Learn how to create interactive and visually aesthetic plots using the Bokeh package in Python About This Book ? A step by step approach to creating interactive plots with Bokeh ? Go from nstallation all the way to deploying your very own Bokeh application ? Work with a real time datasets to practice and create your very own plots and applications Who This Book Is For This book is well suited for data scientists and data analysts who want to perform interactive data visualization on their web browsers using Bokeh. Some exposure to Python programming will be helpful, but prior experience with Bokeh is not required. What You Will Learn ? Installing Bokeh and understanding its key concepts ? Creating plots using glyphs, the fundamental building blocks of Bokeh ? Creating plots using different data structures like NumPy and Pandas ? Using layouts and widgets to visually enhance your plots and add a layer of interactivity ? Building and hosting applications on the Bokeh server ? Creating advanced plots using spatial data In Detail Adding a layer of interactivity to your plots and converting these plots into applications hold immense value in the field of data science. The standard approach to adding interactivity would be to use paid software such as Tableau, but the Bokeh package in Python offers users a way to create both interactive and visually aesthetic plots for free. This book gets you up to speed with Bokeh - a popular Python library for interactive data visualization. The book starts out by helping you understand how Bokeh works internally and how you can set up and install the package in your local machine. You then use a real world data set which uses stock data from Kaggle to create interactive and visually stunning plots. You will also learn how to leverage Bokeh using some advanced concepts such as plotting with spatial and geo data. Finally you will use all the concepts that you have learned in the previous chapters to create your very own Bokeh application from scratch. By the end of the book you will be able to create your very own Bokeh application. You will have gone through a step by step process that starts with understanding what Bokeh actually is and ends with building your very own Bokeh application filled with interactive and visually aesthetic plots. Style and approach This books take you through a step by step process that starts with understanding what Bokeh actually is and ends with building your very own Bokeh application filled with interactive and visually aesthetic plots that will amaze your users.

Leverage the WiFi chip to build exciting Quadcopters About This Book ? Learn to create a fully functional Drone with Arduino and ESP8266 and their modified versions of hardware. ? Enhance your drone's functionalities by implementing smart features. ? A project-based guide that will get you developing next-level drones to help you monitor a particular area with mobile-like devices. Who This Book Is For If you are a programmer or a DIY enthusiast and keen to create a fully functional drone with Arduino and ESP8266, then this book is for you. Basic skills in electronics and programming would be beneficial. This book is not for the beginners as it includes lots of ideas not detailed how you can do that. If you are a beginner, then you might get lost here. The prerequisites of the book include a good knowledge of Arduino, electronics, programming in C or C++ and lots of interest in creating things out of nothing. What You Will Learn ? Includes a number of projects that utilize different ESP8266 and Arduino capabilities, while interfacing with external hardware ? Covers electrical engineering and programming concepts, interfacing with the World through analog and digital sensors, communicating with a computer and other devices, and internet connectivity ? Control and fly your quadcopter, taking into account weather conditions ? Build a drone that can follow the user wherever he/she goes ? Build a mission-control drone and learn how to use it effectively ? Maintain your vehicle as much as possible and repair it whenever required In Detail With the use of drones, DIY projects have taken off. Programmers are rapidly moving from traditional application programming to developing exciting multi-utility projects. This book will teach you to build industry-level drones with Arduino and ESP8266 and their modified versions of hardware. With this book, you will explore techniques for leveraging the tiny WiFi chip to enhance your drone and control it over a mobile phone. This book will start with teaching you how to solve problems while building your own WiFi controlled Arduino based drone. You will also learn how to build a Quadcopter and a mission critical drone. Moving on you will learn how to build a prototype drone that will be given a mission to complete which it will do it itself. You will also learn to build various exciting projects such as gliding and racing drones. By the end of this book you will learn how to maintain and troubleshoot your drone. By the end of this book, you will have learned to build drones using ESP8266 and Arduino and leverage their functionalities to the fullest. Style and approach This is an easy-to-follow guide with illustrations and technical de*ions to help you assemble your vehicle.

