How to Build Android Apps with Kotlin. A practical guide to developing, testing, and publishing your first Android apps - Second Edition

Alex Forrester, Eran Boudjnah, Alexandru Dumbravan, Jomar Tigcal

Looking to kick-start your app development journey with Android 13, but don’t know where to start? How to Build Android Apps with Kotlin is a comprehensive guide that will help jump-start your Android development practice.This book starts with the fundamentals of app development, enabling you to utilize Android Studio and Kotlin to get started with building Android projects. You'll learn how to create apps and run them on virtual devices through guided exercises. Progressing through the chapters, you'll delve into Android's RecyclerView to make the most of lists, images, and maps, and see how to fetch data from a web service.You'll also get to grips with testing, learning how to keep your architecture clean, understanding how to persist data, and gaining basic knowledge of the dependency injection pattern. Finally, you'll see how to publish your apps on the Google Play store.You'll work on realistic projects that are split up into bitesize exercises and activities, allowing you to challenge yourself in an enjoyable and attainable way. You'll build apps to create quizzes, read news articles, check weather reports, store recipes, retrieve movie information, and remind you where you parked your car.By the end of this book, you'll have the skills and confidence to build your own creative Android applications using Kotlin.

Automating DevOps with GitLab CI/CD Pipelines. Build efficient CI/CD pipelines to verify, secure, and deploy your code using real-life examples

Christopher Cowell, Nicholas Lotz, Chris Timberlake

Developers and release engineers understand the high stakes of building, packaging, and deploying code efficiently. Ensuring that your code is fast, secure, and functionally correct can be a time-consuming and complex task. GitLab CI/CD pipelines simplify these tasks, enabling automation and seamless deployment.Automating DevOps with GitLab CI/CD Pipelines starts with the fundamentals of Git and GitLab, guiding you through committing and reviewing code. You'll learn how to set up GitLab Runners to execute and autoscale CI/CD pipelines, configure pipelines for different stages of the software development lifecycle, and analyze pipeline results in GitLab. As you progress, you'll gain expertise in deploying code across environments, integrating GitLab with Kubernetes and Terraform, triggering pipelines, and improving pipeline performance. This book also includes troubleshooting techniques, best practices, real-world use cases, and self-assessments to reinforce key CI/CD concepts and help you prepare for GitLab-related interviews and certifications.By the end of this book, you'll have the skills to build and automate CI/CD pipelines in GitLab, streamline DevOps workflows, and deploy high-quality, secure code with confidence.

Data Cleaning and Exploration with Machine Learning. Get to grips with machine learning techniques to achieve sparkling-clean data quickly

Michael Walker

Many individuals who know how to run machine learning algorithms do not have a good sense of the statistical assumptions they make and how to match the properties of the data to the algorithm for the best results.As you start with this book, models are carefully chosen to help you grasp the underlying data, including in-feature importance and correlation, and the distribution of features and targets. The first two parts of the book introduce you to techniques for preparing data for ML algorithms, without being bashful about using some ML techniques for data cleaning, including anomaly detection and feature selection. The book then helps you apply that knowledge to a wide variety of ML tasks. You’ll gain an understanding of popular supervised and unsupervised algorithms, how to prepare data for them, and how to evaluate them. Next, you’ll build models and understand the relationships in your data, as well as perform cleaning and exploration tasks with that data. You’ll make quick progress in studying the distribution of variables, identifying anomalies, and examining bivariate relationships, as you focus more on the accuracy of predictions in this book.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to deal with complex data problems using unsupervised ML algorithms like principal component analysis and k-means clustering.

Instant Fancybox. Enhance the look of your web pages using the lightweight and highly customizable jQuery plugin Fancybox

Kyle Diedrick

Fancybox is a lightweight, highly customizable jQuery plugin for displaying modal dialogs. Fancybox is incredibly versatile; it works with all sorts of different content including images, videos, iFrames, custom HTML, and even SWF files. Fancybox is also very easy to customize, making it a great tool for any pop-up-like feature.Instant Fancybox is a hands-on guide which shows you how to use and customize the Fancybox plugin. The book provides step-by-step tutorials covering everything from simple installation to complex settings and features. This makes it a great way to get familiar with and ultimately master the Fancybox plugin.This book walks you through how to get the most out of the Fancybox plugin for jQuery, starting with the installation of the plugin and how to work with the JavaScript events that Fancybox triggers.You will learn everything you need to know about setting up Fancybox to show images, image galleries and slideshows, videos, and other content. You will also learn about the settings available within Fancybox and how to leverage them to make the Fancybox popup do exciting things. The Fancybox plugin has much to offer, and this book covers all of the features it provides. This book will provide you with all the information you will need to use the Fancybox plugin effectively.

