microsoft applications and components. The book starts with an introduction to the new features in SQL Server 2014 and PowerShell v5 and the installation of SQL Server. You will learn about basic SQL Server administration tasks and then get to know about some security-related topics such as the authentication mode and assigning permissions. Moving on, you will explore different methods to back up and restore your databases and perform advanced administration tasks such as working with Policies, Filetables, and SQL audits. The next part of the book covers more advanced HADR tasks such as log shipping and data mirroring, and then shows you how to develop your server to work with BLOB, XML, and JSON. Following on from that, you will learn about SQL Server's BI stack, which includes SSRS reports, the SSIS package, and the SSAS cmdlet and database. Snippets not specific to SQL Server will help you perform tasks quickly on SQL servers. Towards the end of the book, you will find some useful information, which includes a PowerShell tutorial for novice users, some commonly-used PowerShell and SQL Server syntax, and a few online resources. Finally, you will create your own SQL Server Sandbox VMs. All these concepts will help you to efficiently manage your administration tasks. Style and approach SQL Server 2014 with PowerShell v5 Cookbook is an example-focused book that provides step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish specific SQL Server tasks using PowerShell. Each recipe is followed by an analysis of the steps or design decisions taken and additional information about the task at hand. Working *s are provided for all examples so that you can dive in right away. You can read this book sequentially by chapter or you can pick and choose which topics you need right away.

Harness the power of RStudio to create web applications, R packages, markdown reports and pretty data visualizationsAbout This BookDiscover the multi-functional use of RStudio to support your daily work with R codeLearn to create stunning, meaningful, and interactive graphs and learn to embed them into easy communicable reports using multiple R packagesDevelop your own R packages and Shiny web apps to share your knowledge and collaborate with others.Who This Book Is ForThis book is aimed at R developers and analysts who wish to do R statistical development while taking advantage of RStudio’s functionality to ease their development efforts. R programming experience is assumed as well as being comfortable with R’s basic structures and a number of functions.What You Will LearnDiscover the RStudio IDE and details about the user interfaceCommunicate your insights with R Markdown in static and interactive waysLearn how to use different graphic systems to visualize your dataBuild interactive web applications with the Shiny framework to present and share your resultsUnderstand the process of package development and assemble your own R packagesEasily collaborate with other people on your projects by using Git and GitHubManage the R environment for your organization with RStudio and Shiny serverApply your obtained knowledge about RStudio and R development to create a real-world dashboard solutionIn DetailRStudio helps you to manage small to large projects by giving you a multi-functional integrated development environment, combined with the power and flexibility of the R programming language, which is becoming the bridge language of data science for developers and analyst worldwide. Mastering the use of RStudio will help you to solve real-world data problems.This book begins by guiding you through the installation of RStudio and explaining the user interface step by step. From there, the next logical step is to use this knowledge to improve your data analysis workflow. We will do this by building up our toolbox to create interactive reports and graphs or even web applications with Shiny. To collaborate with others, we will explore how to use Git and GitHub with RStudio and how to build your own packages to ensure top quality results. Finally, we put it all together in an interactive dashboard written with R.Style and approachAn easy-to-follow guide full of hands-on examples to master RStudio.Beginning from explaining the basics, each topic is explained with a lot of details for every feature.