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.

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 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.

Gain insights into Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency and a powerful technology, to optimize your Bitcoin mining techniquesAbout This BookLearn how to use the advanced features of Bitcoin walletsSet up your Bitcoin mining operations to mine with efficiencyExplore what the future holds for mining and blockchains in this pragmatic guideWho This Book Is ForIf you have never mined before, this book will ensure that you know what mining is all about. If you are familiar with Bitcoin mining, then it will help you to optimize your mining operations at a deeper level. A basic understanding of computers and operating systems is assumed, and some familiarity with cryptocurrency basics would be an added advantage.What You Will LearnGet introduced to Bitcoin mining from the ground upFind out about mining software and the different types of mining hardwareMaster setup techniques to enable efficient miningExamine the pros and cons of the different types of mining hardwareDeduce the differences between solo and pool miningTake a peek into professional mining farmsExplore the future of mining and blockchain-based applicationsIn DetailBlockchain is being billed as the technology of the future. Bitcoin is the first application of that technology. Mining is what makes it all possible. Exploring mining from a practical perspective will help you make informed decisions about your mining setup. Understanding what the future may hold for blockchains, and therefore for mining, will help you position yourself to take advantage of the impending changes.This practical guide starts with an introduction to Bitcoin wallets, as well as mining hardware and software. You will move on to learn about different mining techniques using the CPU, GPU, FPGA, and ultimately the ASIC as an example. After this, you will gain an insight into solo mining and pool mining, and see the differences between the two. The book will then walk you through large-scale mining and the challenges faced during such operations. Finally, you will take a look into the future to see a world where blockchain-based applications are commonplace and mining is ubiquitous.Style and approachThis is a practical guide that includes detailed step-by-step instructions and examples on each essential concept of Bitcoin mining.

Harness the power of Apple Pay in your iOS apps and integrate it with global payment gatewaysAbout This BookBe it adding an Apple Pay button to your app or calculating sales tax with Apple Pay- this book gives you all the information you need to build a fully-functional Apply Pay applicationPaying within iOS Apps made easier and secure with this no nonsense and powerful guideEscape tedious payment options by creating compelling product card screens that present the Pay button, which your customers can tap to quickly order your productsWho This Book Is ForThis book is for anyone who wants to integrate Apple Pay in their applications. Basic familiarity with programming and the Xcode developer tools is expected.What You Will LearnDesign a product card that includes the Apple Pay buttonImplement the Apple Pay workflow in an efficient wayUse NSDecimalNumber objects to perform financial calculations accuratelyManage custom order information in the Apple Pay workflow and your custom order management systemExtract payment information from a payment tokenImplement a secure, server-side payment-processor programFind out everything you wanted to know about Apple Pay in iOS 9In DetailApple Pay, one of the most talked about offerings of the latest iOS 9 release, is a digital wallet and electronic payment system developed by Apple Inc. Paying in stores or within apps has never been easier or safer. Gone are the days of searching for your wallet, and the wasted moments finding the right card! Now you can use your credit cards and rewards cards with just a touch.It allows payment to merchants, using Near field Communication (NFC), and within iOS apps. Implementing Apple Pay within apps for payment is a bit tricky, but our book solves this problem for you.Whether you are a brand new iOS app developer or a seasoned expert, this book arms you with necessary skills to successfully implement Apple Pay in your online-payment workflow.Whether you are a brand new iOS app developer or a seasoned expert, this book arms you with the necessary skills to successfully implement Apple Pay. We start off by teaching you how to obtain the certificates necessary to encrypt customers’ payment information. We will use Xcode and Objective C for the interface and Node.js for server side code. You will then learn how to determine whether the customer can use Apple Pay, and how to create payment requests. You will come to grips with designing a payment-processor program to interact with the payment gateway. Finally, we take a look at a business-focused view of Apple Pay protocols and classes.By the end of this book, you will be able to build a fully functional Apple Pay-integrated iOS appStyle and approachThis is an easy-to-follow guide on integrating Apple Pay in your iOS Application. With step by step instructions along with excellent screen shots you will be able to learn everything that you wanted to know about Passbook and Apple Pay in iOS 8.

