Integrate, deploy, rapidly configure, and successfully manage your own big data-intensive clusters in the cloud using OpenStack Sahara About This Book A fast paced guide to help you utilize the benefits of Sahara in OpenStack to meet the Big Data world of Hadoop. A step by step approach to simplify the complexity of Hadoop configuration, deployment and maintenance. Who This Book Is For This book targets data scientists, cloud developers and Devops Engineers who would like to become proficient with OpenStack Sahara. Ideally, this book is well suitable for readers who are familiars with databases, Hadoop and Spark solutions. Additionally, a basic prior knowledge of OpenStack is expected. The readers should also be familiar with different Linux boxes, distributions and virtualization technology. What You Will Learn Integrate and Install Sahara with OpenStack environment Learn Sahara architecture under the hood Rapidly configure and scale Hadoop clusters on top of OpenStack Explore the Sahara REST API to create, deploy and manage a Hadoop cluster Learn the Elastic Processing Data (EDP) facility to execute jobs in clusters from Sahara Cover other Hadoop stable plugins existing supported by Sahara Discover different features provided by Sahara for Hadoop provisioning and deployment Learn how to troubleshoot OpenStack Sahara issues In Detail The Sahara project is a module that aims to simplify the building of data processing capabilities on OpenStack. The goal of this book is to provide a focused, fast paced guide to installing, configuring, and getting started with integrating Hadoop with OpenStack, using Sahara. The book should explain to users how to deploy their data-intensive Hadoop and Spark clusters on top of OpenStack. It will also cover how to use the Sahara REST API, how to develop applications for Elastic Data Processing on Openstack, and setting up hadoop or spark clusters on Openstack. Style and approach This book takes a step by step approach teaching how to integrate, deploy and manage data using OpenStack Sahara. It will teach how the OpenStack Sahara is beneficial by simplifying the complexity of Hadoop configuration, deployment and maintenance.

A handy guide that covers the most essential topics for Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification in an easy-to-understand format About This Book Get to grips with the fundamentals of Force.com to pass the certification exam with flying colors Create Force.com applications, automate business processes, and manage data operations to be a successful Salesforce.com Certified Force.com app builder A step-by-step guide that covers the most essential topics for the Platform App Builder Certification in an easy-to-understand format Who This Book Is For Salesforce beginners who need to prepare for the Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification exam will benefit from this book. This book is ideal for developers and admins who are new to Salesforce CRM and the Force.com platform. It is recommended that users have some basic programming knowledge and are familiar with salesforce. By the end of the book, you will be ready to appear for the exam and develop various applications on the cloud platform. What You Will Learn Learn the basics of the force.com cloud platform Learn to build objects that align with your business Understand the process of building an application on force.com platform Kick-start your certification journey in basic- easy-to-follow guide Focus on important topics that help you accomplish your certification goals Learn to secure your application with the Salesforce security model Manipulate and process large amount of data using the data tools Prepare for the exam with sample mock questions In Detail The Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder exam is for individuals who want to demonstrate their skills and knowledge in designing, building, and implementing custom applications using the declarative customization capabilities of Force.com. This book will build a strong foundation in Force.com to prepare you for the platform app builder certification exam. It will guide you through designing the interface while introducing the Lightning Process Builder. Next, we will implement business logic using various point and click features of Force.com. We will learn to manage data and create reports and dashboards. We will then learn to administer the force.com application by configuring the object-level, field-level, and record-level security. By the end of this book, you will be completely equipped to take the Platform App Builder certification exam. Style and approach Simple and to-the-point examples that can be tried out in your developer org. A practical book for professionals who want to take the Salesforce Platform App Builder Certification exam. Sample questions for every topic in an exam pattern to help you prepare better, and tips to get things started. Full of screen-shots, diagrams, and clear step-by-step instructions that cover the entire syllabus for the exam.

Design and develop high performing programs with Julia About This Book Learn to code high reliability and high performance programs Stand out from the crowd by developing code that runs faster than your peers’ codes This book is intended for developers who are interested in high performance technical programming. Who This Book Is For This book is for beginner and intermediate Julia programmers who are interested in high performance technical computing. You will have a basic familiarity with Julia syntax, and have written some small programs in the language. What You Will Learn Discover the secrets behind Julia’s speed Get a sense of the possibilities and limitations of Julia’s performance Analyze the performance of Julia programs Measure the time and memory taken by Julia programs Create fast machine code using Julia’s type information Define and call functions without compromising Julia’s performance Understand number types in Julia Use Julia arrays to write high performance code Get an overview of Julia’s distributed computing capabilities In Detail Julia is a high performance, high-level dynamic language designed to address the requirements of high-level numerical and scientific computing. Julia brings solutions to the complexities faced by developers while developing elegant and high performing code. Julia High Performance will take you on a journey to understand the performance characteristics of your Julia programs, and enables you to utilize the promise of near C levels of performance in Julia. You will learn to analyze and measure the performance of Julia code, understand how to avoid bottlenecks, and design your program for the highest possible performance. In this book, you will also see how Julia uses type information to achieve its performance goals, and how to use multuple dispatch to help the compiler to emit high performance machine code. Numbers and their arrays are obviously the key structures in scientific computing – you will see how Julia’s design makes them fast. The last chapter will give you a taste of Julia’s distributed computing capabilities. Style and approach This is a hands-on manual that will give you good explanations about the important concepts related to Julia programming.