Delve into the SAP Data Services environment to efficiently prepare, implement, and develop ETL processes About This Book Install and configure the SAP Data Services environment Develop ETL techniques in the Data Services environment Implement real-life examples of Data Services uses through step-by-step instructions to perform specific ETL development tasks Who This Book Is For This book is for IT technical engineers who want to get familiar with the EIM solutions provided by SAP for ETL development and data quality management. The book requires familiarity with basic programming concepts and basic knowledge of the SQL language. What You Will Learn Install, configure, and administer the SAP Data Services components Run through the ETL design basics Maximize the performance of your ETL with the advanced patterns in Data Services Extract methods from various databases and systems Get familiar with the transformation methods available in SAP Data Services Load methods into various databases and systems Code with the Data Services *ing language Validate and cleanse your data, applying the Data quality methods of the Information Steward In Detail Want to cost effectively deliver trusted information to all of your crucial business functionsSAP Data Services delivers one enterprise-class solution for data integration, data quality, data profiling, and text data processing. It boosts productivity with a single solution for data quality and data integration. SAP Data Services also enables you to move, improve, govern, and unlock big data. This book will lead you through the SAP Data Services environment to efficiently develop ETL processes. To begin with, you’ll learn to install, configure, and prepare the ETL development environment. You will get familiarized with the concepts of developing ETL processes with SAP Data Services. Starting from smallest unit of work- the data flow, the chapters will lead you to the highest organizational unit—the Data Services job, revealing the advanced techniques of ETL design.You will learn to import XML files by creating and implementing real-time jobs. It will then guide you through the ETL development patterns that enable the most effective performance when extracting, transforming, and loading data. You will also find out how to create validation functions and transforms.Finally, the book will show you the benefits of data quality management with the help of another SAP solution—Information Steward.Style and approach This book is an easy-to-follow guide with step-by-step instructions to perform specific ETL development tasks.

Learn to process massive real-time data streams using Storm and Python—no Java required!About This Book Learn to use Apache Storm and the Python Petrel library to build distributed applications that process large streams of data Explore sample applications in real-time and analyze them in the popular NoSQL databases MongoDB and Redis Discover how to apply software development best practices to improve performance, productivity, and quality in your Storm projects Who This Book Is For This book is intended for Python developers who want to benefit from Storm’s real-time data processing capabilities. If you are new to Python, you’ll benefit from the attention to key supporting tools and techniques such as automated testing, virtual environments, and logging. If you’re an experienced Python developer, you’ll appreciate the thorough and detailed examples What You Will Learn Install Storm and learn about the prerequisites Get to know the components of a Storm topology and how to control the flow of data between them Ingest Twitter data directly into Storm Use Storm with MongoDB and Redis Build topologies and run them in Storm Use an interactive graphical debugger to debug your topology as it’s running in Storm Test your topology components outside of Storm Configure your topology using YAML In Detail Big data is a trending concept that everyone wants to learn about. With its ability to process all kinds of data in real time, Storm is an important addition to your big data “bag of tricks.” At the same time, Python is one of the fastest-growing programming languages today. It has become a top choice for both data science and everyday application development. Together, Storm and Python enable you to build and deploy real-time big data applications quickly and easily. You will begin with some basic command tutorials to set up storm and learn about its configurations in detail. You will then go through the requirement scenarios to create a Storm cluster. Next, you’ll be provided with an overview of Petrel, followed by an example of Twitter topology and persistence using Redis and MongoDB. Finally, you will build a production-quality Storm topology using development best practices. Style and approach This book takes an easy-to-follow and a practical approach to help you understand all the concepts related to Storm and Python.

Design, build and simulate complex robots using Robot Operating System and master its out-of-the-box functionalities About This Book Develop complex robotic applications using ROS for interfacing robot manipulators and mobile robots with the help of high end robotic sensors Gain insights into autonomous navigation in mobile robot and motion planning in robot manipulators Discover the best practices and troubleshooting solutions everyone needs when working on ROS Who This Book Is For If you are a robotics enthusiast or researcher who wants to learn more about building robot applications using ROS, this book is for you. In order to learn from this book, you should have a basic knowledge of ROS, GNU/Linux, and C++ programming concepts. The book will also be good for programmers who want to explore the advanced features of ROS. What You Will Learn Create a robot model of a Seven-DOF robotic arm and a differential wheeled mobile robot Work with motion planning of a Seven-DOF arm using MoveIt! Implement autonomous navigation in differential drive robots using SLAM and AMCL packages in ROS Dig deep into the ROS Pluginlib, ROS nodelets, and Gazebo plugins Interface I/O boards such as Arduino, Robot sensors, and High end actuators with ROS Simulation and motion planning of ABB and Universal arm using ROS Industrial Explore the ROS framework using its latest version In Detail The area of robotics is gaining huge momentum among corporate people, researchers, hobbyists, and students. The major challenge in robotics is its controlling software. The Robot Operating System (ROS) is a modular software platform to develop generic robotic applications.This book discusses the advanced concepts in robotics and how to program using ROS. It starts with deep overview of the ROS framework, which will give you a clear idea of how ROS really works. During the course of the book, you will learn how to build models of complex robots, and simulate and interface the robot using the ROS MoveIt motion planning library and ROS navigation stacks.After discussing robot manipulation and navigation in robots, you will get to grips with the interfacing I/O boards, sensors, and actuators of ROS. One of the essential ingredients of robots are vision sensors, and an entire chapter is dedicated to the vision sensor, its interfacing in ROS, and its programming.You will discuss the hardware interfacing and simulation of complex robot to ROS and ROS Industrial (Package used for interfacing industrial robots).Finally, you will get to know the best practices to follow when programming using ROS.Style and approach This is a simplified guide to help you learn and master advanced topics in ROS using hands-on examples.

