Hands-On Visual Studio 2022. A developer's guide to new features and best practices with .NET 8 and VS 2022 for maximum productivity - Second Edition

Hector Uriel Perez Rojas, Miguel Angel Teheran Garcia

Visual Studio 2022 is widely recognized as the best IDE for application development across various domains. This book is a comprehensive guide for both beginners and experienced .NET developers who wish to familiarize themselves with its basic, advanced, and new features.This book is divided into three sections: the first is an overview of Visual Studio, the second part explores tools for productivity within the IDE, and the third delves into integration with GitHub and Visual Studio extensions.In this second edition, we’ve also expanded the chapters on the use of Visual Studio to environments beyond web development, such as Azure, Desktop, .NET MAUI, and others. Updates to the IDE introduced since the release year of the first edition of the book in 2022 have also been included, such as the use of GPT-based extensions like GitHub Copilot and GitHub Copilot Chat, as well as profiling tools.The book reviews breakpoint groups, a new way to configure breakpoints, as well as tools for web development, such as Browser Link, Dev Tunnels, and Web API Endpoints Explorer. For more advanced developers, the book addresses the topic of developing extensions through the use of the new Visual Studio SDK. By the end of this book, you’ll have a better understanding of Visual Studio 2022 and how to use it to its fullest potential.

Procedural Content Generation for C++ Game Development. Get to know techniques and approaches to procedurally generate game content in C++ using Simple and Fast Multimedia Library

Dale Green

Procedural generation is a growing trend in game development. It allows developers to create games that are bigger and more dynamic, giving the games a higher level of replayability. Procedural generation isn’t just one technique, it’s a collection of techniques and approaches that are used together to create dynamic systems and objects. C++ is the industry-standard programming language to write computer games. It’s at the heart of most engines, and is incredibly powerful. SFML is an easy-to-use, cross-platform, and open-source multimedia library. Access to computer hardware is broken into succinct modules, making it a great choice if you want to develop cross-platform games with ease.Using C++ and SFML technologies, this book will guide you through the techniques and approaches used to generate content procedurally within game development. Throughout the course of this book, we’ll look at examples of these technologies, starting with setting up a roguelike project using the C++ template. We’ll then move on to using RNG with C++ data types and randomly scattering objects within a game map. We will create simple console examples to implement in a real game by creating unique and randomised game items, dynamic sprites, and effects, and procedurally generating game events. Then we will walk you through generating random game maps. At the end, we will have a retrospective look at the project. By the end of the book, not only will you have a solid understanding of procedural generation, but you’ll also have a working roguelike game that you will have extended using the examples provided.

TensorFlow 2 Reinforcement Learning Cookbook. Over 50 recipes to help you build, train, and deploy learning agents for real-world applications

Palanisamy P

With deep reinforcement learning, you can build intelligent agents, products, and services that can go beyond computer vision or perception to perform actions. TensorFlow 2.x is the latest major release of the most popular deep learning framework used to develop and train deep neural networks (DNNs). This book contains easy-to-follow recipes for leveraging TensorFlow 2.x to develop artificial intelligence applications.Starting with an introduction to the fundamentals of deep reinforcement learning and TensorFlow 2.x, the book covers OpenAI Gym, model-based RL, model-free RL, and how to develop basic agents. You'll discover how to implement advanced deep reinforcement learning algorithms such as actor-critic, deep deterministic policy gradients, deep-Q networks, proximal policy optimization, and deep recurrent Q-networks for training your RL agents. As you advance, you’ll explore the applications of reinforcement learning by building cryptocurrency trading agents, stock/share trading agents, and intelligent agents for automating task completion. Finally, you'll find out how to deploy deep reinforcement learning agents to the cloud and build cross-platform apps using TensorFlow 2.x.By the end of this TensorFlow book, you'll have gained a solid understanding of deep reinforcement learning algorithms and their implementations from scratch.

Implementing Azure DevOps Solutions. Learn about Azure DevOps Services to successfully apply DevOps strategies

Henry Been, Maik van der Gaag

Implementing Azure DevOps Solutions helps DevOps engineers and administrators to leverage Azure DevOps Services to master practices such as continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), containerization, and zero downtime deployments.This book starts with the basics of continuous integration, continuous delivery, and automated deployments. You will then learn how to apply configuration management and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) along with managing databases in DevOps scenarios. Next, you will delve into fitting security and compliance with DevOps. As you advance, you will explore how to instrument applications, and gather metrics to understand application usage and user behavior. The latter part of this book will help you implement a container build strategy and manage Azure Kubernetes Services. Lastly, you will understand how to create your own Azure DevOps organization, along with covering quick tips and tricks to confidently apply effective DevOps practices.By the end of this book, you’ll have gained the knowledge you need to ensure seamless application deployments and business continuity.

