Mastering Firebase for Android Development. Build real-time, scalable, and cloud-enabled Android apps with Firebase

Ashok Kumar S

Firebase offers a wide spectrum of tools and services to help you develop high-quality apps in a short period of time. It also allows you to build web and mobile apps quickly without managing the infrastructure.Mastering Firebase for Android Development takes you through the complete toolchain of Firebase,including the latest tools announced in Google IO 2018 such as Firebase ML-Kit, FireStore, and Firebase Predictions.The book begins by teaching you to configure your development environment with Firebase and set up a different structure for a Firebase real-time database. As you make your way through the chapters, you’ll establish the authentication feature in Android and explore email and phone authentication for managing the on-boarding of users. You’ll be taken through topics on Firebase crash reporting, Firebase functions, Firebase Cloud, Firebase Hosting, and Cloud Messaging for push notifications and explore other key areas in depth. In the concluding chapters, you will learn to use Firebase Test Lab to test your application before using Firebase Performance Monitoring to trace performance setbacks.By the end of the book, you will be well equipped with the Firebase ecosystem, which will help you find solutions to your common application development challenges.

Bug Bounty Hunting Essentials. Quick-paced guide to help white-hat hackers get through bug bounty programs

Carlos A. Lozano, Shahmeer Amir

Bug bounty programs are the deals offered by prominent companies where-in any white-hat hacker can find bugs in the applications and they will have a recognition for the same. The number of prominent organizations having this program has increased gradually leading to a lot of opportunity for Ethical Hackers.This book will initially start with introducing you to the concept of Bug Bounty hunting. Then we will dig deeper into concepts of vulnerabilities and analysis such as HTML injection, CRLF injection and so on. Towards the end of the book, we will get hands-on experience working with different tools used for bug hunting and various blogs and communities to be followed.This book will get you started with bug bounty hunting and its fundamentals.

Docker for Serverless Applications. Containerize and orchestrate functions using OpenFaas, OpenWhisk, and Fn

Chanwit Kaewkasi

Serverless applications have gained a lot of popularity among developers and are currently the buzzwords in the tech market. Docker and serverless are two terms that go hand-in-hand.This book will start by explaining serverless and Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) concepts, and why they are important. Then, it will introduce the concepts of containerization and how Docker fits into the Serverless ideology. It will explore the architectures and components of three major Docker-based FaaS platforms, how to deploy and how to use their CLI. Then, this book will discuss how to set up and operate a production-grade Docker cluster. We will cover all concepts of FaaS frameworks with practical use cases, followed by deploying and orchestrating these serverless systems using Docker. Finally, we will also explore advanced topics and prototypes for FaaS architectures in the last chapter.By the end of this book, you will be in a position to build and deploy your own FaaS platform using Docker.

Solidity Programming Essentials. A beginner's guide to build smart contracts for Ethereum and blockchain

Ritesh Modi

Solidity is a contract-oriented language whose syntax is highly influenced by JavaScript, and is designed to compile code for the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Solidity Programming Essentials will be your guide to understanding Solidity programming to build smart contracts for Ethereum and blockchain from ground-up.We begin with a brief run-through of blockchain, Ethereum, and their most important concepts or components. You will learn how to install all the necessary tools to write, test, and debug Solidity contracts on Ethereum. Then, you will explore the layout of a Solidity source file and work with the different data types. The next set of recipes will help you work with operators, control structures, and data structures while building your smart contracts. We take you through function calls, return types, function modifers, and recipes in object-oriented programming with Solidity. Learn all you can on event logging and exception handling, as well as testing and debugging smart contracts.By the end of this book, you will be able to write, deploy, and test smart contracts in Ethereum. This book will bring forth the essence of writing contracts using Solidity and also help you develop Solidity skills in no time.

