Bring realism to your games by mastering post-processing effects and advanced shading techniques in Unity 2018 About This Book ? Learn the secrets of creating AAA quality shaders without writing long algorithms ? Master shader programming through easy-to-follow examples ? Create stunning visual effects that can be used in 3D games Who This Book Is For Unity Shaders and Effects Cookbook is for developers who want to create their first shaders in Unity 2018 or wish to take their game to a whole new level by adding professional post-processing effects. A solid understanding of Unity is required to get the most from this book. What You Will Learn ? Understand physically based rendering to fit the aesthetic of your game ? Write shaders from scratch in ShaderLab and HLSL/Cg ? Combine shader programming with interactive scripts to add life to your materials ? Design efficient shaders for mobile platforms without sacrificing their realism ? Use state-of-the-art techniques, such as volumetric explosions and fur shading ? Master the math and algorithms behind the most used lighting models ? Understand how shader models have evolved and how you can create your own In Detail Since their introduction to Unity, shaders have been seen as notoriously difficult to understand and implement in games. Complex mathematics has always stood in the way of creating your own shaders and attaining the level of realism you crave. Unity 2018 Shaders and Effects Cookbook changes that by giving you a recipe-based guide to creating shaders using Unity. It will show you everything you need to know about vectors, how lighting is constructed with them, and how textures are used to create complex effects without the heavy math. This book starts by teaching you how to use shaders without writing code with the post-processing stack. Then, you’ll learn how to write shaders from scratch, build up essential lighting, and finish by creating stunning screen effects just like those in high-quality 3D and mobile games. You'll discover techniques, such as normal mapping, image-based lighting, and animating your models inside a shader. We'll explore how to use physically based rendering to treat light the way it behaves in the real world. At the end, we’ll even look at Unity 2018’s new Shader Graph system. With this book, what seems like a dark art today will be second nature by tomorrow. Style and approach The recipes in this book contain step-by-step instructions, complemented with screenshots, code, and real-world examples.

Explore the latest features of Unity 2018 to create immersive VR projects for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Daydream and Gear VR About This Book ? A project-based guide to teach you how to develop immersive and fun VR applications using Unity 3D ? Build experiences with interactable objects, physics, UI, animations, C# scripting, and other Unity features ? Explore the world of VR by building experiences such as diorama, first-person characters, 360-degree projections, social VR, audio fireball game, and VR storytelling Who This Book Is For If you're a non-programmer unfamiliar with 3D computer graphics, or experienced in both but new to virtual reality, and are interested in building your own VR games or applications, then this book is for you. Any experience in Unity is an advantage. What You Will Learn ? Create 3D scenes with Unity and other 3D tools while learning about world space and scale ? Build and run VR applications for specific headsets, including Oculus, Vive, and Daydream ? Interact with virtual objects using eye gaze, hand controllers, and user input events ? Move around your VR scenes using locomotion and teleportation ? Implement an audio fireball game using physics and particle systems ? Implement an art gallery tour with teleportation and data info ? Design and build a VR storytelling animation with a soundtrack and timelines ? Create social VR experiences with Unity networking In Detail Unity has become the leading platform for building virtual reality games, applications, and experiences for this new generation of consumer VR devices. Unity Virtual Reality Projects walks you through a series of hands-on tutorials and in-depth discussions on using the Unity game engine. With its practical and project-based approach, this book will get you up to speed with the specifics of Virtual Reality development in Unity. You will learn how to use Unity to develop VR applications that can be experienced with devices such as Oculus, Daydream, and Vive. Among the many topics and projects, you will explore gaze-based versus hand controller input, world space UI canvases, locomotion and teleportation, software design patterns, 360-degree media, timeline animation, and multiplayer networking. You will learn the Unity 3D game engine via the interactive Unity Editor as well as C# programming. By the end of the book, you will be fully equipped to develop rich, interactive virtual reality experiences using Unity. Style and approach A practical step-by-step guide to building impressive VR experiences with Unity 2018.

Build cross-platform solutions with .NET Core 2.0 through real-life scenarios About This Book ? Bridges the gap between learning and doing and improves your software development skills ? Covers the best practices of .NET development to improve your productivity ? Example-based approach to get you started quickly with software programming Who This Book Is For If you are a developer or architect and want to learn how to build cross-platform solutions using Microsoft .NET Core, this book is for you. It is assumed that you have some knowledge of the .NET Framework, OOP, and C# (or a similar programming language). What You Will Learn ? Build cross-platform applications with ASP.NET Core 2.0 and its tools ? Integrate, host, and deploy web apps with the cloud (Microsoft Azure) ? Leverage the ncurses native library to extend console capabilities in .NET Core on Linux and interop with native coden .NET Core on Linux and learn how to interop with existing native code ? Reuse existing .NET Framework and Mono assemblies from .NET Core 2.0 applications ? Develop real-time web applications using ASP.NET Core ? Learn the differences between SOA and microservices and get started with microservice development using ASP.NET Core 2.0 ? Walk through functional programming with F# and .NET Core from scratch In Detail With the rise in the number of tools and technologies available today, developers and architects are always exploring ways to create better and smarter solutions. Before, the differences between target platforms was a major roadblock, but that's not the case now. .NET Core 2.0 By Example will take you on an exciting journey to building better software. This book provides fresh and relevant content to .NET Core 2.0 in a succinct format that’s enjoyable to read. It also delivers concepts, along with the implications, design decisions, and potential pitfalls you might face when targeting Linux and Windows systems, in a logical and simple way. With the .NET framework at its center, the book comprises of five varied projects: a multiplayer Tic-tac-toe game; a real-time chat application, Let'sChat; a chatbot; a microservice-based buying-selling application; and a movie booking application. You will start each chapter with a high-level overview of the content, followed by the above example applications described in detail. By the end of each chapter, you will not only be proficient with the concepts, but you’ll also have created a tangible component in the application. By the end of the book, you will have built five solid projects using all the tools and support provided by the .NET Core 2.0 framework. Style and approach This book takes a concise yet comprehensive project-based approach to teaching the tricks and tools of .NET Core 2.0.