Learn JavaScript test-driven development using popular frameworks and tools About This Book Learn the life cycle of TDD and its importance in real-world application Gain knowledge about popular tools and analyze features, syntax, and how they help in JavaScript testing Implement test-driven programming exercises using the practical code examples Who This Book Is For If you have an intermediate knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and want to learn how and why the test-driven development approach is better for your assignments, then this book is for you. What You Will Learn Basic TDD fundamentals, life cycle, and benefits Become acquainted with the concepts and elements of unit testing and writing basic unit tests for JavaScript Understand the way JsUnit, Qunit, Karma and DalekJs work Use the Jasmine framework Interpret feature detection and devise tests specific to cross-browser compatibility Integrate jsTestDriver with Eclipse and run tests with jsTestDriver Explore re-factoring, adding and notifying observers Understand test-driven development in case of server-side JS In Detail Initially, all processing used to happen on the server-side and simple output was the response to web browsers. Nowadays, there are so many JavaScript frameworks and libraries created that help readers to create charts, animations, simulations, and so on. By the time a project finishes or reaches a stable state, so much JavaScript code has already been written that changing and maintaining it further is tedious. Here comes the importance of automated testing and more specifically, developing all that code in a test-driven environment. Test-driven development is a methodology that makes testing the central part of the design process – before writing code developers decide upon the conditions that code must meet to pass a test. The end goal is to help the readers understand the importance and process of using TDD as a part of development. This book starts with the details about test-driven development, its importance, need, and benefits. Later the book introduces popular tools and frameworks like YUI, Karma, QUnit, DalekJS, JsUnit and goes on to utilize Jasmine, Mocha, Karma for advanced concepts like feature detection, server-side testing, and patterns. We are going to understand, write, and run tests, and further debug our programs. The book concludes with best practices in JavaScript testing. By the end of the book, the readers will know why they should test, how to do it most efficiently, and will have a number of versatile tests (and methods for devising new tests) to get to work immediately. Style and approach Easy-to-follow guide with suitable examples for developing JavaScript code in the test-Driven environment, with popular tools and frameworks. User experience and statements are also included to help readers make a better choice of tool for real-world projects.