A light but powerful way to build dynamic real-time applications using ReactJS About This Book Learn how to develop powerful JavaScript applications using ReactJS Integrate a React-based app with an external API (Facebook login) while using React components, with the Facebook developer app Implement the Reactive paradigm to build stateless and asynchronous apps with React Who This Book Is For This book is for any front-end web or mobile-app developer who wants to learn ReactJS. Knowledge of basic JavaScript will give you a good head start with the book. What You Will Learn Understand the ReactJS basics through an overview Install and create your first React component Refactor the ReactJS component using JSX Integrate your React application with the Facebook login and Graph API, then fetch data from your liked pages in Facebook and display them in a browser Handle UI elements events with React, respond to users input, and create stateful components Use some core lifecycle events for integration and find out about ES6 syntaxes in the React world Understand the FLUX architecture and create an application using FLUX with React Make a component more reusable with mixins and validation helpers and structure your components properly Explore techniques to test your ReactJS code Deploy your code using webpack and Gulp In Detail ReactJS, popularly known as the V (view) of the MVC architecture, was developed by the Facebook and Instagram developers. It follows a unidirectional data flow, virtual DOM, and DOM difference that are generously leveraged in order to increase the performance of the UI. Getting Started with React will help you implement the Reactive paradigm to build stateless and asynchronous apps with React. We will begin with an overview of ReactJS and its evolution over the years, followed by building a simple React component. We will then build the same react component with JSX syntax to demystify its usage. You will see how to configure the Facebook Graph API, get your likes list, and render it using React. Following this, we will break the UI into components and you’ll learn how to establish communication between them and respond to users input/events in order to have the UI reflect their state. You’ll also get to grips with the ES6 syntaxes. Moving ahead, we will delve into the FLUX and its architecture, which is used to build client-side web applications and complements React’s composable view components by utilizing a unidirectional data flow. Towards the end, you’ll find out how to make your components reusable, and test and deploy them into a production environment. Finally, we’ll briefly touch on other topics such as React on the server side, Redux and some advanced concepts. Style and approach The book follows a step-by-step, practical, tutorial approach with examples that explain the key concepts of ReactJS. Each topic is sequentially explained and contextually placed to give sufficient details of ReactJS.

A fast-paced administrator's guide to Alfresco from the administration, managing, and high-level design perspectives About This Book Understand system capabilities in order to make informed and appropriate decisions about its administration Manage users, groups, email, file systems, and transformer availability using Alfresco Use Alfresco to capture and efficiently manage information about repositories, servers, and statistics Who This Book Is For The target audience would be users with a basic knowledge of Content Management System, and also users who want to understand Alfresco from the administration and high-level design perspectives. What You Will Learn Understand Alfresco's architecture and important building blocks Learn to install Alfresco on various application servers such as Tomcat , JBoss, and WebLogic. Become familiar with various configurations in Alfresco such as databases, filesystems, email, and audits Administrate Alfresco using the Explorer Admin Console, Share Admin Console, and Workflow Admin Console Understand how to integrate LDAP and Active Directory with Alfresco for centralized user management Learn how Alfresco environments can be clustered for high availability Fully understand how Alfresco stores content and easily retrieve any information from Alfresco Monitor and manage Alfresco systems in production In Detail Alfresco is an open source Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system for Windows and Linux-like operating systems. The year-on-year growth of business connections, contacts, and communications is expanding enterprise boundaries more than ever before. Alfresco enables organizations to collaborate more effectively, improve business process efficiency, and ensure information governance. The basic purpose of Alfresco is to help users to capture and manage information in a better way. It helps you capture, organize, and share binary files. This book will cover the basic building blocks of an Alfresco system, how the components fit together, and the information required to build a system architecture. This book will also focus on security aspects of Alfresco. such as authentication, troubleshooting, managing permissions, and so on. It will also focus on managing content and storage, indexing and searches, setting up clustering for high availability, and so forth. Style and approach A step-by-step guide to understanding the Alfresco system and making informed and appropriate decisions about administration.

Build effective applications by applying Odoo development best practices About This Book Each recipe stands by itself as much as possible, so that you can jump straight into the topics you prefer The recipes included cover all the major development areas of Odoo and the most important techniques explained through real-life projects From seasoned authors, learn the tricks of becoming a productive developer with the Odoo framework Who This Book Is For If you are a Python developer who wants to learn or consolidate your Odoo development skills, then this book is for you! Some experience with the JavaScript programming language and web development is required to fully benefit from the front-end chapters. What You Will Learn Install and manage Odoo environments and instances Use Models to define your application's data structures Add business logic to your applications Implement automated tests and debug Odoo apps Use back-end views to create a user interface Get to know about the access security model and internationalization features Develop front-end website features Extend the web client with new widgets and features In Detail Odoo is a full-featured open source ERP with a focus on extensibility. The flexibility and sustainability of open source is also a key selling point of Odoo. It is built on a powerful framework for rapid application development, both for back-end applications and front-end websites. The book starts by covering Odoo installation and administration, and provides a gentle introduction to application development. It then dives deep into several of the areas that an experienced developer will need to use. You’ll learn implement business logic, adapt the UI, and extend existing features. Style and Approach These practical and easy-to-follow recipes are presented step-by-step, with dozens of hands-on recipes to boost your Odoo skills. This book can also be used as a reference guide for your daily work.