JMeter Cookbook. 70 insightful and practical recipes to help you successfully use Apache JMeter

Bayo Erinle

Democratizing RPA with Power Automate Desktop. Boost your productivity by implementing best practices for automating repetitive desktop processes

Peter Krause

Whether you want to organize simple files or perform more complex consolidations between different Office programs and remote-control applications that don't allow outside access, Power Automate Desktop helps meet these challenges. This book shows you how to leverage this workflow automation platform by explaining the underlying RPA concepts in a step-by-step way.You’ll start with simple flows that can be easily recorded and further processed using the built-in recorder. Later, you’ll learn how to use the more advanced actions to automate folder and file management and enable Office programs to interact with each other. You’ll also get to grips with integrating desktop flows into other cloud environments and further enhance their value using AI. As you progress, you’ll understand how flows can run unattended and how they are managed in the Power Platform, as well as key concepts such as creating, modifying, debugging, and error-handling UI flows. Finally, the book will guide you to use Process Automation Designer (PAD) in conjunction with your frequently used desktop systems to automate routine tasks.By the end of this book, you’ll have become a Power Automate Desktop expert, automating both professional and personal tasks.

Effective Angular. Develop applications of any size by effectively using Angular with Nx, RxJS, NgRx, and Cypress

Roberto Heckers

Angular is an open-source, front-end framework used to build web applications using TypeScript. Angular is a component-based framework, which means you build apps by developing and composing reusable components. This framework has all the built-in features needed to develop complex, feature-rich web apps. Written by an Angular specialist working with some of the top companies in the Netherlands, this book teaches you how to harness the full potential of the Angular framework.You’ll explore different front-end architecture designs and set up a scalable environment for Angular applications and libraries using Nx, before taking a deep dive into the framework's newest and most powerful features. Next, you’ll learn to manipulate the Document Object Model (DOM) with Angular directives, pipes, and animations, and build reusable components like a pro. The book spotlights best practices and flags potential pitfalls at every step of the way. You’ll also learn design patterns that fit well when using the Angular framework, reactive programming with RxJS and Angular signals, and how to manage application states effectively. The book teaches you about accessibility, testing, and optimizing your app for deployment.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to use Angular effectively to build enterprise-ready, scalable front-end applications.

3D Printing with SketchUp. Use SketchUp to generate print-ready models and transform your project from concept to reality - Second Edition

Aaron Dietzen aka 'The SketchUp Guy'

Working with the amazing 3D printing technology and getting access to the printing hardware is now easier than ever before. While there are many other resources that cover the general process of 3D printing, this book is the ultimate guide to creating models for 3D printing using SketchUp.You’ll start with a basic understanding of how SketchUp is used in the 3D printing workflow and jump into the steps to create a print-ready model using only SketchUp. This 3D printing book will guide you in using SketchUp to modify existing 3D files and cover additional tools that make SketchUp an even more powerful modeling tool. As you advance, you’ll learn how to transform 2D images into 3D printable solids, how to create multi-part prints that can be assembled without the use of fasteners or glue, and how to make sure your model, whether designed from scratch or assembled from preexisting geometry, is ready to be made real via your 3D printer.By the end of this book, you’ll have the confidence to bring your design ideas to life by generating your own 3D print-ready models with SketchUp.

Instant Oracle BPM for Financial Services How-to. Discover how to leverage BPM in the financial sector

B. M. Madhusudhan Rao, B.M Madhusudhan Rao

Oracle Business Process Management helps in process automation and improvement with a very high level of flexibility for all the process participants from the process planning team to the end users. It also makes it possible to have corporate employees and customers collaborating towards common goals.Instant Oracle BPM for Financial Services How-to covers many concepts that can be easily reused across industries such as core banking, healthcare, travel, self service automation, e-governance, and so on. It highlights various roles of Business Process Management such as Business Process Modeling, Process Developer, Process Owner, and Process Participant along with the way they work together in a financial services environment.Instant Oracle BPM for Financial Services How-to is your guide to implementing Oracle Business Process Management whilst working in the Financial Services industry.Starting through the discovering of implementation and Business challenges for financial services we will move on to Modeling, Implementation, Process ork-flow’s, deployment and testing.Moving on to cover advanced topics such as Process administering, changing business processes using process analysts, business reporting, participants and notifications and finally collaboration. You will learn to setup, maintain and alter your Business Process Management aimed specifically for the Financial services industry.