IT service management automation at your fingertips About This Book ? Learn to leverage ServiceNow’s capabilities for improved IT automation by following step-by-step, practical instructions ? Build core administration, development, and maintenance skills with IT service management in ServiceNow ? Improve your workflow efficiency by designing and creating responsive and automated workflows, business logic, and front-end automation Who This Book Is For This book is for IT professionals and administrators who are planning to or are already trying to implement ServiceNow in their organization for Enterprise IT service management tasks. Some familiarity with web technologies (JavaScript) would be helpful. Prior ServiceNow experience is not necessary. What You Will Learn ? Read and write clear, effective code for the ServiceNow platform ? Identify and avoid common pitfalls and missteps that could seriously impact future progress and upgradeability ? Use debugging tools to troubleshoot when things go wrong ? Discover tips and tricks from top ServiceNow developers, architects, and administrators. Find out what the pros wish they knew when they were starting out In Detail This book is an updated version of Learning ServiceNow, that will cover the new and updated features of the ServiceNow platform. It will show you how to put important ServiceNow features to work in the real world, while introducing key concepts via examples of managing and automating IT services. It'll help you build a solid foundation of knowledge, and will demonstrate how to effectively implement and configure modules within ServiceNow. We'll show you how to configure and administer your instance, and then move on to building strong user interfaces and creating powerful workflows. We also cover other key elements of ServiceNow, such as notifications, security, reporting, and custom development. You will learn how to improve and automate your business' workflow and processes. By the end of this book, you will be able to successfully configure and manage ServiceNow like a pro. Style and approach This book is a step-by-step practical tutorial to help you quickly deploy and configure ServiceNow in your organization. It guides you through the process of building applications and understanding the underlying systems, to help you become a more effective ServiceNow/ITSM administrator and/or developer.

This book will teach the concepts of test driven development in Java so you can build clean, maintainable and robust code About This Book ? Explore the most popular TDD tools and frameworks and become more proficient in building applications ? Create applications with better code design, fewer bugs, and higher test coverage, enabling you to get them to market quickly ? Implement test-driven programming methods into your development workflows Who This Book Is For If you're an experienced Java developer and want to implement more effective methods of programming systems and applications, then this book is for you. What You Will Learn ? Explore the tools and frameworks required for effective TDD development ? Perform the Red-Green-Refactor process efficiently, the pillar around which all other TDD procedures are based ? Master effective unit testing in isolation from the rest of your code ? Design simple and easily maintainable code by implementing different techniques ? Use mocking frameworks and techniques to easily write and quickly execute tests ? Develop an application to implement behavior-driven development in conjunction with unit testing ? Enable and disable features using feature toggles In Detail Test-driven development (TDD) is a development approach that relies on a test-first procedure that emphasizes writing a test before writing the necessary code, and then refactoring the code to optimize it.The value of performing TDD with Java, one of the longest established programming languages, is to improve the productivity of programmers and the maintainability and performance of code, and develop a deeper understanding of the language and how to employ it effectively. Starting with the basics of TDD and understanding why its adoption is beneficial, this book will take you from the first steps of TDD with Java until you are confident enough to embrace the practice in your day-to-day routine.You'll be guided through setting up tools, frameworks, and the environment you need, and we will dive right into hands-on exercises with the goal of mastering one practice, tool, or framework at a time. You'll learn about the Red-Green-Refactor procedure, how to write unit tests, and how to use them as executable documentation.With this book, you'll also discover how to design simple and easily maintainable code, work with mocks, utilize behavior-driven development, refactor old legacy code, and release a half-finished feature to production with feature toggles.You will finish this book with a deep understanding of the test-driven development methodology and the confidence to apply it to application programming with Java. Style and approach An easy-to-follow, hands-on guide to building applications through effective coding practices. This book covers practical examples by introducing different problems, each one designed as a learning exercise to help you understand each aspect of TDD.