Expert Microsoft Teams Solutions. A guide to Teams architecture and integration for advanced end users and administrators

Aaron Guilmette, Yura Lee, Grant Oliasani, Angel Aviles

Microsoft Teams is an invaluable tool that can integrate various Microsoft products into a single convenient hub. But making the most of it often requires expert help and hours spent on calls and live chats. If you’d rather have all the information you need to make the most of Teams in one place, then this book is for you.Written by two Microsoft technical specialists who have spent years helping clients find the best way to utilize Teams, this book will help you understand Teams as a whole — from architecture and collaboration through to apps and voice. You’ll study the platform from the perspective of the end user as well as the administrator, gaining insights and learning from real-life examples.You’ll tackle adopting, implementing, and administering Teams efficiently, which will help you realize its full potential. From setup and deployment to modernizing your organization’s chat and voice infrastructure, you’ll get plenty of useful and actionable tips as you progress.By the end of your journey through this book, you’ll be able to design and implement the most important and exciting aspects of Microsoft Teams help your organization work more efficiently.

Learning Android Application Development. Start building for the world’s most popular mobile platform

Raimon Rafols Montane, Laurence Dawson

The mobile app market is huge. But where do you start? And how you can deliver something that takes Google Play by storm? This guide is the perfect route into Android app development – while it’s easy for new apps to sink without a trace, we’ll give you the best chance of success with practical and actionable guidance that will unlock your creativity and help you put the principles of Android development into practice.From the fundamentals and getting your project started to publishing your app to a huge market of potential customers, follow this guide to become a confident, creative and reliable mobile developer. Get to grips with new components in Android 7 such as RecyclerView, and find out how to take advantage of automated testing, and, of course, much, much more. What are you waiting for? There’s never been a better time – or a better way – to get into Android app development.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional Exam Guide (SAP-C02). Gain the practical skills, knowledge, and confidence to ace the AWS (SAP-C02) exam on your first attempt

Patrick Sard, Yohan Wadia

Known for its difficulty and ranking among the highest-paying IT certifications, the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional (SAP-C02) certification demands significant hands-on experience for success. This comprehensive guide reinforces your knowledge and enhances your skills in various solution architectures and services. Additionally, you’ll gain lifetime access to supplementary practice resources such as mock exams, flashcards, and exam tips from experts.Aligned with exam objectives, this AWS certification study guide helps you assess your knowledge through timed mock tests that simulate exam conditions. Beyond exam preparation, you’ll develop advanced skills in designing distributed systems on AWS cloud and become proficient in providing architectural recommendations for complex application implementation, and enhancing infrastructure efficiency. As you advance, you’ll gain insights into how to foster unique thinking and factor diverse considerations while architecting solutions. You’ll also get to grips with designing multi-tier applications, deploying enterprise-grade operations, and migrating complex applications to AWS.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to design and deploy innovative solutions on AWS, unlocking new opportunities and driving success in the dynamic world of cloud computing.

Learn Bosque Programming. Boost your productivity and software reliability with Microsoft’s new open-source programming language

Sebastian Kaczmarek, Joel Ibaceta

Bosque is a new high-level programming language inspired by the impact of structured programming in the 1970s. It adopts the TypeScript syntax and ML semantics and is designed for writing code that is easy to reason about for humans and machines. With this book, you'll understand how Bosque supports high productivity and cloud-first development by removing sources of accidental complexity and introducing novel features.This short book covers all the language features that you need to know to work with Bosque programming. You'll learn about basic data types, variables, functions, operators, statements, and expressions in Bosque and become familiar with advanced features such as typed strings, bulk algebraic data operations, namespace declarations, and concept and entity declarations. This Bosque book provides a complete language reference for learning to program with Bosque and understanding the regularized programming paradigm. You'll also explore real-world examples that will help you to reinforce the knowledge you've acquired. Additionally, you'll discover more advanced topics such as the Bosque project structure and contributing to the project.By the end of this book, you'll have learned how to configure the Bosque environment and build better and reliable software with this exciting new open-source language.

Augmented Reality with Unity AR Foundation. A practical guide to cross-platform AR development with Unity 2020 and later versions

Jonathan Linowes

Augmented reality applications allow people to interact meaningfully with the real world through digitally enhanced content. The book starts by helping you set up for AR development, installing the Unity 3D game engine, required packages, and other tools to develop for Android (ARCore) and/or iOS (ARKit) mobile devices. Then we jump right into the building and running AR scenes, learning about AR Foundation components, other Unity features, C# coding, troubleshooting, and testing. We create a framework for building AR applications that manages user interaction modes, user interface panels, and AR onboarding graphics that you will save as a template for reuse in other projects in this book. Using this framework, you will build multiple projects, starting with a virtual photo gallery that lets you place your favorite framed photos on your real-world walls, and interactively edit these virtual objects. Other projects include an educational image tracking app for exploring the solar system, and a fun selfie app to put masks and accessories on your face. The book provides practical advice and best practices that will have you up and running quickly.By the end of this AR book, you will be able to build your own AR applications, engaging your users in new and innovative ways.

