Build customized themes to make your Moodle courses engaging and interactive About This Book Leverage the power of Moodle 3 to create interactive and engaging themes for your courses Experience and integrate the power of Bootstrap and CSS into your Moodle app Implement your plans with illustrative examples to become a top notch designer Who This Book Is For If you are a Moodle administrator, developer, or designer and wish to enhance your Moodle site to make it visually attractive, then this book is for you. You should be familiar with web design techniques such as HTML and further experience with CSS would be helpful. What You Will Learn Plan a personalized Moodle theme from start to finish Install a Moodle theme in different operating systems and change Moodle’s theme settings Add your own customized logo and test your changes in several web browsers Customize the Moodle site to fit in with other elements such as websites and social networks, among others Create a design mock-up using graphics software Design themes that are capable of working with a huge number of different resolutions, screen sizes, screen orientations, and pixel densities Work with code to adjust the theme to users requirements Create new custom icons for your theme In Detail Theming is one of the main features of Moodle, and it can be used to customize your online courses and make them look exactly how you want them to,according to your target audience. If you have been looking for a book that will help you develop Moodle themes that you are proud of, and that your students will enjoy, then this is the book for you. We start off by introducing Moodle 3 and explaining what it is, how it works, and what tools you might need to create a stunning Moodle theme. We then show you how to choose and change the pre-installed Moodle themes in detailed steps, and explain what Moodle themes are and how they work. Next, we show you how to change an existing theme and test the changes that you have made. You can not only plan the customization of theme, but also tailor it using advanced Moodle theming processes; this book is your one-stop guide to creating your own personalized Moodle 3 theme. Style and approach This book acts as a comprehensive guide which helps you to create visually stunning and responsive themes to add that extra edge to your Moodle apps.

Transform physical phenomena into computer-acceptable data using a truly object-oriented language About This Book Create your own data acquisition system independently using LabVIEW and build interactive dashboards Collect data using National Instrument's and third-party, open source, affordable hardware Step-by-step real-world examples using various tools that illustrate the fundamentals of data acquisition Who This Book Is For If you are an engineer, scientist, experienced hobbyist, or student, you will highly benefit from the content and examples illustrated in this book. A working knowledge of precision testing, measurement instruments, and electronics, as well as a background in computer fundamentals and programming is expected. What You Will Learn Create a virtual instrument which highlights common functionality of LabVIEW Get familiarized with common buses such as Serial, GPIB, and SCPI commands Staircase signal acquisition using NI-DAQmx Discover how to measure light intensity and distance Master LabVIEW debugging techniques Build a data acquisition application complete with an installer and required drivers Utilize open source microcontroller Arduino and a 32-bit Arduino compatible Uno32 using LabVIEW programming environment In Detail NI LabVIEW's intuitive graphical interface eliminates the steep learning curve associated with text-based languages such as C or C++. LabVIEW is a proven and powerful integrated development environment to interact with measurement and control hardware, analyze data, publish results, and distribute systems. This hands-on tutorial guide helps you harness the power of LabVIEW for data acquisition. This book begins with a quick introduction to LabVIEW, running through the fundamentals of communication and data collection. Then get to grips with the auto-code generation feature of LabVIEW using its GUI interface. You will learn how to use NI-DAQmax Data acquisition VIs, showing how LabVIEW can be used to appropriate a true physical phenomenon (such as temperature, light, and so on) and convert it to an appropriate data type that can be manipulated and analyzed with a computer. You will also learn how to create Distribution Kit for LabVIEW, acquainting yourself with various debugging techniques offered by LabVIEW to help you in situations where bugs are not letting you run your programs as intended. By the end of the book, you will have a clear idea how to build your own data acquisition system independently and much more. Style and approach A hands-on practical guide that starts by laying down the software and hardware foundations necessary for subsequent data acquisition-intensive chapters. The book is packed full of specific examples with software screenshots and schematic diagrams to guide you through the creation of each virtual instrument.

Master application development by writing succinct, robust, and reusable code with Qt 5 About This Book Unleash the power of Qt 5 with C++14 Integrate useful third-party libraries such as OpenCV Package and deploy your application on multiple platforms Who This Book Is For This book will appeal to developers and programmers who would like to build GUI-based applications. Knowledge of C++ is necessary and the basics of Qt would be helpful. What You Will Learn Create stunning UIs with Qt Widget and Qt Quick Develop powerful, cross-platform applications with the Qt framework Design GUIs with the Qt Designer and build a library in it for UI preview Handle user interaction with the Qt signal/slot mechanism in C++ Prepare a cross-platform project to host a third-party library Build a Qt application using the OpenCV API Use the Qt Animation framework to display stunning effects Deploy mobile apps with Qt and embedded platforms In Detail Qt 5.7 is an application development framework that provides a great user experience and develops full-capability applications with Qt Widgets, QML, and even Qt 3D. This book will address challenges in successfully developing cross-platform applications with the Qt framework. Cross-platform development needs a well-organized project. Using this book, you will have a better understanding of the Qt framework and the tools to resolve serious issues such as linking, debugging, and multithreading. Your journey will start with the new Qt 5 features. Then you will explore different platforms and learn to tame them. Every chapter along the way is a logical step that you must take to master Qt. The journey will end in an application that has been tested and is ready to be shipped. Style and approach This is an easy-to-follow yet comprehensive guide to building applications in Qt. Each chapter covers increasingly advanced topics, with subjects grouped according to their complexity as well as their usefulness. Packed with practical examples and explanations, Mastering Qt contains everything you need to take your applications to the next level.