Design RPA solutions to perform a wide range of transactional tasks with minimal cost and maximum ROI About This Book ? A beginner's guide to learn Robotic Process Automation and its impact on the modern world ? Design, test, and perform enterprise automation task with UiPath ? Create Automation apps and deploy them to all the computers in your department. Who This Book Is For If you would like to pursue a career in Robotic Process Automation or improve the efficiency of your businesses by automating common tasks, then this book is perfect for you. Prior programming knowledge of either Visual Basic or C# will be useful. What You Will Learn ? Understand Robotic Process Automation technology ? Learn UiPath programming techniques to deploy robot configurations ? Explore various data extraction techniques ? Learn about integrations with various popular applications such as SAP and MS Office ? Debug a programmed robot including logging and exception handling ? Maintain code version and source control ? Deploy and control Bots with UiPath Orchestrator In Detail Robotic Process Automation (RPA) enables automating business processes using software robots. Software robots interpret, trigger responses, and communicate with other systems just like humans do. Robotic processes and intelligent automation tools can help businesses improve the effectiveness of services faster and at a lower cost than current methods. This book is the perfect start to your automation journey, with a special focus on one of the most popular RPA tools: UiPath. Learning Robotic Process Automation takes you on a journey from understanding the basics of RPA to advanced implementation techniques. You will become oriented in the UiPath interface and learn about its workflow. Once you are familiar with the environment, we will get hands-on with automating different applications such as Excel, SAP, Windows and web applications, screen and web scraping, working with user events, as well as understanding exceptions and debugging. By the end of the book, you'll not only be able to build your first software bot, but also you'll wire it to perform various automation tasks with the help of best practices for bot deployment. Style and approach This book will help you kick-start your automation journey with a special focus on one of the most popular RPA tools: UiPath.

Enhance your Kotlin programming skills by building 3 real-world applications About This Book ? Build three full-fledged, engaging applications from scratch and learn to deploy them ? Enhance your app development and programming activities with Kotlin’s powerful and intuitive tools and utilities. ? Experience the gentle learning curve, expressiveness, and intuitiveness of Kotlin, as you develop your own applications Who This Book Is For This book is for those who are new to Kotlin or are familiar with the basics, having dabbled with Java until now. Basic programming knowledge is mandatory. What You Will Learn ? Learn the building blocks of the Kotlin programming language ? Develop powerful RESTful microservices for Android applications ? Create reactive Android applications efficiently ? Implement an MVC architecture pattern and dependency management using Kotlin ? Centralize, transform, and stash data with Logstash ? Secure applications using Spring Security ? Deploy Kotlin microservices to AWS and Android applications to the Play Store In Detail Kotlin greatly reduces the verbosity of source code. With Google having announced their support for Kotlin as a first-class language for writing Android apps, now's the time learn how to create apps from scratch with Kotlin Kotlin Programming By Example takes you through the building blocks of Kotlin, such as functions and classes. You’ll explore various features of Kotlin by building three applications of varying complexity. For a quick start to Android development, we look at building a classic game, Tetris, and elaborate on object-oriented programming in Kotlin. Our next application will be a messenger app, a level up in terms of complexity. Before moving onto the third app, we take a look at data persistent methods, helping us learn about the storage and retrieval of useful applications. Our final app is a place reviewer: a web application that will make use of the Google Maps API and Place Picker. By the end of this book, you will have gained experience of of creating and deploying Android applications using Kotlin. Style and approach Here we will build three exciting projects in Kotlin which will demonstrate how to effectively use Kotlin language constructs

A hands-on guide with a minimalist and flexible approach that enables quick learning and rapid delivery of cloud-ready enterprise applications with Angular 6 About This Book ? Explore tools and techniques to push your web app to the next level ? Master Angular app design and architectural considerations ? Learn continuous integration and deploy your app on a highly available cloud infrastructure in AWS Who This Book Is For This book is for developers who want to confidently deliver high-quality and production-grade Angular apps from design to deployment. We assume that you have prior experience in writing a RESTful API with the tech stack of your choice; if you don't, you can still gain a lot of benefit from this book, which focuses on the entire scope of frontend development, from design to deployment! What You Will Learn ? Create full-stack web applications using Angular and RESTful APIs ? Master Angular fundamentals, RxJS, CLI tools, unit testing, GitHub, and Docker ? Design and architect responsive, secure and scalable apps to deploy on AWS ? Adopt a minimalist, value-first approach to delivering your app with Kanban ? Get introduced to automated testing with continuous integration on CircleCI ? Optimize Nginx and Node.js web servers with load testing tools In Detail Angular 6 for Enterprise-Ready Web Applications follows a hands-on and minimalist approach demonstrating how to design and architect high quality apps. The first part of the book is about mastering the Angular platform using foundational technologies. You will use the Kanban method to focus on value delivery, communicate design ideas with mock-up tools and build great looking apps with Angular Material. You will become comfortable using CLI tools, understand reactive programming with RxJS, and deploy to the cloud using Docker. The second part of the book will introduce you to the router-first architecture, a seven-step approach to designing and developing mid-to-large line-of-business applications, along with popular recipes. You will learn how to design a solid authentication and authorization experience; explore unit testing, early integration with backend APIs using Swagger and continuous integration using CircleCI. In the concluding chapters, you will provision a highly available cloud infrastructure on AWS and then use Google Analytics to capture user behavior. By the end of this book, you will be familiar with the scope of web development using Angular, Swagger, and Docker, learning patterns and practices to be successful as an individual developer on the web or as a team in the Enterprise. Style and approach The book follows a hands-on, value-first methodology to help readers design and architect small and large applications, while covering ancillary topics that all web developers should be aware of. The book uses minimal and flexible tools and techniques to enable quick learning and rapid delivery of high-quality and reliable Angular applications.