Get up and running with Magento 2 to create custom solutions, themes, and extensions effectivelyAbout This BookCreate unique solutions for Magento 2 by developing and implementing solutions, themes, and extensionsBe proficient in the main functionalities, resources, and system structure of Magento 2Get to grips with this practical and hands-on guide to raise your web development skills to the next levelWho This Book Is ForIf you are a PHP developer who wants to improve your skills in e-commerce development by creating themes and extensions for Magento 2, then this book is for you.What You Will LearnInstall and set up the Magento EcosystemChoose the best options for Magento’s Sell System featuresWork with Search Engine Optimization in MagentoCreate and customize themes for MagentoDevelop extensions for new Magento functionalitiesPackage extensions to publish in the Magento Connect networkCreate Magento solutions for mobile devicesCarry out performance adjustments to speed up your Magento systemIn DetailMagento is the e-commerce software and platform trusted by the world's leading brands. Used by thousands of merchants for their transactions worth billions, it provides the flexibility to customize the content and functionality of your website. By strengthening your fundamentals in Magento development, you can develop the best solutions and take advantage of the growing market.This fast-paced tutorial will provide you with skills you need to successfully create themes, extensions, and solutions to Magento 2 projects.This book begins by setting up Magento 2 before gradually moving onto setting the basic options of the Sell System. You will take advantage of Search Engine Optimization aspects, create design and customize theme layout, develop new extensions, and adjust the Magento System to achieve great performance. By sequentially working through the steps in each chapter, you will quickly explore all the features of Magento 2 to create a great solution.With ample examples and a practical approach, this book will ensure your success with this astonishing e-commerce management system.Style and approachThis book would be a fast-paced tutorial guide that uses hands-on examples to developing new solutions for Magento e-commerce system. Each topic is explained sequentially in the process of creating a Magento solution, along with detailed explanations of the basic and advanced features of Magento 2.

Get up and running with developing effective Hybrid Mobile Apps with IonicAbout This BookDevelop engaging mobile experiences with a native-looking UI in Ionic and AngularJSBuild mobile applications with a native UI and interactions with device APIs using popular web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScriptCreate an e-commerce mobile app using tutorials and code samplesWho This Book Is ForThis book is ideal for any web developer who wants to enter into the world of mobile app development but has no clue where to start. Ionic is an ideal starting point and provides a smooth learning curve to help you build hybrid apps using web technologies and to develop native apps for iOS and Android, you do not need to know multiple languages. This book will also be useful for Hybrid App developers who have not found the perfect framework to ensure users get a rich experience from your apps.What You Will LearnGet to know about Hybrid Apps and AngularJSSet up a development environment to build Hybrid AppsNavigate around the components and routing in IonicUse different Ionic directives for a mobile-specific experienceIntegrate an Ionic App with backend web servicesWork with plugins to include native functionality in your hybrid appsTest your apps on real devicesBuild an e-commerce app for iOS and Android from scratchIn DetailHybrid Apps are a promising choice in mobile app development to achieve cost effectiveness and rapid development. However, they were not preferred over native apps until few years back due to a poor performance and bad user experience, but everything has changed with the release of Ionic. It has evolved as the most popular choice for Hybrid Mobile App development as it tends to match the native experience and provides robust components/tools to build apps.Getting Started with Ionic equips any web developer with the basic knowledge needed to use modern web technologies to build amazing hybrid mobile apps using Ionic.This fast-paced, practical book explains all the important concepts of AngularJS and Cordova Framework required to develop apps, then gives you a brief introduction to hybrid mobile applications. It will guide you through setting up the environment to develop mobile apps, and through the multiple options and features available in Ionic so you can use them in your mobile apps. Features such as the Side Menu, Tabs, Touch Interactions, and native features such as Bar Code, Camera, and Geolocations are all covered.. Finally, we’ll show you how to use Cordova plugins and publish your apps.Style and approachGetting started with Ionic is a compact, easy-to-follow guide to developing hybrid mobile apps using Ionic with real world examples of building an e-commerce app.