Discover over 70 real-world examples to overcome the most complex concepts you will face developing with Visualforce About This Book This book provides an enhanced user experience with dynamically-generated, reactive pages Access data over additional channels via public web sites and mobile pages Packed with easy-to-follow recipes, including step-by-step instructions and Apex/Visualforce code downloads this title is the all in one package you need to get more from Visualforce. Who This Book Is For This book will be beneficial to developers who are already well-versed with the basics of Visualforce. An awareness of the standard component library and the purpose of controllers is expected. What You Will Learn Pass parameters between Visualforce pages Update attributes in component controllers Avoid validation errors with action regions Refresh record details from embedded Visualforce Create and develop a website template from scratch Get to know about the Salesforce Lightening Design system and use Visualforce in Salesforce1 Effectively tackle frequently-faced problems while developing Visualforce pages In Detail Visualforce is a framework that allows developers to build sophisticated, custom user interfaces that can be hosted natively on the Force.com platform. The Visualforce framework includes a tag-based markup language, similar to HTML that is used to write the Visualforce pages and a set of controllers that are used to write business logic to the Visualforce pages. Visualforce Development Cookbook provides solutions to a variety of challenges faced by Salesforce developers and demonstrates how easy it is to build rich, interactive pages using Visualforce. Whether you are looking to make a minor addition to the standard page functionality or override it completely, this book will provide you with the help you require throughout. You will start by learning about the simple utilities and will build up to more advanced techniques for data visualization and to reuse functionality. You will learn how to perform various tasks such as creating multiple records from a single page, visualizing data as charts, using JavaScript to enhance client-side functionality, building a public website, and making data available to a mobile device. With an interesting chapter on tackling common issues faced while developing Visualforce pages, the book provides lots of practical examples to enhance and extend your Salesforce user interface. Style and approach Following a cookbook structure, the book provides recipes on some essential technical scenarios and a few that focus on real-world development problems. This book is packed with illustrations and contains lots of code samples to improve your understanding.

Exploit the power of data in your business by building advanced predictive modeling applications with Python About This Book Master open source Python tools to build sophisticated predictive models Learn to identify the right machine learning algorithm for your problem with this forward-thinking guide Grasp the major methods of predictive modeling and move beyond the basics to a deeper level of understanding Who This Book Is For This book is designed for business analysts, BI analysts, data scientists, or junior level data analysts who are ready to move from a conceptual understanding of advanced analytics to an expert in designing and building advanced analytics solutions using Python. You’re expected to have basic development experience with Python. What You Will Learn Gain an insight into components and design decisions for an analytical application Master the use Python notebooks for exploratory data analysis and rapid prototyping Get to grips with applying regression, classification, clustering, and deep learning algorithms Discover the advanced methods to analyze structured and unstructured data Find out how to deploy a machine learning model in a production environment Visualize the performance of models and the insights they produce Scale your solutions as your data grows using Python Ensure the robustness of your analytic applications by mastering the best practices of predictive analysis In Detail The volume, diversity, and speed of data available has never been greater. Powerful machine learning methods can unlock the value in this information by finding complex relationships and unanticipated trends. Using the Python programming language, analysts can use these sophisticated methods to build scalable analytic applications to deliver insights that are of tremendous value to their organizations. In Mastering Predictive Analytics with Python, you will learn the process of turning raw data into powerful insights. Through case studies and code examples using popular open-source Python libraries, this book illustrates the complete development process for analytic applications and how to quickly apply these methods to your own data to create robust and scalable prediction services. Covering a wide range of algorithms for classification, regression, clustering, as well as cutting-edge techniques such as deep learning, this book illustrates not only how these methods work, but how to implement them in practice. You will learn to choose the right approach for your problem and how to develop engaging visualizations to bring the insights of predictive modeling to life Style and approach This book emphasizes on explaining methods through example data and code, showing you templates that you can quickly adapt to your own use cases. It focuses on both a practical application of sophisticated algorithms and the intuitive understanding necessary to apply the correct method to the problem at hand. Through visual examples, it also demonstrates how to convey insights through insightful charts and reporting.