Architect scalable, reliable, and maintainable applications for enterprises with Python Key Features *Explore various Python design patterns used for enterprise software development *Apply best practices for testing and performance optimization to build stable applications *Learn about different attacking strategies used on enterprise applications and how to avoid them Book Description Dynamically typed languages like Python are continuously improving. With the addition of exciting new features and a wide selection of modern libraries and frameworks, Python has emerged as an ideal language for developing enterprise applications. Hands-On Enterprise Application Development with Python will show you how to build effective applications that are stable, secure, and easily scalable. The book is a detailed guide to building an end-to-end enterprise-grade application in Python. You will learn how to effectively implement Python features and design patterns that will positively impact your application lifecycle. The book also covers advanced concurrency techniques that will help you build a RESTful application with an optimized frontend. Given that security and stability are the foundation for an enterprise application, you’ll be trained on effective testing, performance analysis, and security practices, and understand how to embed them in your codebase during the initial phase. You’ll also be guided in how to move on from a monolithic architecture to one that is service oriented, leveraging microservices and serverless deployment techniques. By the end of the book, you will have become proficient at building efficient enterprise applications in Python. What you will learn *Understand the purpose of design patterns and their impact on application lifecycle *Build applications that can handle large amounts of data-intensive operations *Uncover advanced concurrency techniques and discover how to handle a large number of requests in production *Optimize frontends to improve the client-side experience of your application *Effective testing and performance profiling techniques to detect issues in applications early in the development cycle *Build applications with a focus on security *Implement large applications as microservices to improve scalability Who this book is for If you’re a developer who wants to build enterprise-grade applications, this book is for you. Basic to intermediate-level of programming experience with Python and database systems is required to understand the concepts covered in this book.

Explore powerful Azure DevOps solutions to develop and deploy your software faster and more efficiently. Key Features * Build modern microservice-based systems with Azure architecture * Learn to deploy and manage cloud services and virtual machines * Configure clusters with Azure Service Fabric for deployment Book Description This Learning Path helps you understand microservices architecture and leverage various services of Microsoft Azure Service Fabric to build, deploy, and maintain highly scalable enterprise-grade applications. You will learn to select an appropriate Azure backend structure for your solutions and work with its toolkit and managed apps to share your solutions with its service catalog. As you progress through the Learning Path, you will study Azure Cloud Services, Azure-managed Kubernetes, and Azure Container Services deployment techniques. To apply all that you’ve understood, you will build an end-to-end Azure system in scalable, decoupled tiers for an industrial bakery with three business domains. Toward the end of this Learning Path, you will build another scalable architecture using Azure Service Bus topics to send orders between decoupled business domains with scalable worker roles processing these orders. By the end of this Learning Path, you will be comfortable in using development, deployment, and maintenance processes to build robust cloud solutions on Azure. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products: * Learn Microsoft Azure by Mohamed Wali * Implementing Azure Solutions - Second Edition by Florian Klaffenbach, Oliver Michalski, Markus Klein * Microservices with Azure by Namit Tanasseri and Rahul Rai What you will learn * Study various Azure Service Fabric application programming models * Create and manage a Kubernetes cluster in Azure Kubernetes Service * Use site-to-site VPN and ExpressRoute connections in your environment * Design an Azure IoT app and learn to operate it in various scenarios * Implement a hybrid Azure design using Azure Stack * Build Azure SQL databases with Code First Migrations * Integrate client applications with Web API and SignalR on Azure * Implement the Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) across the entire system Who this book is for If you are an IT system architect, network admin, or a DevOps engineer who wants to implement Azure solutions for your organization, this Learning Path is for you. Basic knowledge of the Azure Cloud platform will be beneficial.

Power up your network applications with Python programming Key Features * Master Python skills to develop powerful network applications * Grasp the fundamentals and functionalities of SDN * Design multi-threaded, event-driven architectures for echo and chat servers Book Description This Learning Path highlights major aspects of Python network programming such as writing simple networking clients, creating and deploying SDN and NFV systems, and extending your network with Mininet. You’ll also learn how to automate legacy and the latest network devices. As you progress through the chapters, you’ll use Python for DevOps and open source tools to test, secure, and analyze your network. Toward the end, you'll develop client-side applications, such as web API clients, email clients, SSH, and FTP, using socket programming. By the end of this Learning Path, you will have learned how to analyze a network's security vulnerabilities using advanced network packet capture and analysis techniques. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products: * Practical Network Automation by Abhishek Ratan * Mastering Python Networking by Eric Chou * Python Network Programming Cookbook, Second Edition by Pradeeban Kathiravelu, Dr. M. O. Faruque Sarker What you will learn * Create socket-based networks with asynchronous models * Develop client apps for web APIs, including S3 Amazon and Twitter * Talk to email and remote network servers with different protocols * Integrate Python with Cisco, Juniper, and Arista eAPI for automation * Use Telnet and SSH connections for remote system monitoring * Interact with websites via XML-RPC, SOAP, and REST APIs * Build networks with Ryu, OpenDaylight, Floodlight, ONOS, and POX * Configure virtual networks in different deployment environments Who this book is for If you are a Python developer or a system administrator who wants to start network programming, this Learning Path gets you a step closer to your goal. IT professionals and DevOps engineers who are new to managing network devices or those with minimal experience looking to expand their knowledge and skills in Python will also find this Learning Path useful. Although prior knowledge of networking is not required, some experience in Python programming will be helpful for a better understanding of the concepts in the Learning Path.