Learn Unity ML-Agents - Fundamentals of Unity Machine Learning. Incorporate new powerful ML algorithms such as Deep Reinforcement Learning for games

Micheal Lanham

Unity Machine Learning agents allow researchers and developers to create games and simulations using the Unity Editor, which serves as an environment where intelligent agents can be trained with machine learning methods through a simple-to-use Python API.This book takes you from the basics of Reinforcement and Q Learning to building Deep Recurrent Q-Network agents that cooperate or compete in a multi-agent ecosystem. You will start with the basics of Reinforcement Learning and how to apply it to problems. Then you will learn how to build self-learning advanced neural networks with Python and Keras/TensorFlow. From there you move o n to more advanced training scenarios where you will learn further innovative ways to train your network with A3C, imitation, and curriculum learning models. By the end of the book, you will have learned how to build more complex environments by building a cooperative and competitive multi-agent ecosystem.

Apache Hadoop 3 Quick Start Guide. Learn about big data processing and analytics

Hrishikesh Vijay Karambelkar

Apache Hadoop is a widely used distributed data platform. It enables large datasets to be efficiently processed instead of using one large computer to store and process the data. This book will get you started with the Hadoop ecosystem, and introduce you to the main technical topics, including MapReduce, YARN, and HDFS.The book begins with an overview of big data and Apache Hadoop. Then, you will set up a pseudo Hadoop development environment and a multi-node enterprise Hadoop cluster. You will see how the parallel programming paradigm, such as MapReduce, can solve many complex data processing problems.The book also covers the important aspects of the big data software development lifecycle, including quality assurance and control, performance, administration, and monitoring. You will then learn about the Hadoop ecosystem, and tools such as Kafka, Sqoop, Flume, Pig, Hive, and HBase. Finally, you will look at advanced topics, including real time streaming using Apache Storm, and data analytics using Apache Spark. By the end of the book, you will be well versed with different configurations of the Hadoop 3 cluster.

Python Programming Blueprints. Build nine projects by leveraging powerful frameworks such as Flask, Nameko, and Django

Daniel Furtado, Marcus Pennington

Python is a very powerful, high-level, object-oriented programming language. It's known for its simplicity and huge community support. Python Programming Blueprints will help you build useful, real-world applications using Python.In this book, we will cover some of the most common tasks that Python developers face on a daily basis, including performance optimization and making web applications more secure. We will familiarize ourselves with the associated software stack and master asynchronous features in Python. We will build a weather application using command-line parsing. We will then move on to create a Spotify remote control where we'll use OAuth and the Spotify Web API. The next project will cover reactive extensions by teaching you how to cast votes on Twitter the Python way. We will also focus on web development by using the famous Django framework to create an online game store. We will then create a web-based messenger using the new Nameko microservice framework. We will cover topics like authenticating users and, storing messages in Redis.By the end of the book, you will have gained hands-on experience in coding with Python.

Fundamentals of Linux. Explore the essentials of the Linux command line

Oliver Pelz

Linux is a Unix-like operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. Fundamentals of Linux will help you learn all the essentials of the Linux command line required to get you started. The book will start by teaching you how to work with virtualization software and install CentOS 7 Linux as a VM. Then, you will get to grips with the workings of various command line operations, such as cursor movement, commands, options, and arguments. As you make your way through the chapters, the book will not only focus on the most essential Linux commands but also give an introduction to Bash shell scripting. Finally, you will explore advanced topics, such as networking and troubleshooting your system, and you will get familiar with the advanced file permissions: ACL, setuid, and setgid. Fundamentals of Linux includes real-world tasks, use cases, and problems that, as a system administrator, you might encounter in your day-to-day activities.

Learn Arduino Prototyping in 10 days. Build it, test it, learn, try again!