A recipe-based book to help you efficiently create amazing PHP-based applications with Laravel 5.x About This Book Leverage the amazing new features of Laravel 5.x to create cutting-edge responsive PHP applications. Create apps with interoperability features and extend these features to your existing applications as well. Over 60 recipes that combine tried and tested Laravel tips for getting your app working. Who This Book Is For The ideal target audience for this book is PHP developers who have some basic PHP programming knowledge. No previous experience with Laravel is required for this book. What You Will Learn Optimize Your Gulp and Elixir Workflow Use Travis to run tests with every push Build and test your view-based route in PHPUnit Explore workflows for migrations and seeding Implement Angular in your Laravel applications Set up a user authentication system Integrate the new Billing library and Stripe in your Laravel application Use the Artisan command-line tool Test your App in Production with Behat In Detail Laravel is a prominent member of a new generation of web frameworks. It is one of the most popular PHP frameworks and is also free and an open source. Laravel 5 is a substantial upgrade with a lot of new toys, at the same time retaining the features that made Laravel wildly successful. It comes with plenty of architectural as well as design-based changes. The book is a blend of numerous recipes that will give you all the necessary tips you need to build an application. It starts with basic installation and configuration tasks and will get you up-and-running in no time. You will learn to create and customize your PHP app and tweak and re-design your existing apps for better performance. You will learn to implement practical recipes to utilize Laravel’s modular structure, the latest method injection, route caching, and interfacing techniques to create responsive modern-day PHP apps that stand on their own against other apps. Efficient testing and deploying techniques will make you more confident with your Laravel skills as you move ahead with this book. Towards the end of the book, you will understand a number of add-ons and new features essential to finalize your application to make it ready for sub*ions. You will be empowered to get your application out to the world. Style and approach This book will have a practical recipe-based approach with dedicated recipes on your daily Laravel tasks (as well as on more advanced issues) that will help you become a pro with Laravel 5.x

From an idea to a prototype – a complete guide for web development with the Django framework About This Book Explore the best practices to develop applications of a superior quality with Django framework Unravel the common problems of web development in Django This course teaches you major Django functions and will help you improve your skills by developing models, forms, views, and templates Experience the challenges of working on an end-to-end social network project Who This Book Is For Web developers who want to use modern Python-based web frameworks like Django to build powerful web applications. The course is mostly self-contained and introduces web development with Python to a reader who is familiar with web development concepts and can help him become an expert in this trade. It’s intended for all levels of web developers, both students and practitioners from novice to experts. What You Will Learn Use Django models to store information in the database and generate queries to access a database across models Quickly develop web pages to create, read, update, and delete data from the model using class-based views Generate very maintainable forms with Django Import data from local sources and external web services as well as exporting your data to third parties Deep dive into various aspects of Django from models and views to testing and deployment Familiarize yourself with the various nuances of web development such as browser attacks and databases In Detail Data science is hot right now, and the need for multitalented developers is greater than ever before. A basic grounding in building apps with a framework as minimalistic, powerful, and easy-to-learn as Django will be a useful skill to launch your career as an entrepreneur or web developer. Django is a web framework that was designed to strike a balance between rapid web development and high performance. This course will take you on a journey to become an efficient web developer thoroughly understanding the key concepts of Django framework. This learning path is divided into three modules. The course begins with basic concepts of the Django framework. The first module, Django Essentials, is like a practical guide, filled with many real-world examples to build highly effective Django web application. After getting familiar with core concepts of Django, it's time to practice your learning from the first module with the help of over 90 recipes available in this module. In the second module, Web Development with Django Cookbook, you'll learn varying complexities to help you create multilingual, responsive, and scalable websites with Django. By the end of this module, you will have a good understanding of the new features added to Django 1.8 and be an expert at web development processes.The next step is to discover the latest best practices and idioms in this rapidly evolving Django framework. This is what you'll be learning in our third module, Django Design Patterns and Best Practices. This module will teach you common design patterns to develop better Django code. By the end of the module, you will be able to leverage the Django framework to develop a fully functional web application with minimal effort. Style and approach This course includes all the resources that will help you jump into the web development field with Django and learn how to make scalable and robust web applications. The aim is to create a smooth learning path that will teach you how to get started with the powerful Django framework and perform various web development techniques in depth. Through this comprehensive course, you'll learn web development with Django from scratch to finish!

Take Python beyond *ing to build robust, reusable, and efficient applications About This Book Get to grips with Python techniques that address commonly encountered problems in general application development. Develop, package, and deploy efficient applications in a fun way. All-practical coverage of the major areas of application development, including best practices, exception handling, testing, refactoring, design patterns, performance, and GUI application development. Who This Book Is For Do you know the basics of Python and object oriented programmingDo you want to go an extra mile and learn techniques to make your Python application robust, extensible, and efficientThen this book is for you. What You Will Learn Build a robust application by handling exceptions. Modularize, package, and release the source distribution. Document the code and implement coding standards. Create automated tests to catch bugs in the early development stage. Identify and re-factor badly written code to improve application life. Detect recurring problems in the code and apply design patterns. Improve code efficiency by identifying performance bottlenecks and fixing them. Develop simple GUI applications using Python. In Detail Python is one of the most widely used dynamic programming languages, supported by a rich set of libraries and frameworks that enable rapid development. But fast paced development often comes with its own baggage that could bring down the quality, performance, and extensibility of an application. This book will show you ways to handle such problems and write better Python applications. From the basics of simple command-line applications, develop your skills all the way to designing efficient and advanced Python apps. Guided by a light-hearted fantasy learning theme, overcome the real-world problems of complex Python development with practical solutions. Beginning with a focus on robustness, packaging, and releasing application code, you’ll move on to focus on improving application lifetime by making code extensible, reusable, and readable. Get to grips with Python refactoring, design patterns and best practices. Techniques to identify the bottlenecks and improve performance are covered in a series of chapters devoted to performance, before closing with a look at developing Python GUIs. Style and approach The book uses a fantasy game theme as a medium to explain various topics. Specific aspects of application development are explained in different chapters. In each chapter the reader is presented with an interesting problem which is then tackled using hands-on examples with easy-to-follow instructions.