Perform advanced dashboard, visualization, and analytical techniques with Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep, and Tableau Server Key Features * Unique problem-solution approach to aid effective business decision-making * Create interactive dashboards and implement powerful business intelligence solutions * Includes best practices on using Tableau with modern cloud analytics services Book Description Tableau has been one of the most popular business intelligence solutions in recent times, thanks to its powerful and interactive data visualization capabilities. Tableau 2019.x Cookbook is full of useful recipes from industry experts, who will help you master Tableau skills and learn each aspect of Tableau's ecosystem. This book is enriched with features such as Tableau extracts, Tableau advanced calculations, geospatial analysis, and building dashboards. It will guide you with exciting data manipulation, storytelling, advanced filtering, expert visualization, and forecasting techniques using real-world examples. From basic functionalities of Tableau to complex deployment on Linux, you will cover it all. Moreover, you will learn advanced features of Tableau using R, Python, and various APIs. You will learn how to prepare data for analysis using the latest Tableau Prep. In the concluding chapters, you will learn how Tableau fits the modern world of analytics and works with modern data platforms such as Snowflake and Redshift. In addition, you will learn about the best practices of integrating Tableau with ETL using Matillion ETL. By the end of the book, you will be ready to tackle business intelligence challenges using Tableau's features. What you will learn * Understand the basic and advanced skills of Tableau Desktop * Implement best practices of visualization, dashboard, and storytelling * Learn advanced analytics with the use of build in statistics * Deploy the multi-node server on Linux and Windows * Use Tableau with big data sources such as Hadoop, Athena, and Spectrum * Cover Tableau built-in functions for forecasting using R packages * Combine, shape, and clean data for analysis using Tableau Prep * Extend Tableau’s functionalities with REST API and R/Python Who this book is for Tableau 2019.x Cookbook is for data analysts, data engineers, BI developers, and users who are looking for quick solutions to common and not-so-common problems faced while using Tableau products. Put each recipe into practice by bringing the latest offerings of Tableau 2019.x to solve real-world analytics and business intelligence challenges. Some understanding of BI concepts and Tableau is required.

Learn quick and effective techniques for developing blockchain-based distributed ledgers with ease Key Features * Discover why blockchain is a game changer in the technology landscape * Set up blockchain networks using Hyperledger Fabric * Write smart contracts at speed with Hyperledger Composer Book Description Blockchain and Hyperledger are open source technologies that power the development of decentralized applications. This Learning Path is your helpful reference for exploring and building blockchain networks using Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, and Hyperledger Composer. Blockchain Development with Hyperledger will start off by giving you an overview of blockchain and demonstrating how you can set up an Ethereum development environment for developing, packaging, building, and testing campaign-decentralized applications. You'll then explore the de facto language Solidity, which you can use to develop decentralized applications in Ethereum. Following this, you'll be able to configure Hyperledger Fabric and use it to build private blockchain networks and applications that connect to them. Toward the later chapters, you'll learn how to design and launch a network, and even implement smart contracts in chain code. By the end of this Learning Path, you'll be able to build and deploy your own decentralized applications by addressing the key pain points encountered in the blockchain life cycle. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products: * Blockchain Quick Start Guide by Xun (Brian) Wu and Weimin Sun * Hands-On Blockchain with Hyperledger by Nitin Gaur et al. What you will learn * Understand why decentralized applications are necessary * Develop and test a decentralized application with Hyperledger Fabric and Hyperledger Composer * Write and test a smart contract using Solidity * Design transaction models and chain code with Golang * Deploy the Composer REpresentational State Transfer (REST) Gateway to access Composer transactions * Maintain, monitor, and manage your blockchain solutions Who this book is for This Learning Path is designed for blockchain developers who want to build decentralized applications and smart contracts from scratch using Hyperledger. Basic familiarity with or exposure to any programming language will be useful to get started with this course.

Leverage the full potential of Entity Framework with this collection of powerful and easy-to-follow recipes About This Book Learn how to use the new features of Entity Framework Core 1 Improve your queries by leveraging some of the advanced features Avoid common pitfalls Make the best of your .NET APIs by integrating with Entity Framework Who This Book Is For This book is for .NET developers who work with relational databases on a daily basis and understand the basics of Entity Framework, but now want to use it in a more efficient manner. You are expected to have some prior knowledge of Entity Framework. What You Will Learn Master the technique of using sequence key generators Validate groups of entities that are to be saved / updated Improve MVC applications that cover applications developed using ASP.NET MVC Core 1 Retrieve database information (table, column names, and so on) for entities Discover optimistic concurrency control and pessimistic concurrency control. Implement Multilatency on the data side of things. Enhance the performance and/or scalability of Entity Framework Core Explore and overcome the pitfalls of Entity Framework Core In Detail Entity Framework is a highly recommended Object Relation Mapping tool used to build complex systems. In order to survive in this growing market, the knowledge of a framework that helps provide easy access to databases, that is, Entity Framework has become a necessity. This book will provide .NET developers with this knowledge and guide them through working efficiently with data using Entity Framework Core. You will start off by learning how to efficiently use Entity Framework in practical situations. You will gain a deep understanding of mapping properties and find out how to handle validation in Entity Framework. The book will then explain how to work with transactions and stored procedures along with improving Entity Framework using query libraries. Moving on, you will learn to improve complex query scenarios and implement transaction and concurrency control. You will then be taught to improve and develop Entity Framework in complex business scenarios. With the concluding chapter on performance and scalability, this book will get you ready to use Entity Framework proficiently. Style and approach Filled with rich code-based examples, this book takes a recipe-based approach that will teach .NET developers to improve their understanding of Entity Framework and help them effortlessly apply this knowledge in everyday situations.