Secure your Linux machines and keep them secured with the help of exciting recipes About This Book This book provides code-intensive discussions with detailed recipes that help you understand better and learn faster. More than 50 hands-on recipes to create and administer a secure Linux system locally as well as on a network Enhance file system security and local and remote user authentication by using various security tools and different versions of Linux for different tasks Who This Book Is For Practical Linux Security Cookbook is intended for all those Linux users who already have knowledge of Linux File systems and administration. You should be familiar with basic Linux commands. Understanding Information security and its risks to a Linux system is also helpful in understanding the recipes more easily. However, even if you are unfamiliar with Information security, you will be able to easily follow and understand the recipes discussed. Since Linux Security Cookbook follows a practical approach, following the steps is very easy. What You Will Learn Learn about various vulnerabilities and exploits in relation to Linux systems Configure and build a secure kernel and test it Learn about file permissions and security and how to securely modify files Explore various ways to authenticate local users while monitoring their activities. Authenticate users remotely and securely copy files on remote systems Review various network security methods including firewalls using iptables and TCP Wrapper Explore various security tools including Port Sentry, Squid Proxy, Shorewall, and many more Understand Bash vulnerability/security and patch management In Detail With the growing popularity of Linux, more and more administrators have started moving to the system to create networks or servers for any task. This also makes Linux the first choice for any attacker now. Due to the lack of information about security-related attacks, administrators now face issues in dealing with these attackers as quickly as possible. Learning about the different types of Linux security will help create a more secure Linux system. Whether you are new to Linux administration or experienced, this book will provide you with the skills to make systems more secure. With lots of step-by-step recipes, the book starts by introducing you to various threats to Linux systems. You then get to walk through customizing the Linux kernel and securing local files. Next you will move on to manage user authentication locally and remotely and also mitigate network attacks. Finally, you will learn to patch bash vulnerability and monitor system logs for security. With several screenshots in each example, the book will supply a great learning experience and help you create more secure Linux systems. Style and approach An easy-to-follow cookbook with step-by-step practical recipes covering the various Linux security administration tasks. Each recipe has screenshots, wherever needed, to make understanding more easy.

Over 60 practical recipes on data exploration and analysis About This Book Clean dirty data, extract accurate information, and explore the relationships between variables Forecast the output of an electric plant and the water flow of American rivers using pandas, NumPy, Statsmodels, and scikit-learn Find and extract the most important features from your dataset using the most efficient Python libraries Who This Book Is For If you are a beginner or intermediate-level professional who is looking to solve your day-to-day, analytical problems with Python, this book is for you. Even with no prior programming and data analytics experience, you will be able to finish each recipe and learn while doing so. What You Will Learn Read, clean, transform, and store your data usng Pandas and OpenRefine Understand your data and explore the relationships between variables using Pandas and D3.js Explore a variety of techniques to classify and cluster outbound marketing campaign calls data of a bank using Pandas, mlpy, NumPy, and Statsmodels Reduce the dimensionality of your dataset and extract the most important features with pandas, NumPy, and mlpy Predict the output of a power plant with regression models and forecast water flow of American rivers with time series methods using pandas, NumPy, Statsmodels, and scikit-learn Explore social interactions and identify fraudulent activities with graph theory concepts using NetworkX and Gephi Scrape Internet web pages using urlib and BeautifulSoup and get to know natural language processing techniques to classify movies ratings using NLTK Study simulation techniques in an example of a gas station with agent-based modeling In Detail Data analysis is the process of systematically applying statistical and logical techniques to describe and illustrate, condense and recap, and evaluate data. Its importance has been most visible in the sector of information and communication technologies. It is an employee asset in almost all economy sectors. This book provides a rich set of independent recipes that dive into the world of data analytics and modeling using a variety of approaches, tools, and algorithms. You will learn the basics of data handling and modeling, and will build your skills gradually toward more advanced topics such as simulations, raw text processing, social interactions analysis, and more. First, you will learn some easy-to-follow practical techniques on how to read, write, clean, reformat, explore, and understand your data—arguably the most time-consuming (and the most important) tasks for any data scientist. In the second section, different independent recipes delve into intermediate topics such as classification, clustering, predicting, and more. With the help of these easy-to-follow recipes, you will also learn techniques that can easily be expanded to solve other real-life problems such as building recommendation engines or predictive models. In the third section, you will explore more advanced topics: from the field of graph theory through natural language processing, discrete choice modeling to simulations. You will also get to expand your knowledge on identifying fraud origin with the help of a graph, scrape Internet websites, and classify movies based on their reviews. By the end of this book, you will be able to efficiently use the vast array of tools that the Python environment has to offer. Style and approach This hands-on recipe guide is divided into three sections that tackle and overcome real-world data modeling problems faced by data analysts/scientist in their everyday work. Each independent recipe is written in an easy-to-follow and step-by-step fashion.