Practical WebAssembly. Explore the fundamentals of WebAssembly programming using Rust

Sendil Kumar Nellaiyapen

Rust is an open source language tuned toward safety, concurrency, and performance. WebAssembly brings all the capabilities of the native world into the JavaScript world. Together, Rust and WebAssembly provide a way to create robust and performant web applications. They help make your web applications blazingly fast and have small binaries. Developers working with JavaScript will be able to put their knowledge to work with this practical guide to developing faster and maintainable code.Complete with step-by-step explanations of essential concepts, examples, and self-assessment questions, you’ll begin by exploring WebAssembly, using the various tools provided by the ecosystem, and understanding how to use WebAssembly and JavaScript together to build a high-performing application. You’ll then learn binary code to work with a variety of tools that help you to convert native code into WebAssembly. The book will introduce you to the world of Rust and the ecosystem that makes it easy to build/ship WebAssembly-based applications.By the end of this WebAssembly Rust book, you’ll be able to create and ship your own WebAssembly applications using Rust and JavaScript, understand how to debug, and use the right tools to optimize and deliver high-performing applications.

Mastering Modern Web Penetration Testing. Master the art of conducting modern pen testing attacks and techniques on your web application before the hacker does!

Prakhar Prasad, Rafay Baloch

Web penetration testing is a growing, fast-moving, and absolutely critical field in information security. This book executes modern web application attacks and utilises cutting-edge hacking techniques with an enhanced knowledge of web application security.We will cover web hacking techniques so you can explore the attack vectors during penetration tests. The book encompasses the latest technologies such as OAuth 2.0, Web API testing methodologies and XML vectors used by hackers. Some lesser discussed attack vectors such as RPO (relative path overwrite), DOM clobbering, PHP Object Injection and etc. has been covered in this book.We'll explain various old school techniques in depth such as XSS, CSRF, SQL Injection through the ever-dependable SQLMap and reconnaissance. Websites nowadays provide APIs to allow integration with third party applications, thereby exposing a lot of attack surface, we cover testing of these APIs using real-life examples. This pragmatic guide will be a great benefit and will help you prepare fully secure applications.

Instant IntroJs. Learn how to work with the IntroJs library to create useful, step-by-step help and introductions for websites and applications

Ehsan Arasteh, Afshin Mehrabani

IntroJs is a JavaScript and CSS3 library, used to create simple step-by-step help pages or introductions for websites and applications to show the users new features or whole application parts quickly and concisely. Instant IntroJs is a reference to get started with IntroJs right away.Instant IntroJs teaches you how to work with key IntroJs methods and events to create awesome step-by-step introductions. This book contains numerous examples of introductions and help pages with detailed explanations. It also shows you how to customize the library with your preferred stylesheet or integrate it with other server-side frameworks.Instant IntroJs teaches you how to work with the IntroJs API, methods, and events to create step-by-step introductions for websites and applications.This book will give you the knowledge to make the preferred changes to IntroJs in order to build a customized introduction. Instant IntroJs provides many examples of introductions and helps you with using HTML attributes and JSON configurations, as well as some descriptions about how to use and integrate IntroJs with other server-side libraries, such as Ruby on Rails and PHP Yii. You will be provided with information about the latest features of IntroJs that include multi-page introductions, creating introductions using JSON configuration and HTML attributes, methods to change or customize the library, and more.Instant IntroJs provides full and detailed examples of step-by-step introductions to help you easily learn and use the latest version of the IntroJs library.

Software Testing Strategies. A testing guide for the 2020s

Matthew Heusser, Michael Larsen

In today’s world, software is everywhere—from entertainment apps to mission-critical systems that support our health, finance, and infrastructure. Testing plays a vital role in ensuring these systems work reliably. Whether you're a software developer, hobbyist, or IT professional, this book will guide you in mastering the art of testing. It’s about asking the right What if? questions, uncovering vulnerabilities, and ensuring software performs as expected throughout its lifecycle. Testing isn't just about automation; it’s a human-driven, creative process that requires skill, and a deep understanding of software behavior. With practical examples and expert insights, this book helps you craft your own test strategies and explore novel approaches to problem-solving in the testing world. With its help, you’ll hone your testing skills with techniques and methodologies rather than tool-based solutions. Authored by experts Matt Heusser and Michael Larson, the book provides valuable strategies for making testing both effective and engaging. Matt is known for his leadership in project rescue initiatives, while Michael’s work in accessibility testing has helped shape industry standards. By the end of this book, you’ll be equipped to enhance your testing practices and ensure high-quality software in an ever-evolving tech landscape.