Develop programmatic functions to create powerful database applications About This Book Write complex SQL queries and design a robust database design that fits your application's need Improve database performance by indexing, partitioning tables, and query optimizing A comprehensive guide covering the advanced PostgreSQL concepts without any hassle Who This Book Is For If you are a PostgreSQL developer with a basic knowledge of PostgreSQL development and you’re want deeper knowledge to develop applications, then this book is for you. As this book does not cover basic installation and configurations, you should have PostgreSQL installed on your machine as a prerequisite. What You Will Learn Write more complex queries with advanced SQL queries Design a database that works with the application exactly the way you want Make the database work in extreme conditions by tuning, optimizing, partitioning, and indexing Develop applications in other programming languages such as Java and PHP Use extensions to get extra benefits in terms of functionality and performance Build an application that does not get locked by data manipulation Explore in-built db functions and data type conversions In Detail PostgreSQL is the most advanced open source database in the world. It is easy to install, configure, and maintain by following the documentation; however, it’s difficult to develop applications using programming languages and design databases accordingly. This book is what you need to get the most out of PostgreSQL You will begin with advanced SQL topics such as views, materialized views, and cursors, and learn about performing data type conversions. You will then perform trigger operations and use trigger functions in PostgreSQL. Next we walk through data modeling, normalization concepts, and the effect of transactions and locking on the database. The next half of the book covers the types of indexes, constrains, and the concepts of table partitioning, as well as the different mechanisms and approaches available to write efficient queries or code. Later, we explore PostgreSQL Extensions and Large Object Support in PostgreSQL. Finally, you will perform database operations in PostgreSQL using PHP and Java. By the end of this book, you will have mastered all the aspects of PostgreSQL development. You will be able to build efficient enterprise-grade applications with PostgreSQL by making use of these concepts Style and approach Every chapter follows a step by step approach that first explains the concept , then shows you how to execute it practically so that you can implement them in your application.

Ensure your code is sleek, efficient and elegant by mastering powerful Python design patterns About This Book Learn all about abstract design patterns and how to implement them in Python 3 Understand the structural, creational, and behavioral Python design patterns Get to know the context and application of design patterns to solve real-world problems in software architecture, design, and application development Discover how to simplify Design Pattern implementation using the power of Python 3 Who This Book Is For If you have basic Python skills and wish to learn in depth how to correctly apply appropriate design patterns, this course is tailor made for you. What You Will Learn Discover what design patterns are and how to apply them to writing Python Implement objects in Python by creating classes and defining methods Separate related objects into a taxonomy of classes and describe the properties and behaviors of those objects via the class interface Understand when to use object-oriented features, and more importantly when not to use them Get to know proven solutions to common design issues Explore the design principles that form the basis of software design, such as loose coupling, the Hollywood principle, and the Open Close principle, among others Use Structural Design Patterns and find out how objects and classes interact to build larger applications Improve the productivity and code base of your application using Python design patterns Secure an interface using the Proxy pattern In Detail Python is an object-oriented *ing language that is used in everything from data science to web development. Known for its simplicity, Python increases productivity and minimizes development time. Through applying essential software engineering design patterns to Python, Python code becomes even more efficient and reusable from project to project. This learning path takes you through every traditional and advanced design pattern best applied to Python code, building your skills in writing exceptional Python. Divided into three distinct modules, you’ll go from foundational to advanced concepts by following a series of practical tutorials. Start with the bedrock of Python programming – the object-oriented paradigm. Rethink the way you work with Python as you work through the Python data structures and object-oriented techniques essential to modern Python programming. Build your confidence as you learn Python syntax, and how to use OOP principles with Python tools such as Django and Kivy. In the second module, run through the most common and most useful design patterns from a Python perspective. Progress through Singleton patterns, Factory patterns, Fa?ade patterns and more all with detailed hands-on guidance. Enhance your professional abilities in in software architecture, design, and development. In the final module, run through the more complex and less common design patterns, discovering how to apply them to Python coding with the help of real-world examples. Get to grips with the best practices of writing Python, as well as creating systems architecture and troubleshooting issues. This Learning Path combines some of the best that Packt has to offer in one complete, curated package. It includes content from the following Packt products: Python 3 Object-Oriented Programming - Second Edition by Dusty Phillips Learning Python Design Patterns - Second Edition by Chetan Giridhar Mastering Python Design Patterns by Sakis Kasampalis Style and approach Advance your Python code through three distinct modules that each build on preceding content. Get the complete coverage of Python design patterns you need to write elegant and efficient code that’s reusable and powerful.