Over 50 practical and useful recipes to help you perform data analysis with R by unleashing every native RStudio feature About This Book 54 useful and practical tasks to improve working systems Includes optimizing performance and reliability or uptime, reporting, system management tools, interfacing to standard data ports, and so on Offers 10-15 real-life, practical improvements for each user type Who This Book Is For This book is targeted at R statisticians, data scientists, and R programmers. Readers with R experience who are looking to take the plunge into statistical computing will find this Cookbook particularly indispensable. What You Will Learn Familiarize yourself with the latest advanced R console features Create advanced and interactive graphics Manage your R project and project files effectively Perform reproducible statistical analyses in your R projects Use RStudio to design predictive models for a specific domain-based application Use RStudio to effectively communicate your analyses results and even publish them to a blog Put yourself on the frontiers of data science and data monetization in R with all the tools that are needed to effectively communicate your results and even transform your work into a data product In Detail The requirement of handling complex datasets, performing unprecedented statistical analysis, and providing real-time visualizations to businesses has concerned statisticians and analysts across the globe. RStudio is a useful and powerful tool for statistical analysis that harnesses the power of R for computational statistics, visualization, and data science, in an integrated development environment. This book is a collection of recipes that will help you learn and understand RStudio features so that you can effectively perform statistical analysis and reporting, code editing, and R development. The first few chapters will teach you how to set up your own data analysis project in RStudio, acquire data from different data sources, and manipulate and clean data for analysis and visualization purposes. You'll get hands-on with various data visualization methods using ggplot2, and you will create interactive and multidimensional visualizations with D3.js. Additional recipes will help you optimize your code; implement various statistical models to manage large datasets; perform text analysis and predictive analysis; and master time series analysis, machine learning, forecasting; and so on. In the final few chapters, you'll learn how to create reports from your analytical application with the full range of static and dynamic reporting tools that are available in RStudio so that you can effectively communicate results and even transform them into interactive web applications. Style and approach RStudio is an open source Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the R platform. The R programming language is used for statistical computing and graphics, which RStudio facilitates and enhances through its integrated environment. This Cookbook will help you learn to write better R code using the advanced features of the R programming language using RStudio. Readers will learn advanced R techniques to compute the language and control object evaluation within R functions. Some of the contents are: Accessing an API with R Substituting missing values by interpolation Performing data filtering activities R Statistical implementation for Geospatial data Developing shiny add-ins to expand RStudio functionalities Using GitHub with RStudio Modelling a recommendation engine with R Using R Markdown for static and dynamic reporting Curating a blog through RStudio Advanced statistical modelling with R and RStudio

Learn the art of regression analysis with PythonAbout This BookBecome competent at implementing regression analysis in PythonSolve some of the complex data science problems related to predicting outcomesGet to grips with various types of regression for effective data analysisWho This Book Is ForThe book targets Python developers, with a basic understanding of data science, statistics, and math, who want to learn how to do regression analysis on a dataset. It is beneficial if you have some knowledge of statistics and data science.What You Will LearnFormat a dataset for regression and evaluate its performanceApply multiple linear regression to real-world problemsLearn to classify training pointsCreate an observation matrix, using different techniques of data analysis and cleaningApply several techniques to decrease (and eventually fix) any overfitting problemLearn to scale linear models to a big dataset and deal with incremental dataIn DetailRegression is the process of learning relationships between inputs and continuous outputs from example data, which enables predictions for novel inputs. There are many kinds of regression algorithms, and the aim of this book is to explain which is the right one to use for each set of problems and how to prepare real-world data for it. With this book you will learn to define a simple regression problem and evaluate its performance. The book will help you understand how to properly parse a dataset, clean it, and create an output matrix optimally built for regression. You will begin with a simple regression algorithm to solve some data science problems and then progress to more complex algorithms. The book will enable you to use regression models to predict outcomes and take critical business decisions. Through the book, you will gain knowledge to use Python for building fast better linear models and to apply the results in Python or in any computer language you prefer.Style and approach This is a practical tutorial-based book. You will be given an example problem and then supplied with the relevant code and how to walk through it. The details are provided in a step by step manner, followed by a thorough explanation of the math underlying the solution. This approach will help you leverage your own data using the same techniques.