Responsive Web Design by Example : Beginner's Guide. Build powerful and engaging responsive websites with ease

Thoriq Firdaus

edX E-Learning Course Development. Design, develop, and deploy an interactive and informative MOOC course for the edX platform

Matthew A. Gilbert, Matthew A Gilbert

Microsoft Azure Administrator ,Äi Exam Guide AZ-103. Your in-depth certification guide in becoming Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate

Sjoukje Zaal

Microsoft Azure Administrator – Exam Guide AZ-103 will cover all the exam objectives that will help you achieve Microsoft Azure Administrator certification. Whether you want to pass the AZ-103 exam or simply want hands-on experience in administering Azure, this study guide will help you achieve your goal. It covers the latest features and capabilities related to configuring, managing, and securing Azure resources. Following Microsoft's AZ-103 exam syllabus, this guide is divided into five modules. The first module helps you understand how to manage Azure subscriptions and resources. You will be able to configure Azure subscription policies at Azure subscription level and even learn how to use Azure policies for resource groups. Later, the book covers techniques related to implementing and managing storage in Azure. You will be able to create and configure backup policies and perform restore operations. The next module will guide you through creating, configuring, and deploying virtual machines for Windows and Linux. In the last two modules, you will learn about configuring and monitoring virtual networks and managing identities. The book concludes with effective mock tests, along with answers to them to help you confidently pass the exam.By the end of this book, you will have developed the skills you need to pass Exam AZ-103 and gain the corresponding certification.

Kinect for Windows SDK Programming Guide

Abhijit Jana

Kinect has been a game-changer in the world of motion games and applications since its first release. It has been touted as a controller for Microsoft Xbox but is much more than that. The developer version of Kinect, Kinect for Windows SDK, provides developers with the tools to develop applications that run on Windows. You can use this to develop applications that make interaction with your computer hands-free. This book focuses on developing applications using the Kinect for Windows SDK. It is a complete end to end solution using different features of Kinect for Windows SDK with step by step guidance. The book will also help you develop motion sensitive and speech recognition enabled applications. You will also learn about building application using multiple Kinects.The book begins with explaining the different components of Kinect and then moves into to the setting up the device and getting thedevelopment environment ready. You will be surprised at how quickly the book takes you through the details of Kinect APIs. You will use NUI to use the Kinect for Natural Inputs like skeleton tracking, sensing, speech recognizing. You will capture different types of stream, and images, handle stream event, and capture frame. Kinect device contains a motorized tilt to control sensor angles, you will learn how to adjust it automatically. The last part of the book teaches you how to build application using multiple Kinects and discuss how Kinect can be used to integrate with other devices such as Windows Phone and microcontroller.

Learning CoreOS

Kingston Smiler. S, Shantanu Agrawal

CoreOS is an open source operating system developed upon the Linux kernel. The rise of CoreOS is directly related to the rise of Docker (a Linux container management system). It is a minimal operating system layer and takes a different approach to automating the deployment of containers. The major difference between CoreOS and other Linux distributions is that CoreOS was designed to deploy hundreds of servers. CoreOS immensely helps the users to create systems, which are easy to scale and manage, making life easier for all, be it developer, QA, or deployer.This book is all about setting up, deploying, and using CoreOS to manage clusters and clouds. It will help you understand what CoreOS is and its benefits as a cloud orchestration platform. First, we’ll show you how to set up a simple CoreOS instance with single node in the cluster and how to run a Docker container inside the CoreOS instance. Next, you’ll be introduced to Fleet and systemd, and will deploy and distribute Docker services across different nodes in cluster using Fleet. Later, you’ll be briefed about running services in a cluster with constraints, publishing the services already running on the cluster to new services, and making your services interact with each other. We conclude by teaching you about advanced container networking. By the end of the book, you will know the salient features of CoreOS and will be able to deploy, administrate, and secure a CoreOS environment.

Practical System Programming for Rust Developers. Build fast and secure software for Linux/Unix systems with the help of practical examples

Prabhu Eshwarla

Modern programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, and Java have become increasingly accepted for application-level programming, but for systems programming, C and C++ are predominantly used due to the need for low-level control of system resources. Rust promises the best of both worlds: the type safety of Java, and the speed and expressiveness of C++, while also including memory safety without a garbage collector. This book is a comprehensive introduction if you’re new to Rust and systems programming and are looking to build reliable and efficient systems software without C or C++.The book takes a unique approach by starting each topic with Linux kernel concepts and APIs relevant to that topic. You’ll also explore how system resources can be controlled from Rust. As you progress, you’ll delve into advanced topics. You’ll cover network programming, focusing on aspects such as working with low-level network primitives and protocols in Rust, before going on to learn how to use and compile Rust with WebAssembly. Later chapters will take you through practical code examples and projects to help you build on your knowledge.By the end of this Rust programming book, you will be equipped with practical skills to write systems software tools, libraries, and utilities in Rust.