Learn to leverage the power of PowerCLI to automate your VMware vSphere environment with ease About This Book This is first book on the market that will enlighten you on the latest version of PowerCLI and how to implement it Effectively manage virtual machines, networks, and reports with the latest features of PowerCLI A comprehensive and practical book on automating VMware vSphere Who This Book Is For This book is ideal for you if you want to learn how to automate your VMware vSphere or vCloud infrastructure by getting the most out of PowerCLI. It’s assumed that you have some experience in administrating a vSphere or vCloud environment. Knowledge of Microsoft’s Windows PowerShell is not a prerequisite. What You Will Learn Explore PowerShell and PowerCLI cmdlets and their output objects See how to manage virtual machines and work with virtual networks Manage vCloud Director from PowerCLI Use Site Recovery Manager from PowerCLI to create a disaster recovery solution Manage NSX and vRealize Automation using REST API with PowerCLI Create and configure vSphere HA and DRS clusters Use vSphere Update Manager with PowerCLI to create patch baselines and scan hosts Explore reporting techniques to retrieve log files In Detail VMware vSphere PowerCLI, a free extension to Microsoft Windows PowerShell, enables you to automate the management of a VMware vSphere or vCloud environment. This book will show you how to automate your tasks and make your job easier. Starting with an introduction to the basics of PowerCLI, the book will teach you how to manage your vSphere and vCloud infrastructure from the command line. To help you manage a vSphere host overall, you will learn how to manage vSphere ESXi hosts, host profiles, host services, host firewall, and deploy and upgrade ESXi hosts using Image Builder and Auto Deploy. The next chapter will not only teach you how to create datastore and datastore clusters, but you’ll also work with profile-driven and policy-based storage to manage your storage. To create a disaster recovery solution and retrieve information from vRealize Operations, you will learn how to use Site Recovery Manager and vRealize Operations respectively. Towards the end, you’ll see how to use the REST APIs from PowerShell to manage NSX and vRealize Automation and create patch baselines, scan hosts against the baselines for missing patches, and re-mediate hosts. By the end of the book, you will be capable of using the best tool to automate the management and configuration of VMware vSphere. Style and approach This comprehensive book will teach system administrators everything about PowerCLI 6 and how to utilize it to automate VMware vSphere.

Advanced analytics on your Big Data with latest Apache Spark 2.x About This Book ? An advanced guide with a combination of instructions and practical examples to extend the most up-to date Spark functionalities. ? Extend your data processing capabilities to process huge chunk of data in minimum time using advanced concepts in Spark. ? Master the art of real-time processing with the help of Apache Spark 2.x Who This Book Is For If you are a developer with some experience with Spark and want to strengthen your knowledge of how to get around in the world of Spark, then this book is ideal for you. Basic knowledge of Linux, Hadoop and Spark is assumed. Reasonable knowledge of Scala is expected. What You Will Learn ? Examine Advanced Machine Learning and DeepLearning with MLlib, SparkML, SystemML, H2O and DeepLearning4J ? Study highly optimised unified batch and real-time data processing using SparkSQL and Structured Streaming ? Evaluate large-scale Graph Processing and Analysis using GraphX and GraphFrames ? Apply Apache Spark in Elastic deployments using Jupyter and Zeppelin Notebooks, Docker, Kubernetes and the IBM Cloud ? Understand internal details of cost based optimizers used in Catalyst, SystemML and GraphFrames ? Learn how specific parameter settings affect overall performance of an Apache Spark cluster ? Leverage Scala, R and python for your data science projects In Detail Apache Spark is an in-memory cluster-based parallel processing system that provides a wide range of functionalities such as graph processing, machine learning, stream processing, and SQL. This book aims to take your knowledge of Spark to the next level by teaching you how to expand Spark’s functionality and implement your data flows and machine/deep learning programs on top of the platform. The book commences with an overview of the Spark ecosystem. It will introduce you to Project Tungsten and Catalyst, two of the major advancements of Apache Spark 2.x. You will understand how memory management and binary processing, cache-aware computation, and code generation are used to speed things up dramatically. The book extends to show how to incorporate H20, SystemML, and Deeplearning4j for machine learning, and Jupyter Notebooks and Kubernetes/Docker for cloud-based Spark. During the course of the book, you will learn about the latest enhancements to Apache Spark 2.x, such as interactive querying of live data and unifying DataFrames and Datasets. You will also learn about the updates on the APIs and how DataFrames and Datasets affect SQL, machine learning, graph processing, and streaming. You will learn to use Spark as a big data operating system, understand how to implement advanced analytics on the new APIs, and explore how easy it is to use Spark in day-to-day tasks. Style and approach This book is an extensive guide to Apache Spark modules and tools and shows how Spark's functionality can be extended for real-time processing and storage with worked examples.