Build amazing cross-platform mobile apps with Ionic, the HTML5 framework that makes modern mobile application development simpleAbout This BookLearn how to use one of the most exciting mobile development frameworks around to build even better appsFollow the featured sample projects to experience Ionic’s impressive capabilitiesExtend your developer skillset to build, test, and launch mobile apps with confidenceWho This Book Is ForThis book is for anyone who wants to see Ionic in action - and find out how it could transform the way they build mobile apps. If you’re a JavaScript web developer, you’ll be building great projects in no time.What You Will LearnLearn Ionic by creating three complete mobile applicationsGet to know the Ionic CLIAdd basic and advanced features to the Ionic frameworkConnect an Ionic app with a Firebase back endIntegrate PhoneGap plugins with NG-CordovaTest your apps to improve and optimize performanceIn DetailChange doesn’t have to be challenging. Sometimes it can be simple – sometimes it just makes sense. With Ionic, mobile development has never been so simple, so elegant and obvious. By helping developers to harness AngularJS and HTML5 for mobile development, it’s the perfect framework for anyone obsessed with performance, and anyone that understands just how important a great user experience really is.This book shows you how to get started with Ionic framework immediately. But it doesn’t just give you instructions and then expect you to follow them. Instead it demonstrates what Ionic is capable of through three practical projects you can follow and build yourself.From a basic to-do list app, a London tourist app, to a complete social media app, all three projects have been designed to help you learn Ionic at its very best. From setting up your project to developing on both the server side and front end, and best practices for testing and debugging your projects, you’ll quickly become a better mobile developer, delivering high performance mobile apps that look awesome.Ionic Framework by Example is for people who don’t want to learn now, build later – it’s for people who want to learn and build at the same time – so they can meet today’s mobile development challenges head on and deliver better products than anyone else.Style and approachThis book isn’t just an instruction manual. It doesn’t just tell you what to do – it shows you. Featuring three sample projects, it’s been created so you can get started with Ionic immediately.

Explore the possibility of building truly native, cross-platform mobile applications using your JavaScript skill—NativeScript!About This BookSave your marketing time by building for iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile platforms simultaneouslyBe an ace at utilizing the features of NativeScript and its ability to communicate with each of the host device libraries nativelyProficiently, build your fully cross-platform communication application exhibiting the fundamentals of NativeScriptWho This Book Is ForIf you are a JavaScript developer and want to build cross-platform applications, then this book is just the right one for you!What You Will LearnInstall and compile your application in NativeScriptGet important know-how on the NativeScript project structureDevelop and style your screens for multiple platformsCreate a full-featured cross-platform communication applicationImport and use several third-party componentsSimplify and deal with device resolution and cross-platform issuesTest and deploy your applicationIn DetailNativeScript allows you to build a fast cross-platform application that has a native UI. NativeScript is a true cross-platform framework that generates native speed applications using the native components of the host platform, all using JavaScript. Although NativeScript allows you to build your application in JavaScript, you have full access to the host OS from your code, allowing you to easily tweak or use new platform features instantly at native code speeds.Whether you have already developed multiple applications or zero applications, this book will help you to develop your next application in a cross-platform framework quickly, saving you a massive amount of time and money.This book concisely shows you NativeScript’s built-in framework that allows you to rapidly develop a fully-working compiled cross-platform application in just a few chapters. It starts by laying the foundation of NativeScript and working through the fundamentals to create a basic shell of the application. Moving on, you’ll see how to build a full-fledged application step by step. We’ll show you how to use plugins, and how to communicate with the native OS libraries easily so that you can customize your application as if your app was created in Java or Objective C. We then deal with the issues that arise from being cross platform and compensate for the different screen sizes, screen resolutions, and device abilities. Finally, we progress to testing and deploying your app.Style and approach A stepwise guide for building cross-platform mobile applications with the help of easy-to-understand examples.