QGIS Blueprints. Develop analytical location-based web applications with QGIS

Ben Mearns

Mastering Flask Web Development. Build enterprise-grade, scalable Python web applications - Second Edition

Daniel Gaspar, Jack Stouffer

Flask is a popular Python framework known for its lightweight and modular design. Mastering Flask Web Development will take you on a complete tour of the Flask environment and teach you how to build a production-ready application. You'll begin by learning about the installation of Flask and basic concepts such as MVC and accessing a database using an ORM. You will learn how to structure your application so that it can scale to any size with the help of Flask Blueprints. You'll then learn how to use Jinja2 templates with a high level of expertise. You will also learn how to develop with SQL or NoSQL databases, and how to develop REST APIs and JWT authentication. Next, you'll move on to build role-based access security and authentication using LDAP, OAuth, OpenID, and database. Also learn how to create asynchronous tasks that can scale to any load using Celery and RabbitMQ or Redis. You will also be introduced to a wide range of Flask extensions to leverage technologies such as cache, localization, and debugging. You will learn how to build your own Flask extensions, how to write tests, and how to get test coverage reports. Finally, you will learn how to deploy your application on Heroku and AWS using various technologies, such as Docker, CloudFormation, and Elastic Beanstalk, and will also learn how to develop Jenkins pipelines to build, test, and deploy applications.

Microsoft Azure Development Cookbook. Over 70 advanced recipes for developing scalable services with the Microsoft Azure platform

Roberto Freato, Neil Mackenzie

Get Your Hands Dirty on Clean Architecture. Build 'clean' applications with code examples in Java - Second Edition

Tom Hombergs, Gernot Starke

Building for maintainability is key to keep development costs low (and developers happy). The second edition of Get Your Hands Dirty on Clean Architecture is here to equip you with the essential skills and knowledge to build maintainable software.Building upon the success of the first edition, this comprehensive guide explores the drawbacks of conventional layered architecture and highlights the advantages of domain-centric styles such as Robert C. Martin's Clean Architecture and Alistair Cockburn's Hexagonal Architecture. Then, the book dives into hands-on chapters that show you how to manifest a Hexagonal Architecture in actual code. You'll learn in detail about different mapping strategies between the layers of a Hexagonal Architecture and see how to assemble the architecture elements into an application. The later chapters demonstrate how to enforce architecture boundaries, what shortcuts produce what types of technical debt, and how, sometimes, it is a good idea to willingly take on those debts.By the end of this second edition, you'll be armed with a deep understanding of the Hexagonal Architecture style and be ready to create maintainable web applications that save money and time. Whether you're a seasoned developer or a newcomer to the field, Get Your Hands Dirty on Clean Architecture will empower you to take your software architecture skills to new heights and build applications that stand the test of time.

Moodle 1.9 Testing and Assessment. Develop and evaluate quizzes and tests using Moodle modules

Moodle Trust, Jason Myrick

Moodle is a free Course Management System (CMS), which is a web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites. Moodle also has many effective modules and assessment techniques for testing that can be used for any subject. Computer-based testing is inevitable in any online teaching course. As you consider the benefits of computer-based testing you will want to easily create tests and instantaneously assess them.Moodle 1.9 Testing and Assessment puts together a variety of modules and activities that allow us to easily create and deliver a variety of tests on any subject. It is a step-by-step guide that will assist you to develop and assess simple as well as complex quizzes and tests.You will initially learn to create different types of questions such as short answer questions, multiple choice questions, and so on. After you have learned to create questions, you will learn to integrate all of them in a Moodle quiz to create a complete test by tweaking the various options. Next you will learn to create and set up a Lesson, which you can use to create simple vocabulary or flash card tests or complex tests.You will learn to test and assess students through work submitted using Moodle Workshop. This module also provides an opportunity for self- and peer-assessment of your student's work. Then you will learn skill-specific tests such as listening, reading, speaking, and writing tests that will help you to judge a person's ability in a particular field. At the end of this book you will learn how you can grade tests using Moodle Gradebook.This hands-on guide helps you to establish optimal tests that can be graded using Moodle modules.