Kallol Bosu Roy Choudhuri

This book is a quick, 10-day crash course that will help you become well acquaintedwith the Arduino platform. The primary focus is to empower you to use the Arduinoplatform by applying basic fundamental principles. You will be able to apply theseprinciples to build almost any type of physical device.The projects you will work through in this book are self-contained micro-controllerprojects, interfacing with single peripheral devices (such as sensors), buildingcompound devices (multiple devices in a single setup), prototyping standalonedevices (powered from independent power sources), working with actuators (such as DCmotors), interfacing with an AC-powered device, wireless devices (with Infrared,Radio Frequency and GSM techniques), and finally implementing the Internet of Things(using the ESP8266 series Wi-Fi chip with an IoT cloud platform).The first half of the book focuses on fundamental techniques and building basictypes of device, and the final few chapters will show you how to prototype wirelessdevices. By the end of this book, you will have become acquainted with the fundamentalprinciples in a pragmatic and scientific manner. You will also be confident enough totake up new device prototyping challenges.

Design Patterns and Best Practices in Java. A comprehensive guide to building smart and reusable code in Java

Kamalmeet Singh, Adrian Ianculescu, Lucian-Paul Torje

Having a knowledge of design patterns enables you, as a developer, to improve your code base, promote code reuse, and make the architecture more robust. As languages evolve, new features take time to fully understand before they are adopted en masse. The mission of this book is to ease the adoption of the latest trends and provide good practices for programmers.We focus on showing you the practical aspects of smarter coding in Java. We'll start off by going over object-oriented (OOP) and functional programming (FP) paradigms, moving on to describe the most frequently used design patterns in their classical format and explain how Java’s functional programming features are changing them.You will learn to enhance implementations by mixing OOP and FP, and finally get to know about the reactive programming model, where FP and OOP are used in conjunction with a view to writing better code. Gradually, the book will show you the latest trends in architecture, moving from MVC to microservices and serverless architecture. We will finish off by highlighting the new Java features and best practices. By the end of the book, you will be able to efficiently address common problems faced while developing applications and be comfortable working on scalable and maintainable projects of any size.

Microservices with Azure. Build highly maintainable and scalable enterprise-grade apps

Rahul Rai, Namit Tanasseri

Microsoft Azure is rapidly evolving and is widely used as a platform on which you can build Microservices that can be deployed on-premise and on-cloud heterogeneous environments through Microsoft Azure Service Fabric. This book will help you understand the concepts of Microservice application architecture and build highly maintainable and scalable enterprise-grade applications using the various services in Microsoft Azure Service Fabric. We will begin by understanding the intricacies of the Microservices architecture and its advantages over the monolithic architecture and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles. We will present various scenarios where Microservices should be used and walk you through the architectures of Microservice-based applications. Next, you will take an in-depth look at Microsoft Azure Service Fabric, which is the best–in-class platform for building Microservices. You will explore how to develop and deploy sample applications on Microsoft Azure Service Fabric to gain a thorough understanding of it. Building Microservice-based application is complicated. Therefore, we will take you through several design patterns that solve the various challenges associated with realizing the Microservices architecture in enterprise applications. Each pattern will be clearly illustrated with examples that you can keep referring to when designing applications.Finally, you will be introduced to advanced topics such as Serverless computing and DevOps using Service Fabric, to help you undertake your next venture with confidence.

Windows Server 2016 Automation with PowerShell Cookbook. Powerful ways to automate and manage Windows administrative tasks - Second Edition

Thomas Lee, Ed Goad

This book showcases several ways that Windows administrators can use to automate and streamline their job. You'll start with the PowerShell and Windows Server fundamentals, where you'll become well versed with PowerShell and Windows Server features.In the next module, Core Windows Server 2016, you'll implement Nano Server, manage Windows updates, and implement troubleshooting and server inventories. You'll then move on to the Networking module, where you'll manage Windows network services and network shares.The last module covers Azure and DSC, where you will use Azure on PowerShell and DSC to easily maintain Windows servers.