Master the art of agile single page web application development with ClojureScript About This Book Set up interactive development workflows for the browser or Node.js thanks to the ClojureScript ecosystem Learn the basics of interactive single page web app development taking advantage of the functional nature of ClojureScript Delve into advanced rich web application development concepts such as Om, along with core.async, using zippers and logic programming, and preparing code for production with testing or optimizing via the Google Closure Compiler Who This Book Is For This book is for web application developers who want to benefit from the power of ClojureScript to get an agile and highly productive development platform that targets mainly browser JavaScript. You are not required to be fluent in Clojure, but it will be easier for you if you have a basic understanding of browser and server-side JavaScript. What You Will Learn Understand how the ClojureScript compiler operates Set up interactive development workflows for ClojureScript Grasp the basics of the ClojureScript language, including basic syntax, data structures, variable scoping, namespaces, and finally the powerful sequence abstraction Delve into advanced concepts such as functional programming, macro writing, asynchronous programming, app routing, and real-time web Develop simple one page web applications Explore techniques to make your web apps aware of the external world through external or embedded database access or Oauth 2 integration Learn more advanced ClojureScript concepts like in app routing, real-time web Prepare your work for production, getting insights into optional type-checking, writing portable Clojure/ClojureScript code, and testing In Detail Clojure is an expressive language that makes it possible to easily tackle complex software development challenges. Its bias toward interactive development has made it a powerful tool, enabling high developer productivity. In this book, you will first learn how to construct an interactive development experience for ClojureScript.. You will be guided through ClojureScript language concepts, looking at the basics first, then being introduced to advanced concepts such as functional programming or macro writing. After that, we elaborate on the subject of single page web applications, showcasing how to build a simple one, then covering different possible enhancements. We move on to study more advanced ClojureScript concepts, where you will be shown how to address some complex algorithmic cases. Finally, you'll learn about optional type-checking for your programs, how you can write portable code, test it, and put the advanced compilation mode of the Google Closure Compiler to good use. Style and approach This book is a comprehensive reference guide on ClojureScript development for the front end, and will gradually help you master interactive ClojureScript development workflows, through detailed step-by-step information illustrated with annotated code samples.

Over 80 recipes to teach you the power of vRealize Configuration Manager 5.8 to provide automated and continuous configuration management About This Book First book in the market that provides a broad configuration and compliance management solution for your enterprise. Champion the skills of the latest features of VMware vRealize Configuration Manager and implement it in your organization. A recipe based approach book that will enlighten you to configure VCM to collect and manage data from your virtual and physical environment. Who This Book Is For If you are a system administrator who is eager to provide better administration with VCM and are familiar with managing network users and resources along with performing system maintenance, then this book is for you. What You Will Learn Find out how to configure automated patching of your infrastructure for Windows as well Unix machines Maintain and upgrade your vRealize Configuration Manager Integrate with other VMware tools such as vCloud Director, vRealise Operations, vCenter, and vCloud Network and Security Understand what vRealize Configuration Manager is and what its capacities are Explore how vRealize Configuration Manager can be used for patching, compliance management, and software distribution Troubleshoot vRealize Configuration Manager with ease In Detail VMware vRealize Configuration Manager (VCM) helps you to automate IT operations, manage performance, and gain visibility across physical and virtual infrastructure. It is continuously being used by enterprises to audit the configurations of the VMware infrastructure as well as the Windows, Linux, and UNIX operating systems. This book is filled with practical recipes through which you will learn about the latest features of vRealize Configuration Manager 5.8.X, starting with installation of various tiers of VCM followed by configuration management across physical and virtual servers. Throughout this book, you will explore how VCM can perform tasks such as patch management, compliance assessment, and software package distribution along with Machine filters for new platforms such as RHEL 7 and Windows 10. This book will ease your troubles while upgrading from the existing VCM to the latest version by providing you with step-by-step instructions about the process of migration along with upgrade and maintenance support. This book will help you understand how to integrate vRealize Configuration with other applications along with schedule management and also guide you on how to handle security issues. After reading this book, you will have a clear understanding of how VCM fits in the overall picture of the data center design from a patching and compliance perspective. Style and approach This book takes a recipe-based approach that will provide you with an effective and a practical configuration management solution for your enterprise.

Explore the features of Unity 5 for 2D game development by building three amazing game projects About This Book Explore the 2D architecture of Unity 5, and the tools and techniques for developing 2D games Discover how to use Unity’s 2D tools, including Sprites, physics, and maps, to create different genres of games Practical tutorial on the intermediate and advanced development concepts in Unity 5 to create three interesting and fully functional games Who This Book Is For If you've got the basics of 2D development down, push your skills with the projects in this hands-on guide.Diversify your portfolio and learn the skills needed to build a range of awesome 2D game genres. What You Will Learn Explore and understand the vital role of sprites in 2D games Move, animate, and integrate sprites into a 2D platform game Set up User Interfaces (UIs) to keep track of the progress through the games Apply 2D Physics to improve gameplay believability Learn the foundation of Level Design and how to quickly create 2D Maps Discover NPC design, event triggers, and AI programming Create an epic strategy game, challenging all the skills acquired in the book In Detail Flexible, powerful, and full of rich features, Unity 5 is the engine of choice for AAA 2D and 3D game development. With comprehensive support for over 20 different platforms, Unity boasts a host of great new functions for making 2D games. Learn how to leverage these new options into awesome 2D games by building three complete game projects with the Unity game tutorials in this hands-on book. Get started with a quick overview of the principle concepts and techniques needed for making 2D games with Unity, then dive straight in to practical development. Build your own version of Super Mario Brothers as you learn how to animate sprites, work with physics, and construct brilliant UIs in order to create a platformer game. Go on a quest to create a RPG game discovering NPC design, event triggers, and AI programming. Finally, put your skills to the test against a real challenge - designing and constructing a complex strategy game that will draw on and develop all your previously learned skills. Style and approach This is a practical and easy-to-follow guide that starts with the basics and gradually delves into the process of creating 2D games. With step-by-step instructions on how to build three games, followed by a detailed explanation of each example, you will understand the concepts not just in theory, but also by applying the knowledge you gain in practice.