Over 100 effective recipes to help you design, implement, and manage the software-defined and massively scalable Ceph storage systemAbout This BookImplement a Ceph cluster successfully and gain deep insights into its best practicesHarness the abilities of experienced storage administrators and architects, and run your own software-defined storage systemThis comprehensive, step-by-step guide will show you how to build and manage Ceph storage in production environmentWho This Book Is ForThis book is aimed at storage and cloud system engineers, system administrators, and technical architects who are interested in building software-defined storage solutions to power their cloud and virtual infrastructure. If you have basic knowledge of GNU/Linux and storage systems, with no experience of software defined storage solutions and Ceph, but eager to learn this book is for you.What You Will LearnUnderstand, install, configure, and manage the Ceph storage systemGet to grips with performance tuning and benchmarking, and gain practical tips to run Ceph in productionIntegrate Ceph with OpenStack Cinder, Glance, and nova componentsDeep dive into Ceph object storage, including s3, swift, and keystone integrationBuild a Dropbox-like file sync and share service and Ceph federated gateway setupGain hands-on experience with Calamari and VSM for cluster monitoringFamiliarize yourself with Ceph operations such as maintenance, monitoring, and troubleshootingUnderstand advanced topics including erasure coding, CRUSH map, cache pool, and system maintenanceIn DetailCeph is a unified, distributed storage system designed for excellent performance, reliability, and scalability. This cutting-edge technology has been transforming the storage industry, and is evolving rapidly as a leader in software-defined storage space, extending full support to cloud platforms such as Openstack and Cloudstack, including virtualization platforms. It is the most popular storage backend for Openstack, public, and private clouds, so is the first choice for a storage solution. Ceph is backed by RedHat and is developed by a thriving open source community of individual developers as well as several companies across the globe.This book takes you from a basic knowledge of Ceph to an expert understanding of the most advanced features, walking you through building up a production-grade Ceph storage cluster and helping you develop all the skills you need to plan, deploy, and effectively manage your Ceph cluster. Beginning with the basics, you’ll create a Ceph cluster, followed by block, object, and file storage provisioning. Next, you’ll get a step-by-step tutorial on integrating it with OpenStack and building a Dropbox-like object storage solution. We’ll also take a look at federated architecture and CephFS, and you’ll dive into Calamari and VSM for monitoring the Ceph environment. You’ll develop expert knowledge on troubleshooting and benchmarking your Ceph storage cluster. Finally, you’ll get to grips with the best practices to operate Ceph in a production environment.Style and approach This step-by-step guide is filled with practical tutorials, making complex scenarios easy to understand.

Discover exciting and fun projects by building brilliant applications for the Apple WatchAbout This BookExplore the opportunities opened up to developers by Apple’s latest device: the Apple WatchBe a crackerjack at developing software across a broad range of watch app categoriesFrom an eminent author, master all stages of development, from the first stage through to a completed projectWho This Book Is ForIf you have some basic knowledge of programming in Swift and are looking for the best way to get started with Apple Watch development, this book is just the right one for you!What You Will LearnUnderstand the concept of the Apple Watch as an autonomous device as well as it being paired with the iPhoneGet your app up and runningDesign exciting, inspiring, and attractive layouts for your appsMake your user interface more engaging using images and animationEnable your Watch and iPhone apps to transport and share dataLeverage the feature-rich set of WatchKit technologies provided by AppleConnect your apps to the InternetSubmit your app to the App StoreIn DetailWith Apple’s eagerly anticipated entry into the wearable arena, the field is wide open for a new era of app development. The Apple Watch is one of the most important technologies of our time.This easy-to-understand book takes beginners on a delightful journey of discovering the features available to the developer, right up to the completion of medium-level projects ready for App Store submission. It provides the fastest way to develop real-world apps for the Apple Watch by teaching you the concepts of Watch UI, visual haptic and audio, message and data exchange between watch and phone, Web communication, and finally Visual, haptic as well as audio feedback for users.By the end of this book, you will have developed at least four fully functioning apps for deployment on watchOS 2.Style and approachThis is a step-by-step guide to developing apps for the Apple Watch with the help of screenshots and fully coded working examples.

Understand, train, and be ready to develop 3D Web applications/video games using the Babylon.js framework, even for beginners About This Book Understand the basics of 3D (along with the theory) before practicing Each mini-project provides previous features, alongside the new feature you are learning, to supply the examples Learn from the best of the best, a developer at Microsoft, France Who This Book Is For Babylon.JS Essentials is intended for developers who want to enter the world of 3D development for the Web, or developers who want to add the Babylon.js framework to their skill set. The notion of Oriented Object Programming would be helpful to understand the architecture of the Babylon.js framework. Also, a familiarity with Web development would be useful, to understand the principles used. What You Will Learn Understand what the TypeScript language is and its benefits (compared to JavaScript) in large projects such as 3D engines Learn the basics of 3D using Babylon.js without too much theory but with an emphasis on practice, for a better understanding of the architecture Know the usage of Material—a fundamental principle of 3D engines in Babylon.js—and then customize the appearance of 3D objects Integrate collisions and physics in gameplay. Understand the notion of impostor for physics simulation Manage, create, and spatialize audio tracks in 3D scenes Go further with the Babylon.js framework to create actions on events Create rendering effects provided by the Babylon.js framework, such as post-processes In Detail Are you familiar with HTML5Do you want to build exciting games and Web applicationsThen explore the exciting world of game and Web development with one of the best frameworks out there: Babylon.JS. Starting from the beginning, the book introduces the required basics for 3D development and the knowledge you need to use the Babylon.js framework. It focuses on the simplicity provided by Babylon.js and uses a combination of theory and practice. All the chapters are provided with example files ready to run; each example file provides the previously learned features of the framework. Finally, developers will be ready to easily understand new features added to the framework in the future. Style and approach The book is a comprehensive guide packed with ready-to-run examples with a mix of theory and practice.