Develop more dynamic and robust GUI applications using PySide, an open source cross-platform UI frameworkAbout This BookDesigned for beginners to help you get started with GUI application developmentDevelop your own applications by creating customized widgets and dialogsWritten in a simple and elegant structure so you easily understand how to program various GUI componentsWho This Book Is ForThis book is written for Python programmers who want to learn about GUI programming. It is also suitable for those who are new to Python but are familiar with object-oriented programming.What You Will LearnProgram GUI applications in an easy and efficient wayDownload and install PySide, a cross-platform GUI development toolkit for PythonCreate menus, toolbars, status bars, and child windowsDevelop a text editor application on your ownConnect your GUI to a database and manage itExecute SQL queries by handling databasesIn DetailElegantly-built GUI applications are always a massive hit among users. PySide is an open source software project that provides Python bindings for the Qt cross-platform UI framework. Combining the power of Qt and Python, PySide provides easy access to the Qt framework for Python developers and also acts as an excellent rapid application development platform.This book will take you through everything you need to know to develop UI applications. You will learn about installing and building PySide in various major operating systems as well as the basics of GUI programming. The book will then move on to discuss event management, signals and slots, and the widgets and dialogs available with PySide. Database interaction and manipulation is also covered.By the end of this book, you will be able to program GUI applications efficiently and master how to develop your own applications and how to run them across platforms.Style and approachThis is an accessible and practical guide to developing GUIs for Python applications.

Build well-structured, testable applications and APIs using hapi.js About This Book With the help of this book, you will improve your productivity as a developer and that of your team by focusing on business logic utilizing the structure that Hapi.js provides You will be introduced to a real-world problem and we’ll demonstrate how to use the tools Hapi provides to resolve it This is the only book with a learn-by-example approach Who This Book Is For If you are a JavaScript developer with or without Node.js experience and would like to learn to build applications, APIs, and web servers with the best-in-class framework hapi.js, this book is perfect for you. What You Will Learn Increase your productivity by taking advantage of the out-of-the-box features hapi.js provides Build secure API servers Create websites and applications using your favorite templating language Leverage hapi.js plugins to better structure your codebase Simplify your security workflows with the built-in authentication and authorization functionality of hapi.js Ensure application reliability with testing and code coverage Reduce code complexity using reusable validation logic with joi Gather insight into your application performance via logging Start the journey to building robust production-ready applications In Detail This book will introduce hapi.js and walk you through the creation of your first working application using the out-of-the-box features hapi.js provides. Packed with real-world problems and examples, this book introduces some of the basic concepts of hapi.js and Node.js and takes you through the typical journey you'll face when developing an application. Starting with easier concepts such as routing requests, building APIs serving JSON, using templates to build websites and applications, and connecting databases, we then move on to more complex problems such as authentication, model validation, caching, and techniques for structuring your codebase to scale gracefully. You will also develop skills to ensure your application's reliability through testing, code coverage, and logging. By the end of this book, you'll be equipped with all the skills you need to build your first fully featured application. This book will be invaluable if you are investigating Node.js frameworks or planning on using hapi.js in your next project. Style and approach This book takes a step-by-step approach to building an application or web server using hapi.js though examples.