Getting Started with tmux. Maximize your productivity by accessing several terminal sessions from a single window using tmux

Victor Quinn

OpenCV 4 for Secret Agents. Use OpenCV 4 in secret projects to classify cats, reveal the unseen, and react to rogue drivers - Second Edition

Joseph Howse

OpenCV 4 is a collection of image processing functions and computer vision algorithms. It is open source, supports many programming languages and platforms, and is fast enough for many real-time applications. With this handy library, you’ll be able to build a variety of impressive gadgets.OpenCV 4 for Secret Agents features a broad selection of projects based on computer vision, machine learning, and several application frameworks. To enable you to build apps for diverse desktop systems and Raspberry Pi, the book supports multiple Python versions, from 2.7 to 3.7. For Android app development, the book also supports Java in Android Studio, and C# in the Unity game engine. Taking inspiration from the world of James Bond, this book will add a touch of adventure and computer vision to your daily routine. You’ll be able to protect your home and car with intelligent camera systems that analyze obstacles, people, and even cats. In addition to this, you’ll also learn how to train a search engine to praise or criticize the images that it finds, and build a mobile app that speaks to you and responds to your body language.By the end of this book, you will be equipped with the knowledge you need to advance your skills as an app developer and a computer vision specialist.

Data Modeling with Microsoft Excel. Model and analyze data using Power Pivot, DAX, and Cube functions

Bernard Obeng Boateng, Michael Olafusi

Microsoft Excel's BI solutions have evolved, offering users more flexibility and control over analyzing data directly in Excel. Features like PivotTables, Data Model, Power Query, and Power Pivot empower Excel users to efficiently get, transform, model, aggregate, and visualize data.Data Modeling with Microsoft Excel offers a practical way to demystify the use and application of these tools using real-world examples and simple illustrations.This book will introduce you to the world of data modeling in Excel, as well as definitions and best practices in data structuring for both normalized and denormalized data. The next set of chapters will take you through the useful features of Data Model and Power Pivot, helping you get to grips with the types of schemas (snowflake and star) and create relationships within multiple tables. You’ll also understand how to create powerful and flexible measures using DAX and Cube functions.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to apply the acquired knowledge in real-world scenarios and build an interactive dashboard that will help you make important decisions.

Django 5 for the Impatient. Learn the core concepts of Django to develop Python web applications - Second Edition

Daniel Correa, Greg Lim

Learning Django can be a challenging and time-consuming activity without the right guidance. With hundreds of tutorials, loads of documentation, and unclear explanations out there, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s most important. This book stands out by teaching you how to use Django in just a few days with a focused approach. In this second edition, you’ll go on a fun, practical, and pragmatic journey to learning full-stack development with Django 5. You’ll start building your first Django app within minutes. As you progress, you’ll learn from concise explanations that will help you get to grips with some of the most important Django features, including URLs, views, templates, models, CSS inclusion, image storage, Django admin panel, and more. You’ll also understand how to design Django MVT (Model-View-Template) architectures and implement them. Additionally, you’ll use Django to develop a movie store application and deploy it to the internet.By the end of this book, you’ll be able to build and deploy your own Django web applications confidently.

Instant Apache Camel Message Routing. Route, transform, split, multicast messages, and do much more with Camel

Bilgin Ibryam, Bilgin Ismet Ibryam

With new APIs and technologies emerging every day, the need for integrating applications is greater than ever before. With the right tools, integrating applications is not hard. Apache Camel is the leading open source integration and message orchestration framework. Apache Camel, which has a variety of connectors and features numerous well-known integration patterns, has an enormous advantage over home grown integration solutions.Instant Apache Camel Message Routing helps you to get started using the Camel routing engine and Enterprise Integration Patterns. This book will show you how to create integration applications using Apache Camel. You will learn how Camel works and how to leverage the Enterprise Integration Patterns for message routing.Instant Apache Camel Message Routing is a practical and step-by-step guide to Apache Camel and integration patterns. This book will show you how Apache Camel works and how it integrates disparate systems using Enterprise Integration Patterns. The book starts with a high level overview of the Camel architecture before diving into message routing principles. Then, it introduces a number of patterns, complete with diagrams, common use cases, and examples about how to use them with Camel. The book also shows you how to test and monitor Camel applications and cope with failure scenarios.