Leverage the computational power of Python with more than 60 recipes that arm you with the required skills to make informed business decisions About This Book Want to minimize risk and optimize profits of your businessLearn to create efficient analytical reports with ease using this highly practical, easy-to-follow guide Learn to apply Python for business intelligence tasks—preparing, exploring, analyzing, visualizing and reporting—in order to make more informed business decisions using data at hand Learn to explore and analyze business data, and build business intelligence dashboards with the help of various insightful recipes Who This Book Is For This book is intended for data analysts, managers, and executives with a basic knowledge of Python, who now want to use Python for their BI tasks. If you have a good knowledge and understanding of BI applications and have a “working” system in place, this book will enhance your toolbox. What You Will Learn Install Anaconda, MongoDB, and everything you need to get started with your data analysis Prepare data for analysis by querying cleaning and standardizing data Explore your data by creating a Pandas data frame from MongoDB Gain powerful insights, both statistical and predictive, to make informed business decisions Visualize your data by building dashboards and generating reports Create a complete data processing and business intelligence system In Detail The amount of data produced by businesses and devices is going nowhere but up. In this scenario, the major advantage of Python is that it's a general-purpose language and gives you a lot of flexibility in data structures. Python is an excellent tool for more specialized analysis tasks, and is powered with related libraries to process data streams, to visualize datasets, and to carry out scientific calculations. Using Python for business intelligence (BI) can help you solve tricky problems in one go. Rather than spending day after day scouring Internet forums for “how-to” information, here you’ll find more than 60 recipes that take you through the entire process of creating actionable intelligence from your raw data, no matter what shape or form it’s in. Within the first 30 minutes of opening this book, you’ll learn how to use the latest in Python and NoSQL databases to glean insights from data just waiting to be exploited.< We’ll begin with a quick-fire introduction to Python for BI and show you what problems Python solves. From there, we move on to working with a predefined data set to extract data as per business requirements, using the Pandas library and MongoDB as our storage engine. Next, we will analyze data and perform transformations for BI with Python. Through this, you will gather insightful data that will help you make informed decisions for your business. The final part of the book will show you the most important task of BI—visualizing data by building stunning dashboards using Matplotlib, PyTables, and iPython Notebook. Style and approach This is a step-by-step guide to help you prepare, explore, analyze and report data, written in a conversational tone to make it easy to grasp. Whether you’re new to BI or are looking for a better way to work, you’ll find the knowledge and skills here to get your job done efficiently.

Load, wrangle, and analyze your data using the world's most powerful statistical programming language About This Book Load, manipulate and analyze data from different sources Gain a deeper understanding of fundamentals of applied statistics A practical guide to performing data analysis in practice Who This Book Is For Whether you are learning data analysis for the first time, or you want to deepen the understanding you already have, this book will prove to an invaluable resource. If you are looking for a book to bring you all the way through the fundamentals to the application of advanced and effective analytics methodologies, and have some prior programming experience and a mathematical background, then this is for you. What You Will Learn Navigate the R environment Describe and visualize the behavior of data and relationships between data Gain a thorough understanding of statistical reasoning and sampling Employ hypothesis tests to draw inferences from your data Learn Bayesian methods for estimating parameters Perform regression to predict continuous variables Apply powerful classification methods to predict categorical data Handle missing data gracefully using multiple imputation Identify and manage problematic data points Employ parallelization and Rcpp to scale your analyses to larger data Put best practices into effect to make your job easier and facilitate reproducibility In Detail Frequently the tool of choice for academics, R has spread deep into the private sector and can be found in the production pipelines at some of the most advanced and successful enterprises. The power and domain-specificity of R allows the user to express complex analytics easily, quickly, and succinctly. With over 7,000 user contributed packages, it’s easy to find support for the latest and greatest algorithms and techniques. Starting with the basics of R and statistical reasoning, Data Analysis with R dives into advanced predictive analytics, showing how to apply those techniques to real-world data though with real-world examples. Packed with engaging problems and exercises, this book begins with a review of R and its syntax. From there, get to grips with the fundamentals of applied statistics and build on this knowledge to perform sophisticated and powerful analytics. Solve the difficulties relating to performing data analysis in practice and find solutions to working with “messy data”, large data, communicating results, and facilitating reproducibility. This book is engineered to be an invaluable resource through many stages of anyone’s career as a data analyst. Style and approach Learn data analysis using engaging examples and fun exercises, and with a gentle and friendly but comprehensive "learn-by-doing" approach.