Get your attractive type design up and running in the browser with real-world, responsive, and tailored tutorials About This Book No coding experience necessary - get started with responsive typography today! Find out how to customize your own typography designs to truly own your website's identity From the basics to cutting-edge design, this book is the perfect guide Who This Book Is For This book is for web developers familiar with the basics of HTML5 and CSS3 who want to learn how to implement responsive typography. No coding experience is required, so dive in and get started! What You Will Learn Customize and personalize fonts on a responsive website Learn how to write CSS3 rules for viewports Define media queries and write them using CSS3 and HTML5 Implement SASS typography techniques to minimize the CSS output and manage the font variables Get to grips with dropcaps and learn how to use them effectively on the web In Detail Typography is an essential part of any website’s design. It can help you stand out from the crowd, communicate with clarity, and cultivate a distinctive identity. Practical Responsive Typography demonstrates how to use typography to greatest effect. With this book you won't underestimate it's importance - you'll be in complete control over this crucial component of web design. From scaling and optimizing screen spaces to using a range of different web fonts, you'll quickly get up to speed with the practical considerations behind successful typography. But more than the fundamentals, you'll also find out how to go further by customizing typography designs to suit your identity. Style and approach This is an easy-to-follow guide full of real-world examples and tutorials. Each typography style and rule is clearly explained and placed in context.

Explore the web and make smarter predictions using Python About This Book Targets two big and prominent markets where sophisticated web apps are of need and importance. Practical examples of building machine learning web application, which are easy to follow and replicate. A comprehensive tutorial on Python libraries and frameworks to get you up and started. Who This Book Is For The book is aimed at upcoming and new data scientists who have little experience with machine learning or users who are interested in and are working on developing smart (predictive) web applications. Knowledge of Django would be beneficial. The reader is expected to have a background in Python programming and good knowledge of statistics. What You Will Learn Get familiar with the fundamental concepts and some of the jargons used in the machine learning community Use tools and techniques to mine data from websites Grasp the core concepts of Django framework Get to know the most useful clustering and classification techniques and implement them in Python Acquire all the necessary knowledge to build a web application with Django Successfully build and deploy a movie recommendation system application using the Django framework in Python In Detail Python is a general purpose and also a comparatively easy to learn programming language. Hence it is the language of choice for data scientists to prototype, visualize, and run data analyses on small and medium-sized data sets. This is a unique book that helps bridge the gap between machine learning and web development. It focuses on the difficulties of implementing predictive analytics in web applications. We focus on the Python language, frameworks, tools, and libraries, showing you how to build a machine learning system. You will explore the core machine learning concepts and then develop and deploy the data into a web application using the Django framework. You will also learn to carry out web, document, and server mining tasks, and build recommendation engines. Later, you will explore Python’s impressive Django framework and will find out how to build a modern simple web app with machine learning features. Style and approach Instead of being overwhelmed with multiple concepts at once, this book provides a step-by-step approach that will guide you through one topic at a time. An intuitive step-by step guide that will focus on one key topic at a time. Building upon the acquired knowledge in each chapter, we will connect the fundamental theory and practical tips by illustrative visualizations and hands-on code examples.

Design and implement real-world web-based applications using the Spring Framework 4.x specification based on technical documentation About This Book . Learn all the details of implementing Spring 4.x MVC applications from basic core platform construction to advanced integration implementations. Gain a complete reference guide to implementing the controllers, models, views, view resolvers, and other service-related components to solve various real-world problems. Discover the possible optimal solutions for developers and experts to build enterprise and personal web-based applications. Create a Spring MVC application that has a validation process and exception handling with the HTTP status codes Who This Book Is For This book is for competent Spring developers who wish to understand how to develop complex yet flexible applications with Spring MVC. You must have a good knowledge of JAVA programming and be familiar with the basics of Spring. What You Will Learn . Set up and configure the Spring 4.x MVC platform from ground level up using the basic Spring Framework 4.x APIs. Study requirements and manage solutions on file uploading transactions in Spring 4.x applications Configure, , and test Spring integration to the Hibernate, MyBatis, and JPA frameworks for database transactions. Properly implement exception handlers and audit trails in Spring MVC applications. Generate reports using JFreeChart, Google Charts, JasperReports, DynamicReports, FreeMarker, Velocity, and Spring’s API known as ContentNegotiatingViewResolver. Configure security and flexibility by adding Captcha, Spring Security, Spring Flow, Spring Portlets, JTA to improve data management performance. Implement web services using Spring’s RESTful implementation and other service-oriented integration plugins. Design and implement a Spring 4.x application using AngularJS, ExtJs, Twitter Bootstrap, and Spring Mobile for responsive web design In Detail Spring MVC is the ideal tool to build modern web applications on the server side. With the arrival of Spring Boot, developers can really focus on the code and deliver great value, leveraging the rich Spring ecosystem with minimal configuration. Spring makes it simple to create RESTful applications, interact with social services, communicate with modern databases, secure your system, and make your code modular and easy to test. It is also easy to deploy the result on different cloud providers. This book starts all the necessary topics in starting a Spring MVC-based application. Moving ahead it explains how to design model objects to handle file objects. save files into a data store and how Spring MVC behaves when an application deals with uploading and downloading files. Further it highlights form transactions and the user of Validation Framework as the tool in validating data input. It shows how to create a customer feedback system which does not require a username or password to log in. It will show you the soft side of Spring MVC where layout and presentation are given importance. Later it will discuss how to use Spring Web Flow on top of Spring MVC to create better web applications. Moving ahead, it will teach you how create an Invoice Module that receives and transport data using Web Services By the end of the book you will be able to create efficient and flexible real-time web applications using all the frameworks in Spring MVC. Style and approach This book is a compendium of technical specification documents that will guide you through building an application using Spring 4.x MVC. Each chapter starts with a high-level wireframe design of the software followed by how to set up and configure different libraries and tools.