Mastering Drupal can lead to a mighty website - discover what Drupal 8 can really do with hidden techniques, best practices, and more! About This Book ? The most up-to-date advanced practical guide on Drupal 8 with an in-depth look at all the advanced new features such as authoring, HTML markup, built-in web services, and more ? If you are looking to dive deep into Drupal 8 and create industry-standard web apps, then this is the ideal book for you ? All the code and examples are explained in great detail to help you in the development process Who This Book Is For This book is ideally suited to web developers, designers, and web administrators who want to dive deep into Drupal. Previous experience with Drupal is a must to unleash the full potential of this book. What You Will Learn ? Discover how to better manage content using custom blocks and views ? Display content in multiple ways, taking advantage of display modes ? Create custom modules with YAML and Symfony 2 ? Easily translate content using the new multilingual capabilities ? Use RESTful services and JavaScript frameworks to build headless websites ? Manage Drupal configuration from one server to another easily In Detail Drupal is an open source content management system trusted by governments and organizations around the globe to run their websites. It brings with it extensive content authoring tools, reliable performance, and a proven track record of security. The community of more than 1,000,000 developers, designers, editors, and others have developed and maintained a wealth of modules, themes, and other add-ons to help you build a dynamic web experience. Drupal 8 is the latest release of the Drupal built on the Symfony2 framework. This is the largest change to the Drupal project in its history. The entire API of Drupal has been rebuilt using Symfony and everything from the administrative UI to themes to custom module development has been affected. This book will cover everything you need to plan and build a complete website using Drupal 8. It will provide a clear and concise walkthrough of the more than 200 new features and improvements introduced in Drupal core. In this book, you will learn advanced site building techniques, create and modify themes using Twig, create custom modules using the new Drupal API, explore the new REST and Multilingual functionality, import, and export Configuration, and learn how to migrate from earlier versions of Drupal. Style and approach This book takes a practical approach with equal emphasis on examples and illustrative screenshots.

A guide to mastering Visual Studio 2017 About This Book ? Focus on coding with the new, improved, and powerful tools of VS 2017 ? Master improved debugging and unit testing support capabilities ? Accelerate cloud development with the built-in Azure tools Who This Book Is For .NET Developers who would like to master the new features of VS 2017, and would like to delve into newer areas such as cloud computing, would benefit from this book. Basic knowledge of previous versions of Visual Studio is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Learn what's new in the Visual Studio 2017 IDE, C# 7.0, and how it will help developers to improve their productivity ? Learn the workloads and components of the new installation wizard and how to use the online and offline installer ? Build stunning Windows apps using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Universal Windows Platform (UWP) tools ? Get familiar with .NET Core and learn how to build apps targeting this new framework ? Explore everything about NuGet packages ? Debug and test your applications using Visual Studio 2017 ? Accelerate cloud development with Microsoft Azure ? Integrate Visual Studio with most popular source control repositories, such as TFS and GitHub In Detail Visual Studio 2017 is the all-new IDE released by Microsoft for developers, targeting Microsoft and other platforms to build stunning Windows and web apps. Learning how to effectively use this technology can enhance your productivity while simplifying your most common tasks, allowing you more time to focus on your project. With this book, you will learn not only what VS2017 offers, but also what it takes to put it to work for your projects. Visual Studio 2017 is packed with improvements that increase productivity, and this book will get you started with the new features introduced in Visual Studio 2017 IDE and C# 7.0. Next, you will learn to use XAML tools to build classic WPF apps, and UWP tools to build apps targeting Windows 10. Later, you will learn about .NET Core and then explore NuGet, the package manager for the Microsoft development platform. Then, you will familiarize yourself with the debugging and live unit testing techniques that comes with the IDE. Finally, you'll adapt Microsoft's implementation of cloud computing with Azure, and the Visual Studio integration with Source Control repositories. Style and approach This comprehensive guide covers the advanced features of Visual Studio 2017, and communicates them through a practical approach to explore the underlying concepts of how, when, and why to use it.