Over 50 hands-on recipes to help you build exhilarating games using the robust GameMaker system About This Book Design and develop game elements that can be used alone or stacked to enhance your gaming experience Explore extensions that can unlock GameMaker: Studio’s true potential to create complex games A recipe-based, easy-to-follow guide to take your GameMaker skills to the next level Who This Book Is For This book is intended for GameMaker: Studio enthusiasts who are looking to add more substance and improve their content. If know your way around the program and have some basic GML skills but want to take them further, then this book is for you. What You Will Learn Set up player control schemes of various types, such as touch controls and a gamepad Create your own physics sandbox Get accustomed to advanced player movement Implement music and 3D sound in your games Utilize GameMaker’s GUI layers to create exciting games Generate adjustable game settings and save systems Add depth to your game with lighting and special effects In Detail GameMaker: Studio started off as a tool capable of creating simple games using a drag-and-drop interface. Since then, it has grown to become a powerful instrument to make release-ready games for PC, Mac, mobile devices, and even current-gen consoles. GameMaker is designed to allow its users to develop games without having to learn any of the complex programming languages such as C++ or Java. It also allows redistribution across multiple platforms. This book teaches you to harness GameMaker: Studio’s full potential and take your game development to new heights. It begins by covering the basics and lays a solid foundation for advanced GameMaker concepts. Moving on, it covers topics such as controls, physics, and advanced movement, employing a strategic approach to the learning curve. The book concludes by providing insights into complex concepts such as the GUI, menus, save system, lighting, particles, and VFX. By the end of the book, you will be able to design games using GameMaker: Studio and implement the same techniques in other games you intend to design. Style and approach A problem-solving guide that teaches you the construction of game elements and mechanics to be integrated in games for rapid prototyping. Each overall topic includes several individual recipes taught through step-by-step instructions, and in-depth follow-up with examples.

Enhance your Solr indexing experience with advanced techniques and the built-in functionalities available in Apache Solr About This Book Learn about distributed indexing and real-time optimization to change index data on fly Index data from various sources and web crawlers using built-in analyzers and tokenizers This step-by-step guide is packed with real-life examples on indexing data Who This Book Is For This book is for developers who want to increase their experience of indexing in Solr by learning about the various index handlers, analyzers, and methods available in Solr. Beginner level Solr development skills are expected. What You Will Learn Get to know the basic features of Solr indexing and the analyzers/tokenizers available Index XML/JSON data in Solr using the HTTP Post tool and CURL command Work with Data Import Handler to index data from a database Use Apache Tika with Solr to index word documents, PDFs, and much more Utilize Apache Nutch and Solr integration to index crawled data from web pages Update indexes in real-time data feeds Discover techniques to index multi-language and distributed data in Solr Combine the various indexing techniques into a real-life working example of an online shopping web application In Detail Apache Solr is a widely used, open source enterprise search server that delivers powerful indexing and searching features. These features help fetch relevant information from various sources and documentation. Solr also combines with other open source tools such as Apache Tika and Apache Nutch to provide more powerful features. This fast-paced guide starts by helping you set up Solr and get acquainted with its basic building blocks, to give you a better understanding of Solr indexing. You’ll quickly move on to indexing text and boosting the indexing time. Next, you’ll focus on basic indexing techniques, various index handlers designed to modify documents, and indexing a structured data source through Data Import Handler. Moving on, you will learn techniques to perform real-time indexing and atomic updates, as well as more advanced indexing techniques such as de-duplication. Later on, we’ll help you set up a cluster of Solr servers that combine fault tolerance and high availability. You will also gain insights into working scenarios of different aspects of Solr and how to use Solr with e-commerce data. By the end of the book, you will be competent and confident working with indexing and will have a good knowledge base to efficiently program elements. Style and approach This fast-paced guide is packed with examples that are written in an easy-to-follow style, and are accompanied by detailed explanation. Working examples are included to help you get better results for your applications.