A step-by-step introductory guide to mobile app development with App Inventor 2 About This Book Get an introduction to the functionalities of App Inventor 2 and use it to unleash your creativity Learn to navigate the App Inventor platform, develop basic coding skills and become familiar with a blocks based programming language Build your very first mobile app and feel proud of your accomplishment Follow tutorials to expand your app development skills Who This Book Is For App Inventor 2 Essentials is for anyone who wants to learn to make mobile apps for Android devices – no prior coding experience is necessary. What You Will Learn Perform technical setup and navigate the App Inventor platform Utilize the interactive development environment by pairing a mobile device with a computer using Wi-Fi or USB Build three apps: a game, an event app and a raffle app Create the user interface of the app in the Designer and program the code in the Blocks Editor Integrate basic computer science principles along with more complex elements such fusion tables and lists Test and troubleshoot your applications Publish your apps on Google Play Store to reach a wide audience Unleash your creativity for further app development In Detail App Inventor 2 will take you on a journey of mobile app development. We begin by introducing you to the functionalities of App Inventor and giving you an idea about the types of apps you can develop using it. We walk you through the technical set up so you can take advantage of the interactive development environment (live testing). You will get hands-on, practical experience building three different apps using tutorials. Along the way, you will learn computer science principles as well as tips to help you prepare for the creative process of building an app from scratch. By the end of the journey, you will learn how to package an app and deploy it to app markets. App Inventor 2 Essentials prepares you to amass a resource of skills, knowledge and experience to become a mobile app developer Style and approach Every topic in this book is explained in step-by-step and easy-to-follow fashion, accompanied with screenshots of the interface that will make it easier for you to understand the processes.

Solve practical real-world problems using JavaScript and Node.js About This Book Learn the concepts of Node.js to gain a high-level understanding of the Node.js execution model Build an interactive web application with MongoDB and Redis and create your own JavaScript modules that work both on the client side and server side Familiarize yourself with the new features of Node.js and JavaScript with this exclusive step-by-step guide Who This Book Is For This book is for developers who want to learn JavaScript and Node.js. Previous experience with programming is desired, but no JavaScript or Node.js knowledge is required. The book focuses mostly on web development, such as networking, serving dynamic pages, and real-time client-server communication. What You Will Learn Understand which problems Node.js best solves Write idiomatic JavaScript and Node.js code Build web applications and command-line tools Minimise complexity and efficiently solve difficult problems Test and deploy Node.js applications Work with persistent data Implement real-time client-server applications Integrate .NET and Node.js code In Detail Node.js is an open source, cross-platform runtime environment that allows you to use JavaScript to develop server-side web applications. This short guide will help you develop applications using JavaScript and Node.js, leverage your existing programming skills from .NET or Java, and make the most of these other platforms through understanding the Node.js programming model. You will learn how to build web applications and APIs in Node, discover packages in the Node.js ecosystem, test and deploy your Node.js code, and more. Finally, you will discover how to integrate Node.js and .NET code. Style and approach This is a step-by-step and practical guide to Node.js for .Net developers. It covers the fundamentals relating to typical applications. The focus is on providing the practical skills required to develop applications, with a summary of the key concepts covered.

A quick and concise guide to Angular 2 Components About This Book First look to the Angular 2 Components architecture Creating your own Angular 2 Component Integrating your components with third party components Who This Book Is For If you are a front-end developer with some experience in Angular and want to understand Angular 2 Components, and easily put it to use to create powerful user interfaces and views, then this book is for you What You Will Learn Break your application into reusable dynamic components Take advantage of TypeScript in Angular 2 Migrate your Angular 1 directive to an Angular 2 Component Understand the Angular 2 component structure and APIs Hook to component life cycle events Bind dynamic data to your component properties Communicate with other components using events Compose complicated UIs from simple components In Detail This book is a concise guide to Angular 2 Components and is based on the stable version of Angular 2. You will start with learning about the Angular 2 Components architecture and how components differ from Angular directives in Angular 1. You will then move on to quickly set up an Angular 2 development environment and grasp the basics of TypeScript. With this strong foundation in place, you will start building components. The book will teach you, with an example, how to define component behavior, create component templates, and use the controller of your component. You will also learn how to make your components communicate with each other. Once you have built a component, you will learn how to extend it by integrating third-party components with it. By the end of the book, you will be confident with building and using components for your applications. Style and approach A step-by-step guide covering features and working of Angular 2 Components along with the process for creating your own components.