The Modern C# Challenge. Become an expert C# programmer by solving interesting programming problems

Rod Stephens

C# is a multi-paradigm programming language. The Modern C# Challenge covers with aspects of the .NET Framework such as the Task Parallel Library (TPL) and CryptoAPI. It also encourages you to explore important programming trade-offs such as time versus space or simplicity. There may be many ways to solve a problem and there is often no single right way, but some solutions are definitely better than others. This book has combined these solutions to help you solve real-world problems with C#.In addition to describing programming trade-offs, The Modern C# Challenge will help you build a useful toolkit of techniques such as value caching, statistical analysis, and geometric algorithms.By the end of this book, you will have walked through challenges in C# and explored the .NET Framework in order to develop program logic for real-world applications.

Stream Analytics with Microsoft Azure. Real-time data processing for quick insights using Azure Stream Analytics

Krishnaswamy Venkataraman, Anindita Basak, Ryan Murphy, Manpreet Singh

Microsoft Azure is a very popular cloud computing service used by many organizations around the world. Its latest analytics offering, Stream Analytics, allows you to process and get actionable insights from different kinds of data in real-time. This book is your guide to understanding the basics of how Azure Stream Analytics works, and building your own analytics solution using its capabilities. You will start with understanding what Stream Analytics is, and why it is a popular choice for getting real-time insights from data. Then, you will be introduced to Azure Stream Analytics, and see how you can use the tools and functions in Azure to develop your own Streaming Analytics. Over the course of the book, you will be given comparative analytic guidance on using Azure Streaming with other Microsoft Data Platform resources such as Big Data Lambda Architecture integration for real time data analysis and differences of scenarios for architecture designing with Azure HDInsight Hadoop clusters with Storm or Stream Analytics. The book also shows you how you can manage, monitor, and scale your solution for optimal performance.By the end of this book, you will be well-versed in using Azure Stream Analytics to develop an efficient analytics solution that can work with any type of data.

UX for the Web. Build websites for user experience and usability

Marli Ritter, Cara Winterbottom

If you want to create web apps that are not only beautiful to look at, but also easy to use and fully accessible to everyone, including people with special needs, this book will provide you with the basic building blocks to achieve just that. The book starts with the basics of UX, the relationship between Human-Centered Design (HCD), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and the User-Centered Design (UCD) Process; it gradually takes you through the best practices to create a web app that stands out from your competitors. You’ll also learn how to create an emotional connection with the user to increase user interaction and client retention by different means of communication channels. We’ll guide you through the steps in developing an effective UX strategy through user research and persona creation and how to bring that UX strategy to life with beautiful, yet functional designs that cater for complex features with micro interactions. Practical UX methodologies such as creating a solid Information Architecture (IA), wireframes, and prototypes will be discussed in detail. We’ll also show you how to test your designs with representative users, and ensure that they are usable on different devices, browsers and assistive technologies. Lastly, we’ll focus on making your web app fully accessible from a development and design perspective by taking you through the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

ECMAScript Cookbook. Over 70 recipes to help you learn the new ECMAScript (ES6/ES8) features and solve common JavaScript problems

Ross Harrison

ECMAScript Cookbook follows a modular approach with independent recipes covering different feature sets and specifications of ECMAScript to help you become an efficient programmer.This book starts off with organizing your JavaScript applications as well as delivering those applications to modem and legacy systems. You will get acquainted with features of ECMAScript 8 such as async, SharedArrayBuffers, and Atomic operations that enhance asynchronous and parallel operations. In addition to this, this book will introduce you to SharedArrayBuffers, which allow web workers to share data directly, and Atomic operations, which help coordinate behavior across the threads. You will also work with OOP and Collections, followed by new functions and methods on the built-in Object and Array types that make common operations more manageable and less error-prone. You will then see how to easily build more sophisticated and expressive program structures with classes and inheritance. In the end, we will cover Sets, Maps, and Symbols, which are the new types introduced in ECMAScript 6 to add new behaviors and allow you to create simple and powerful modules.By the end of the book, you will be able to produce more efficient, expressive, and simpler programs using the new features of ECMAScript. ?