Create responsive and intelligent game AI using Blueprints in Unreal Engine 4 About This Book Understand and apply your Game AI better through various projects such as adding randomness and probability, and introducing movement Configure and debug Game AI logic using multiple methodologies Bridge the gap between your knowledge and Game AI in Unreal Engine 4 Who This Book Is For This book is for programmers and artists who want to expand their knowledge of Game AI in relation to Unreal Engine 4. You are recommended to have some experience of exploring Unreal Engine 4 prior to this book because we jump straight into Game AI. What You Will Learn Understand the fundamental components of Game AI within Unreal Engine 4 Skillfully introduce Game AI within Unreal Engine 4 Configure, customize, and assign Navigation and AI components to your pawn Create, debug, and analyze Game AI behavior Design responsive Game AI using the Behavior Tree methodology Create smart objects designed to interact with AI Utilize advanced AI features within your project to maximize the user experience In Detail Unreal Engine is a powerful game development engine that provides rich functionalities to create 2D and 3D games. It is one of the three big game engines used, alongside Unity and CryEngine. Developers have the opportunity to build cross-platform mobile and desktop games from scratch. With Blueprints in Unreal Engine 4, you’re able to fully leverage the visual aid that Behavior Trees are built on. Rarely has there been an opportunity to prototype powerful Game AI and have immediate control over constructing, *ing, and viewing the response in a live gaming environment. This book will show you how to apply artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to your Unreal Script using C++ as your *ing language through multiple projects. With the knowledge gained through this book, you’ll be able to leverage the benefits of Unreal Engine 4. We’ll start with an introduction to AI, and you’ll learn how it is applied to gaming. Then you’ll jump right in and create a simple AI bot and apply basic behaviors to allow it to move randomly. Furthermore, you will get to know the difference between an AI Controller and a Player Controller. As you progress, you’ll find out how to implement randomness and probability traits. Using Navmesh, we will impart navigation components such as Character Movement, MoveTo Nodes, Settings, and World Objects, and implement behavior trees. You will see different techniques to sense the environment and create your own sensory system, and will implement Steering Behaviors, Path Following, Avoidance, and Projectiles. At the end of the book, we will troubleshoot any issues that might crop up while building the entire game. Style and approach This easy-to-follow project-based guide throws you directly into the excitement of Game AI in an approachable and comprehensive manner.

Customize and automate Google Applications using Apps Script About This Book Gain insight into customizing and automating Google applications with JavaScript Create add-ons for Google Sheets, Docs, or Forms; automate your workflow; integrate with external APIs; and more. A step-by-step guide to building real-world solutions Who This Book Is For Newbies to google apps * but having practical experience in Java*. What You Will Learn Learn about the Google Apps * platform and work with *s to develop Google apps Create custom menus and dialogs Parse and send emails Generate Google calendar events Build Translator and RSS reader applications Develop interactive web pages Design interactive web-forms Form a workflow application In Detail Google Apps Script is a cloud-based *ing language based on JavaScript to customize and automate Google applications. Apps Script makes it easy to create and publish add-ons in an online store for Google Sheets, Docs, and Forms. It serves as one single platform to build, code, and ultimately share your App on the Web store. This book begins by covering the basics of the Google application platform and goes on to empower you to automate most of the Google applications. You will learn the concepts of creating a menu, sending mails, building interactive web pages, and implementing all these techniques to develop an interactive Web page as a form to submit sheets You will be guided through all these tasks with plenty of screenshots and code snippets that will ensure your success in customizing and automating various Google applications This guide is an invaluable tutorial for beginners who intend to develop the skills to automate and customize Google applications Style and approach An easy-to-follow yet comprehensive guide, filled with many code examples and screenshots illustrating various Google Apps *s.

Absorb the knowledge required to utilize, manage, and deploy RethinkDB using Node.js About This Book Make the most of this open source, scalable database—RethinkDB —to ease the construction of web applications Run powerful queries using ReQL, which is the most convenient language to manipulate JSON documents with Develop fully-fledged real-time web apps using Node.js and RethinkDB Who This Book Is For Getting Started with RethinkDB is ideal for developers who are new to RethinkDB and need a practical understanding to start working with it. No previous knowledge of database programming is required, although a basic knowledge of JavaScript or Node.js would be helpful. What You Will Learn Download and install the database on your system Configure RethinkDB’s settings and start using the web interface Import data into RethinkDB Run queries using the ReQL language Create shards, replicas, and RethinkDB clusters Use an index to improve database performance Get to know all the RethinkDB deployment techniques In Detail RethinkDB is a high-performance document-oriented database with a unique set of features. This increasingly popular NoSQL database is used to develop real-time web applications and, together with Node.js, it can be used to easily deploy them to the cloud with very little difficulty. Getting Started with RethinkDB is designed to get you working with RethinkDB as quickly as possible. Starting with the installation and configuration process, you will learn how to start importing data into the database and run simple queries using the intuitive ReQL query language. After successfully running a few simple queries, you will be introduced to other topics such as clustering and sharding. You will get to know how to set up a cluster of RethinkDB nodes and spread database load across multiple machines. We will then move on to advanced queries and optimization techniques. You will discover how to work with RethinkDB from a Node.js environment and find out all about deployment techniques. Finally, we’ll finish by working on a fully-fledged example that uses the Node.js framework and advanced features such as Changefeeds to develop a real-time web application. Style and approach This is a step-by-step book that provides a practical approach to RethinkDB programming, and is explained in a conversational, easy-to-follow style.