Build world-class enterprise Business Intelligence solutions with MicroStrategy 10 About This Book Fix the gap between BI tools and implementation/integration processes with big data and predictive analytics using this comprehensive guide to MicroStrategy 10 Highly practical, example-rich guide that lets you implement business intelligence with MicroStrategy 10 in your organization Create the best user experience with BI dashboards using MicroStrategy using this up-to-date, comprehensive guide Who This Book Is For This book is intended for BI, DWH, ETL developers, BI/DWH/Analytics managers, analysts, and business users who already have MicroStrategy in their organization and want to take it to the next level in order to increase performance and improve user experience. In addition, it helps the reader to migrate from MicroStrategy 9 to MicroStrategy 10 and to start using the new capabilities. What You Will Learn Explore various visualization techniques for presenting analyzed data Customize MicroStrategy in order to meet your business requirements Develop and design mobile dashboards Use the advanced techniques such as designing reports, documents and interactive dashboards for building dashboards Understand the concepts of data discovery and Desktop capabilities Explore the best practices for Microstrategy system administration Find and fix issues based on connections, environment or documents Integrate third party ESRI map tools with MicroStrategy to create geo based reports In Detail Business intelligence is becoming more important by the day, with cloud offerings and mobile devices gaining wider acceptance and achieving better market penetration. MicroStrategy Reporting Suite is an absolute leader in the BI market and offers rich capabilities from basic data visualizations to predictive analytics. It lets you various delivery methods such as the Web, desktops, and mobiles. Using real-world BI scenarios, this book helps you to implement Business Analytics solutions in big e-commerce companies. It kicks off with MicroStrategy 10 features and then covers schema design models and techniques. Building upon your existing knowledge, the book will teach you advanced techniques for building documents and dashboards. It further teaches various graphical techniques for presenting data for analysis using maps, graphs, and advanced charts. Although MicroStrategy has rich functionality, the book will show how to customize it in order to meet your business requirements. You will also become familiar with the native analytical functions that will help you to maximize the impact of BI solutions with powerful predictive analytics. Furthermore, the book will focus on MicroStrategy Mobile Analytics along with data discovery and desktop capabilities such as connecting various data sources and building interactive dashboards. The book will also uncover best practices, troubleshooting techniques for MicroStrategy system administration, and also security and authentication techniques. Lastly, you will learn to use Hadoop for MicroStrategy reporting. By the end of the book, you will become proficient in evaluating any BI software in order to choose the best one that meets all business requirements. Style and approach This book will be focusing on providing extensive guide to plan how to design and develop complex BI architecture for real world scenario, using Microstrategy 10, best practices and collected experience working with BI, predictive analytics, and Microstrategy and big data.

Build amazing Internet of Things projects using the ESP8266 Wi-Fi chip About This Book Get to know the powerful and low cost ESP8266 and build interesting projects in the field of Internet of Things Configure your ESP8266 to the cloud and explore the networkable modules that will be utilized in the IoT projects This step-by-step guide teaches you the basics of IoT with ESP8266 and makes your life easier Who This Book Is For This book is for those who want to build powerful and inexpensive IoT projects using the ESP8266 WiFi chip, including those who are new to IoT, or those who already have experience with other platforms such as Arduino. What You Will Learn Control various devices from the cloud Interact with web services, such as Twitter or Facebook Make two ESP8266 boards communicate with each other via the cloud Send notifications to users of the ESP8266, via email, text message, or push notifications Build a physical device that indicates the current price of Bitcoin Build a simple home automation system that can be controlled from the cloud Create your own cloud platform to control ESP8266 devices In Detail The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of objects such as physical things embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity, enabling data exchange. ESP8266 is a low cost WiFi microcontroller chip that has the ability to empower IoT and helps the exchange of information among various connected objects. ESP8266 consists of networkable microcontroller modules, and with this low cost chip, IoT is booming. This book will help deepen your knowledge of the ESP8266 WiFi chip platform and get you building exciting projects. Kick-starting with an introduction to the ESP8266 chip, we will demonstrate how to build a simple LED using the ESP8266. You will then learn how to read, send, and monitor data from the cloud. Next, you’ll see how to control your devices remotely from anywhere in the world. Furthermore, you’ll get to know how to use the ESP8266 to interact with web services such as Twitter and Facebook. In order to make several ESP8266s interact and exchange data without the need for human intervention, you will be introduced to the concept of machine-to-machine communication. The latter part of the book focuses more on projects, including a door lock controlled from the cloud, building a physical Bitcoin ticker, and doing wireless gardening. You’ll learn how to build a cloud-based ESP8266 home automation system and a cloud-controlled ESP8266 robot. Finally, you’ll discover how to build your own cloud platform to control ESP8266 devices. With this book, you will be able to create and program Internet of Things projects using the ESP8266 WiFi chip. Style and approach This is a step-by-step guide that provides great IOT projects with ESP8266. All the key concepts are explained details with the help of examples and demonstrations of the projects.