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.

Unreal Engine 4 for virtual reality game design, development, User Experience design techniques and Blueprint programming to create virtual reality gameplay for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, PSVR, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Key Features * Build VR games from scratch with the power of Unreal Engine 4 * Learn User Experience design practices to take your VR game to the next level * Understand the best practices to creating art for games on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and PSVR Book Description With the ability to put players directly in the game, virtual reality gives users the chance to experience digital worlds directly. Nevertheless, many designers are unsure where to start when working with this amazing technology. With this book, you will learn user experience design processes and create immersive gameplay experiences designed for entertainment and player comfort. Using the power of Unreal Engine 4’s Blueprint visual scripting language, you will build player interaction and locomotion systems from scratch and use these flexible systems to create a sample game, as well as develop functional 2D and 3D user interfaces for players to interact with. And also learn the best practices for creating game art for virtual reality. Finally, you will learn how to test your application with your target audience and finalize your game for distribution. By the end of this book, you will have the knowledge to be able to make the leap from traditional game development to creating immersive virtual reality experiences using Unreal Engine 4. What you will learn * Understand how to get started with VR development in Unreal Engine 4 * Design and create interaction and locomotion systems from scratch * Plan and program a sample game for VR * Understand how VR affects user experience and user interfaces * Discuss what is needed to create optimized art for VR * Test your game with users and prepare for distribution Who this book is for The audience for this book is intermediate or advanced users of Unreal Engine 4 but who have not begun working with VR technology. These users are familiar with the game engine and have an interest in VR technology. They are just beginning to explore the VR features that the game engine has to offer.

A practical guide for solving complex data processing challenges by applying the best optimizations techniques in Apache Spark. Key Features * Learn about the core concepts and the latest developments in Apache Spark * Master writing efficient big data applications with Spark’s built-in modules for SQL, Streaming, Machine Learning and Graph analysis * Get introduced to a variety of optimizations based on the actual experience Book Description Apache Spark is a flexible framework that allows processing of batch and real-time data. Its unified engine has made it quite popular for big data use cases. This book will help you to get started with Apache Spark 2.0 and write big data applications for a variety of use cases. It will also introduce you to Apache Spark – one of the most popular Big Data processing frameworks. Although this book is intended to help you get started with Apache Spark, but it also focuses on explaining the core concepts. This practical guide provides a quick start to the Spark 2.0 architecture and its components. It teaches you how to set up Spark on your local machine. As we move ahead, you will be introduced to resilient distributed datasets (RDDs) and DataFrame APIs, and their corresponding transformations and actions. Then, we move on to the life cycle of a Spark application and learn about the techniques used to debug slow-running applications. You will also go through Spark’s built-in modules for SQL, streaming, machine learning, and graph analysis. Finally, the book will lay out the best practices and optimization techniques that are key for writing efficient Spark applications. By the end of this book, you will have a sound fundamental understanding of the Apache Spark framework and you will be able to write and optimize Spark applications. What you will learn * Learn core concepts such as RDDs, DataFrames, transformations, and more * Set up a Spark development environment * Choose the right APIs for your applications * Understand Spark’s architecture and the execution flow of a Spark application * Explore built-in modules for SQL, streaming, ML, and graph analysis * Optimize your Spark job for better performance Who this book is for If you are a big data enthusiast and love processing huge amount of data, this book is for you. If you are data engineer and looking for the best optimization techniques for your Spark applications, then you will find this book helpful. This book also helps data scientists who want to implement their machine learning algorithms in Spark. You need to have a basic understanding of any one of the programming languages such as Scala, Python or Java.