Create engaging apps with fragments to provide a rich user interface that dynamically adapts to the individual characteristics of your customers’ tablets and smartphones About This Book From an eminent author comes a book that will help you create engaging apps that dynamically adapt to individual device characteristics The only book that includes the latest fragment-oriented features and their role in Material design This book provides code-intensive discussions and detailed examples that help you understand better and learn faster. Who This Book Is For This book is for developers with a basic understanding of Android programming who would like to improve the appearance and usability of their applications by creating a more interactive user experience and dynamically adaptive UIs; providing better support for tablets and smartphones in a single app; and reducing the complexity of managing app UIs. What You Will Learn Learn the role and capabilities of fragments Use Android Studio's fragment-oriented features Create an app UI that works effectively on smartphones and tablets Manage the creation and life cycle of fragments Dynamically manage fragments using the FragmentTransaction class Learn the application design for communicating between fragments Leverage fragments when implementing applications that take advantage of the latest features of Material Design In Detail Today’s users expect mobile apps to be dynamic and highly interactive, with rich navigation features. These same apps must look fantastic whether running on a medium-resolution smartphone or high-resolution tablet. Fragments provide the toolset we need to meet these user expectations by enabling us to build our applications out of adaptable components that take advantage of the rich capabilities of each individual device and automatically adapt to their differences. This book looks at the impact fragments have on Android UI design and their role in both simplifying many common UI challenges and in providing best practices for incorporating rich UI behaviors. We look closely at the roll of fragment transactions and how to work with the Android back stack. Leveraging this understanding, we explore several specialized fragment-related classes such as ListFragment and DialogFragment. We then go on to discuss how to implement rich navigation features such as swipe-based screen browsing, and the role of fragments when developing applications that take advantage of the latest aspects of Material Design. You will learn everything you need to provide dynamic, multi-screen UIs within a single activity, and the rich UI features demanded by today’s mobile users. Style and approach A fast-paced learning guide that gives a hands-on, code-intensive approach with a focus on real-world applications.

Build your own secure enterprise or home penetration testing lab to dig into the various hacking techniques About This Book Design and build an extendable penetration testing lab with wireless access suitable for home and enterprise use Fill the lab with various components and customize them according to your own needs and skill level Secure your lab from unauthorized access and external attacks Who This Book Is For If you are a beginner or a security professional who wishes to learn to build a home or enterprise lab environment where you can safely practice penetration testing techniques and improve your hacking skills, then this book is for you. No prior penetration testing experience is required, as the lab environment is suitable for various skill levels and is used for a wide range of techniques from basic to advance. Whether you are brand new to online learning or you are a seasoned expert, you will be able to set up your own hacking playground depending on your tasks. What You Will Learn Determine your needs and choose the appropriate lab components for them Build a virtual or hardware lab network Imitate an enterprise network and prepare intentionally vulnerable software and services Secure wired and wireless access to your lab Choose a penetration testing framework according to your needs Arm your own wireless hacking platform Get to know the methods to create a strong defense mechanism for your system In Detail Starting with the basics of wireless networking and its associated risks, we will guide you through the stages of creating a penetration testing lab with wireless access and preparing your wireless penetration testing machine. This book will guide you through configuring hardware and virtual network devices, filling the lab network with applications and security solutions, and making it look and work like a real enterprise network. The resulting lab protected with WPA-Enterprise will let you practice most of the attack techniques used in penetration testing projects. Along with a review of penetration testing frameworks, this book is also a detailed manual on preparing a platform for wireless penetration testing. By the end of this book, you will be at the point when you can practice, and research without worrying about your lab environment for every task. Style and approach This is an easy-to-follow guide full of hands-on examples and recipes. Each topic is explained thoroughly and supplies you with the necessary configuration settings. You can pick the recipes you want to follow depending on the task you need to perform.

Monitor and automate complex JavaScript tasks and processes by obtaining a practical understanding of Grunt About This Book Gain a solid knowledge of Grunt to achieve better process management by improving consistency, productivity, reliability, and quality of code Install, configure, and use plugins into your project with this hands-on guide This step-by-step tutorial will walk you through practical examples of workflow automation Who This Book Is For If you are a JavaScript developer and want to learn project monitoring and automation using Grunt, then this book is for you. Basic knowledge of Node.js and Angular.js is assumed. However, no previous experience using Grunt.js is required. What You Will Learn Install and configure Grunt and its dependencies such as Node.js and Node Package Manager (NPM) Create a sample application using Angular.JS Configure plugins to perform various tasks that will benefit your project Explore the task-specific methods available through the Grunt API such as configuration, externals, events, and logging Set up tasks to automate the build process of the simple contact application Build, test, and refine a sample project Get general tips, tricks, and troubleshooting strategies to identify and solve common issues in Grunt Advance your knowledge of Grunt with concepts such as configuration variables and test automation In Detail With the increasing focus on task automation, the Grunt task runner is a vast platform that allows you to incorporate automation into your workflows. At the outset, you will learn how to use Node.js and NMP through an example. You will then find out how to build a sample app and the development environment for it. You will further delve into the implementation of Grunt plugins and the configuration of Grunt tasks. Furthermore, you will explore the various methods and packages for workflow automation. The final chapter will cover some advanced concepts, such as configuration variables and how to create a Grunt plugin. By the end of the book, you will have gained the fundamentals of Grunt and progressed through advanced concepts, including building a Grunt plugin. Style and approach This book is an easy-to-follow, step-by-step tutorial that provides explanations and examples of deploying Grunt from scratch.