Unlock the potential of evergreen browsers and increase the efficiency of your ASP.NET applications by learning how to write JavaScript About This Book Boost your skillset and start bringing JavaScript into your web development projects Leverage your existing ASP.NET knowledge to develop dynamic and responsive SPAs Learn effective design patterns for sustainable, and scalable web development Who This Book Is For This book is for ASP.NET developers that want to bring JavaScript into their skillset to build applications that are truly dynamic and responsive. It's for developers who are focused on developing for users who want to deliver a great end product and a fantastic experience. What You Will Learn Get to grips with the basic to advanced concepts of JavaScript Learn how to use JavaScript on server side using Node.js Develop web applications in ASP.NET using JavaScript Get to know with industry-wide best practices and design patterns that provide maintainability and scalability Build an ASP.NET application using Angular 2 with TypeScript and Web API Explore WinJS and see how to use mobile capabilities from web applications Use JavaScript to develop scalable ASP.NET applications See how to test and debug JavaScript In Detail If you want to improve responsiveness or the UX in your ASP.NET applications, JavaScript can be a life saver. In an age where server-side operations have shifted to the client, being able to handle JavaScript with confidence and fluency is vital for ASP.NET developers. There’s no point trying to fight it, so start learning with this book. Make sure your projects exceed user expectations. Begin by getting stuck into the basics of JavaScript, and explore the language in the context of ASP.NET Core. You’ll then find out how to put the principles into practice, as you learn how to develop a basic ASP.NET application using Angular 2 and TypeScript. You’ll also develop essential skills required to develop responsive apps, with a little help from AJAX, ensuring that you’re building projects that can be easily accessed across different devices. With guidance on Node.js and some neat techniques to test and debug a range of JavaScript libraries in Visual Studio, you’ll soon be well on your way to combining JavaScript with ASP.NET in a way that’s capable of meeting the challenges of modern web development head-on. Style and approach This book will build the skillset of every .NET developer, so they can build stronger and more responsive web apps with confidence.

The dark shadows and offscreen space that force us to imagine violence we cannot see. The real slaughter of animals spliced with the fictional killing of men. The missing countershot from the murder victim's point of view. Such images, or absent images, Karla Oeler contends, distill how the murder scene challenges and changes film.?Reexamining works by such filmmakers as Renoir, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Jarmusch, and Eisenstein, Oeler traces the murder scene's intricate connections to the great breakthroughs in the theory and practice of montage and the formulation of the rules and syntax of Hollywood genre. She argues that murder plays such a central role in film because it mirrors, on multiple levels, the act of cinematic representation. Death and murder at once eradicate life and call attention to its former existence, just as cinema conveys both the reality and the absence of the objects it depicts. But murder shares with cinema not only this interplay between presence and absence, movement and stillness: unlike death, killing entails the deliberate reduction of a singular subject to a disposable object. Like cinema, it involves a crucial choice about what to cut and what to keep.

Girls abused in London and torsos of black boys found in the Thames; African boys disappearing from school and child traffic in Africa; child sacrifice and Brazilian Pentecostal exorcism. Unrelated events are swiftly connected in an uncanny work of prestidigitation, including hitech digital images of torsos and forensic drawings of abused children. Les correspondances symboliques, Baudelaire would say, or contiguous magic, in Frazer’s more prosaic de*ion. It all could make sense, if we believe in our fears, suspicions, gossip, and prejudices. Furthermore, this incredible work of prestidigitation was engineered by two respectable institutions, known for their enlightened search of truth: the BBC and Scotland Yard. But where was the evidence that all these things were connectedThe “exorcism scandal” bewitched the media in Britain for the whole month of June, until some dissenting voices started to talk about a “racist witch hunt.” 5 By then, however, a population of hundreds of thousands of Africans, in particular Pentecostal Africans, was already under suspicion. “What if some of that was true?” some people still may ask. In fact, shortly before completing this introduction, the local London newspaper Evening Standard published a two-page report on an African church in the United Kingdom, with the title “Miracles and claims of baby-snatching,” mixing rumors of child trafficking, sorcery, syncretism, and extreme wealth. 6 That is how sorcery works: not by fully demonstrating its power, but by opening a possible doubt; one is never fully sure it is not true.