Combine advanced analytics including Machine Learning, Deep Learning Neural Networks and Natural Language Processing with modern scalable technologies including Apache Spark to derive actionable insights from Big Data in real-time Key Features *Make a hands-on start in the fields of Big Data, Distributed Technologies and Machine Learning *Learn how to design, develop and interpret the results of common Machine Learning algorithms *Uncover hidden patterns in your data in order to derive real actionable insights and business value Book Description Every person and every organization in the world manages data, whether they realize it or not. Data is used to describe the world around us and can be used for almost any purpose, from analyzing consumer habits to fighting disease and serious organized crime. Ultimately, we manage data in order to derive value from it, and many organizations around the world have traditionally invested in technology to help process their data faster and more efficiently. But we now live in an interconnected world driven by mass data creation and consumption where data is no longer rows and columns restricted to a spreadsheet, but an organic and evolving asset in its own right. With this realization comes major challenges for organizations: how do we manage the sheer size of data being created every second (think not only spreadsheets and databases, but also social media posts, images, videos, music, blogs and so on)? And once we can manage all of this data, how do we derive real value from it? The focus of Machine Learning with Apache Spark is to help us answer these questions in a hands-on manner. We introduce the latest scalable technologies to help us manage and process big data. We then introduce advanced analytical algorithms applied to real-world use cases in order to uncover patterns, derive actionable insights, and learn from this big data. What you will learn *Understand how Spark fits in the context of the big data ecosystem *Understand how to deploy and configure a local development environment using Apache Spark *Understand how to design supervised and unsupervised learning models *Build models to perform NLP, deep learning, and cognitive services using Spark ML libraries *Design real-time machine learning pipelines in Apache Spark *Become familiar with advanced techniques for processing a large volume of data by applying machine learning algorithms Who this book is for This book is aimed at Business Analysts, Data Analysts and Data Scientists who wish to make a hands-on start in order to take advantage of modern Big Data technologies combined with Advanced Analytics.

Process large volumes of data in real-time while building high performance and robust data stream processing pipeline using the latest Apache Kafka 2.0 Key Features *Solve practical large data and processing challenges with Kafka *Tackle data processing challenges like late events, windowing, and watermarking *Understand real-time streaming applications processing using Schema registry, Kafka connect, Kafka streams, and KSQL Book Description Apache Kafka is a great open source platform for handling your real-time data pipeline to ensure high-speed filtering and pattern matching on the ?y. In this book, you will learn how to use Apache Kafka for efficient processing of distributed applications and will get familiar with solving everyday problems in fast data and processing pipelines. This book focuses on programming rather than the configuration management of Kafka clusters or DevOps. It starts off with the installation and setting up the development environment, before quickly moving on to performing fundamental messaging operations such as validation and enrichment. Here you will learn about message composition with pure Kafka API and Kafka Streams. You will look into the transformation of messages in different formats, such asext, binary, XML, JSON, and AVRO. Next, you will learn how to expose the schemas contained in Kafka with the Schema Registry. You will then learn how to work with all relevant connectors with Kafka Connect. While working with Kafka Streams, you will perform various interesting operations on streams, such as windowing, joins, and aggregations. Finally, through KSQL, you will learn how to retrieve, insert, modify, and delete data streams, and how to manipulate watermarks and windows. What you will learn *How to validate data with Kafka *Add information to existing data ?ows *Generate new information through message composition *Perform data validation and versioning with the Schema Registry *How to perform message Serialization and Deserialization *How to perform message Serialization and Deserialization *Process data streams with Kafka Streams *Understand the duality between tables and streams with KSQL Who this book is for This book is for developers who want to quickly master the practical concepts behind Apache Kafka. The audience need not have come across Apache Kafka previously; however, a familiarity of Java or any JVM language will be helpful in understanding the code in this book.