Leverage the power of Python to collect, process, and mine deep insights from social media data About This Book ? Acquire data from various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, GitHub, and more ? Analyze and extract actionable insights from your social data using various Python tools ? A highly practical guide to conducting efficient social media analytics at scale Who This Book Is For If you are a programmer or a data analyst familiar with the Python programming language and want to perform analyses of your social data to acquire valuable business insights, this book is for you. The book does not assume any prior knowledge of any data analysis tool or process. What You Will Learn ? Understand the basics of social media mining ? Use PyMongo to clean, store, and access data in MongoDB ? Understand user reactions and emotion detection on Facebook ? Perform Twitter sentiment analysis and entity recognition using Python ? Analyze video and campaign performance on YouTube ? Mine popular trends on GitHub and predict the next big technology ? Extract conversational topics on public internet forums ? Analyze user interests on Pinterest ? Perform large-scale social media analytics on the cloud In Detail Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Forums, Pinterest, and YouTube have become part of everyday life in a big way. However, these complex and noisy data streams pose a potent challenge to everyone when it comes to harnessing them properly and benefiting from them. This book will introduce you to the concept of social media analytics, and how you can leverage its capabilities to empower your business. Right from acquiring data from various social networking sources such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and social forums, you will see how to clean data and make it ready for analytical operations using various Python APIs. This book explains how to structure the clean data obtained and store in MongoDB using PyMongo. You will also perform web scraping and visualize data using Scrappy and Beautifulsoup. Finally, you will be introduced to different techniques to perform analytics at scale for your social data on the cloud, using Python and Spark. By the end of this book, you will be able to utilize the power of Python to gain valuable insights from social media data and use them to enhance your business processes. Style and approach This book follows a step-by-step approach to teach readers the concepts of social media analytics using the Python programming language. To explain various data analysis processes, real-world datasets are used wherever required.

Learn everything you need to build highly scalable, robust web applications using Angular release 4 About This Book ? Apply best practices and design patterns to achieve higher scalability in your Angular applications ? Understand the latest features of Angular and create your own components ? Get acquainted with powerful, advanced techniques in Angular to build professional web applications Who This Book Is For This book is for JavaScript developers with some prior exposure to Angular, at least through basic examples. We assume that you’ve got working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. What You Will Learn ? Implement asynchronous programming using Angular ? Beautify your application with the UI components built to the material design specification ? Secure your web application from unauthorized users ? Create complex forms, taking full advantage of 2-way data binding ? Test your Angular applications using the Jasmine and Protractor frameworks for better efficiency ? Learn how to integrate Angular with Bootstrap to create compelling web applications ? Use Angular built-in classes to apply animation in your app In Detail Got some experience of Angular under your belt? Want to learn everything about using advanced features for developing websites? This book is everything you need for the deep understanding of Angular that will set you apart from the developer crowd. Angular has introduced a new way to build applications. Creating complex and rich web applications, with a lighter resource footprint, has never been easier or faster. Angular is now at release 4, with significant changes through previous versions. This book has been written and tested for Angular release 4. Angular is a mature technology, and you'll likely have applications built with earlier versions. This book starts by showing you best practices and approaches to migrating your existing Angular applications so that you can be immediately up-to-date. You will take an in-depth look at components and see how to control the user journey in your applications by implementing routing and navigation. You will learn how to work with asynchronous programming by using Observables. To easily build applications that look great, you will learn all about template syntax and how to beautify applications with Material Design. Mastering forms and data binding will further speed up your application development time. Learning about managing services and animations will help you to progressively enhance your applications. Next you’ll use native directives to integrate Bootstrap with Angular. You will see the best ways to test your application with the leading options such as Jasmine and Protractor. At the end of the book, you’ll learn how to apply design patterns in Angular, and see the benefits they will bring to your development. Style and approach This book provides comprehensive coverage of all aspects of development with Angular. You will learn about all the most powerful Angular concepts, with examples and best practices. This book is everything you need for the deep understanding of Angular that will set you apart from the developer crowd.

Plan, design, and deploy System Center Configuration Manager 1706 like never before, regardless of how complex your infrastructure is About This Book ? The most up-to-date resource on deploying or migrating to System Center Configuration Manager 1706 within your IT infrastructure ? Plan, design, and deploy ConfigMgr 1706 with ease, both on primary and multiple-hierarchy sites ? Master the new features of ConfigMgr 1706, including Windows 10 support Who This Book Is For If you are a system engineer or an administrator planning to deploy Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 1706, then this book is for you. This book will also benefit system administrators who are responsible for designing and deploying one or more System CenterConfiguration Manager 1706 sites in their new or existing systems. What You Will Learn ? Install ConfigMgr servers and the necessary roles ? Design and scale ConfigMgr environments ? Configure and administrate essential ConfigMgr roles and features ? Create software packages using .msi and .exe files ? Deliver detailed reports with an automatic patching process ? Apply proper hardening on your deployment and secure workstations ? Deploy operating systems and updates leveraging ConfigMgr mechanisms ? Create high-availability components using the built-in mechanism for backup and recovery In Detail It becomes important to plan, design, and deploy configurations when administrators know that Configuration Manager interacts with a number of infrastructure components such as Active Directory Domain Services, network protocols, Windows Server services, and so on. Via real-world-world deployment scenarios, this book will help you implement a single primary site or multiples sites. You will be able to efficiently plan and deploy a multiple-site hierarchy such as central administration site. Next, you will learn various methods to plan and deploy Configuration Manager clients, secure them and make the most of new features offered through ConfigMgr 1706 like compliance, deploying updates operating systems to the endpoints. Then, this book will show you how to install, configure, and run SQL reports to extract information. Lastly, you will also learn how to create and manage users access in an ConfigMgr environment By the end of this book, you will have learned to use the built-in mechanism to back up and restore data and also design maintenance plan. Style and approach This step-by-step guide teaches you cool ways to plan, deploy, and configure ConfigMgr 1706. This tutorial, which complements the release of ConfigMgr 1706 with a refreshing new approach and expert guidance, will teach you everything you need to know about the essentials of server.