Build your own sophisticated modular home security system using the popular Raspberry Pi board About This Book This book guides you through building a complete home security system with Raspberry Pi and helps you remotely access it from a mobile device over the Interne It covers the fundamentals of interfacing sensors and cameras with the Raspberry Pi so that you can connect it to the outside world It follows a modular approach so that you can choose the modules and features you want for your customized home security system Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone who is interested in building a modular home security system from scratch using a Raspberry Pi board, basic electronics, sensors, and simple *s. This book is ideal for enthusiastic novice programmers, electronics hobbyists, and engineering professionals. It would be great if you have some basic soldering skills in order to build some of the interface modules. What You Will Learn Understand the concepts behind alarm systems and intrusion detection devices Connect sensors and devices to the on-board digital GPIO ports safely Monitor and control connected devices easily using Bash shell *ing Build an I/O port expander using the I2C bus and connect sensors and anti-tamper circuits Capture and store images using motion detectors and cameras Access and manage your system remotely from your mobile phone Receive intrusion alerts and images through your e-mail Build a sophisticated multi-zone alarm system In Detail The Raspberry Pi is a powerful low-cost credit-card-sized computer, which lends itself perfectly as the controller for a sophisticated home security system. Using the on-board interfaces available, the Raspberry Pi can be expanded to allow the connection of a virtually infinite number of security sensors and devices. The Raspberry Pi has the processing power and interfaces available to build a sophisticated home security system but at a fraction of the cost of commercially available systems. Building a Home Security System with Raspberry Pi starts off by showing you the Raspberry Pi and how to set up the Linux-based operating system. It then guides you through connecting switch sensors and LEDs to the native GPIO connector safely, and how to access them using simple Bash *s. As you dive further in, you’ll learn how to build an input/output expansion board using the I2C interface and power supply, allowing the connection of the large number of sensors needed for a typical home security setup. In the later chapters of the book, we'll look at more sophisticated topics such as adding cameras, remotely accessing the system using your mobile phone, receiving intrusion alerts and images by e-mail, and more. By the end of the book, you will be well-versed with the use of Raspberry Pi to power a home-based security system that sends message alerts whenever it is triggered and will be able to build a truly sophisticated and modular home security system. You will also gain a good understanding of Raspberry Pi's ecosystem and be able to write the functions required for a security system. Style and approach This easy-to-follow guide comprises a series of projects, where every chapter introduces a new concept and at the end of the book, all these concepts are brought together to create an entire home security system. This book features clear diagrams and code every step of the way.

This book is easy to read and fun. The examples and tutorials are short, focused and interesting. You can dip in and get what you want fast. This book is written by VirtualDub enthusiasts for new and intermediate users. It's ideal if you are just starting with video processing and want a powerful and free tool, or if you've already started with VirtualDub and want to take it further.

You can use this book to help you set up and administer a DotNetNuke portal, even if you have a limited knowledge of ASP.NET. You will learn how to setup and administer an example site, stepping through all the tasks to ease your learning. If you are a developer, this book will help you extend the DotNetNuke portal by first helping you understand how the core framework works and then show you how to create custom modules and skins. A rudimentary knowledge of VB.NET programming is assumed, but the emphasis is not on becoming a better VB.NET programmer but on taming DotNetNuke. This book has been written for both the beginner wanting to set up a website and also ASP.NET developers with a grasp of VB.NET and access to Visual Studio .NET. No prior knowledge of DotNetNuke is assumed. The new features of DotNetNuke 3.0 are discussed extensively, so even if you have worked with previous versions of DotNetNuke, you will find something new.

If you are a network or system administrator and you're either using or evaluating SpamAssassin, this book will increase your understanding and transform your productivity.

This book consists of an easy-to-follow, example-based approach that leads you step-by-step through the implementation and customization of each library component.This book is for frontend designers and developers who need to learn how to use jQuery UI quickly. To get the most out of this book, you should have a good working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and should ideally be comfortable using jQuery.

To develop your confidence in F#, this tutorial will first introduce you to simpler tasks such as curve fitting. You will then advance to more complex tasks such as implementing algorithms for trading semi-automation in a practical scenario-based format.If you are a data analyst or a practitioner in quantitative finance, economics, or mathematics and wish to learn how to use F# as a functional programming language, this book is for you. You should have a basic conceptual understanding of financial concepts and models. Elementary knowledge of the .NET framework would also be helpful.