Over 90 hands-on recipes to help you create digital comics from page setup to exporting the final product About This Book Design creative and custom digital comics with the perfection equivalent of pen-and-paper drawings Explore the latest features from Manga Studio EX 5 such as custom brush effects, layers, masks, 3D objects, panels, and multiple-page story layout A pragmatic manual with engaging recipes and attractive screenshots that make comic creation fun and easy Who This Book Is For This book is intended for competent comic artists working on Manga Studio who want to create more attractive comics by using powerful tools and features from software for digital comic creation. What You Will Learn Create story files and custom pages for any Web or publishing project Customize brushes for special ink effects, hatching and cross-hatching, and much more Work with vector images in Manga Studio EX 5 Use the new Symmetry ruler and the new Line tools to create your illustrations faster and more efficiently Make and save custom screentones, and add them to your comic pages Punch up your illustrations with color palettes and special effects Add 3D models to create or accentuate your comic scenes Finish a project by exporting it for the Web or for a printed collection In Detail Manga Studio is a software application for the digital creation of comics and manga. Manga Studio EX 5 has all the features of Manga Studio 5, professional story creation tools, and other special features that make it the ultimate illustration tool for serious comic, manga, and graphic artists. Made specifically for comic artists and illustrators, it has some of the most powerful digital art creation tools available. From digital perspective rulers to a library of screentones, Manga Studio 5 works for the artist with an intuitive, customizable interface and tools. With Manga Studio EX 5, you can create custom page templates, save commonly used designs, make custom brushes, mimic traditional media, pose 3D objects directly on the art canvas, and export all of your comic pages for print or the Web. The book starts with everything you need to know to set up custom pages for your comic or Manga project. These recipes will take you all the way through to exporting your illustrations for print or to display them on the Web. You will learn how to create custom brushes that you will use for inking, or for repetitive tasks such as drawing foliage or rubble. Next, you will move on to understanding Layer Modes and Layer Masks. Then, you'll learn how to finish up your illustrations with color, screentones, special effects, and 3D objects. Finally, you will be taught to export your hard work and share it with the world, either through the Web or in print. This cookbook will give you just the right recipes to turn on the power of Manga Studio EX 5 and get you creating more illustrations faster and more efficiently. Style and approach An easy-to-follow, and informative book full of recipes that explore real-world topics for the comic creator. Each recipe is explained with detailed steps and interesting screenshots.

Move beyond basic games and explore the limits of AndEngine About This Book Extend the basic AndEngine features without modifying any of AndEngine's code Understand advanced technologies and gain the skills to create the ultimate games in AndEngine Theory supported with practical examples to stimulate your imagination and creativity Who This Book Is For This book is aimed at developers who have gone through all the basic AndEngine tutorials and books, and are looking for something more. It's also very suitable for developers with knowledge of other game engines who are looking to develop with AndEngine. Knowledge of Java, C++ and Android development are a prerequisite for getting the most out of this book. What You Will Learn Extend AndEngine to use and render 3D models Integrate and use various physics engines with AndEngine Advanced animations and their implementation in AndEngine Lighting theory and its application for both 2D and 3D objects Using skeletal animation with AndEngine Use GLSL shaders with AndEngine for effects and anti-aliasing Add sounds and effects to AndEngine using both basic and 3D audio libraries Efficient network implementations with AndEngine for multi-players In Detail AndEngine is a popular and easy-to-use game framework, best suited for Android game development. After learning the basics of creating an Android game using AndEngine it's time you move beyond the basics to explore further. For this you need to understand the theory behind many of the technologies AndEngine uses. This book aims to provide all the skills and tools you need to learn more about Android game development using AndEngine. With this book you will get a quick overview of the basics of AndEngine and Android application development. From there, you will learn how to use 3D models in a 2D scene, render a visual representation of a scene's objects, and create interaction between these objects. You will explore frame-based animations and learn to use skeletal animations. As the book progresses, you will be guided through exploring all the relevant aspects of rendering graphics with OpenGL ES, generating audio using OpenSL ES and OpenAL, making the best use of Android's network API, implementing anti-aliasing algorithms, shaders, dynamic lighting and much more. With all this, you will be ready to enhance the look and feel of your game with its user interface, sound effects and background music. After an in-depth study of 2D and 3D worlds and multi-player implementations, you will be a master in AndEngine and Android game development. Style and approach This book takes an in-depth tour of the many aspects of Android game development with the use of AndEngine. Each topic is covered extensively to act both as a practical guide as well as a reference.