Hands-On Data Analysis with Pandas. A Python data science handbook for data collection, wrangling, analysis, and visualization - Second Edition

Stefanie Molin, Ken Jee

Extracting valuable business insights is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’, but an essential skill for anyone who handles data in their enterprise. Hands-On Data Analysis with Pandas is here to help beginners and those who are migrating their skills into data science get up to speed in no time.This book will show you how to analyze your data, get started with machine learning, and work effectively with the Python libraries often used for data science, such as pandas, NumPy, matplotlib, seaborn, and scikit-learn.Using real-world datasets, you will learn how to use the pandas library to perform data wrangling to reshape, clean, and aggregate your data. Then, you will learn how to conduct exploratory data analysis by calculating summary statistics and visualizing the data to find patterns. In the concluding chapters, you will explore some applications of anomaly detection, regression, clustering, and classification using scikit-learn to make predictions based on past data.This updated edition will equip you with the skills you need to use pandas 1.x to efficiently perform various data manipulation tasks, reliably reproduce analyses, and visualize your data for effective decision making – valuable knowledge that can be applied across multiple domains.

Build and Code Creative Robots with LEGO BOOST. Unleash your creativity and imagination by building exciting robotics projects

Ashwin Shah, Mr. Manoj Patel

LEGO BOOST is a feature-rich creative toolbox that helps kids to develop science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills in a fun way. The LEGO BOOST kit consists of motors, sensors, and more than 840 LEGO pieces to bring various multifunctional robots to life. This book will take you on an interesting and enjoyable journey where you will have fun building robots while developing your problem-solving and logical thinking skills.This book is an end-to-end guide that will take you from a beginner to expert level of robot building with LEGO BOOST and Scratch. Starting with the unboxing and a brief introduction to LEGO BOOST, you'll quickly get your first robotic model up and running. You'll understand how to use the electronic and non-electronic components and have fun building a range of intriguing robotics projects with increasing complexity and advanced functionality. Throughout the book, you'll work on a variety of amazing projects, such as building your own R2D2, a fictional character from Star Wars, that will pique your curiosity to learn robotics and help you explore the full potential of the LEGO BOOST kit. Once you've had fun working with the projects, you'll be introduced to an interesting challenge for you to solve by yourself!By the end of this book, you'll have gained the skills to build creative robotics projects with the LEGO BOOST creative toolbox, and have built on your logical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Microsoft Power Platform Functional Consultant: PL-200 Exam Guide. Learn how to customize and configure Microsoft Power Platform and prepare for the PL-200 exam

Julian Sharp

The Power Platform Functional Consultant Associate (PL-200) exam tests and validates the practical skills of Power Platform users who are proficient in developing solutions by combining the tools in Power Platform and the Microsoft 365 ecosystem based on business needs.This certification guide offers complete, up-to-date coverage of the PL-200 exam so you can prepare effectively for the exam. Written in a clear, succinct way with self-assessment questions, exam tips, and mock exams with detailed explanations of solutions, this book covers common day-to-day activities involved in configuring Power Platform, such as managing entities, creating apps, implementing security, and managing system change.You'll also explore the role of a functional consultant in creating a data model in the Microsoft Dataverse (formerly Common Data Service). Moving ahead, you'll learn how to design the user experience and even build model-driven and canvas apps. As you progress, the book will show you how to manage automation and create chatbots. Finally, you'll understand how to display your data with Power BI and integrate Power Platform with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams.By the end of this book, you'll be well-versed with the essential concepts and techniques required to prepare for the PL-200 certification exam.

Learning Bootstrap 4. Modern, Elegant and Responsive Web Design Made Easy - Second Edition

Matt Lambert

Bootstrap, the most popular front-end framework built to design elegant, powerful, and responsive interfaces for professional-level web pages has undergone a major overhaul. Bootstrap 4 introduces a wide range of new features that make front-end web design even simpler and exciting.In this gentle and comprehensive book, we'll teach you everything that you need to know to start building websites with Bootstrap 4 in a practical way. You'll learn about build tools such as Node, Grunt, and many others. You'll also discover the principles of mobile-first design in order to ensure your pages can fit any screen size and meet the responsive requirements. Learn to play with Bootstrap's grid system and base CSS to ensure your designs are robust and that your development process is speedy and efficient. Then, you'll find out how you can extend your current build with some cool JavaScript Plugins, and throw in some Sass to spice things up and customize your themes. This book will make sure you're geared up and ready to build amazingly beautiful and responsive websites in a jiffy.

ASP.NET Core 5 and Angular. Full-stack web development with .NET 5 and Angular 11 - Fourth Edition

Valerio De Sanctis

Learning full-stack development calls for knowledge of both front-end and back-end web development. ASP.NET Core 5 and Angular, Fourth Edition will enhance your ability to create, debug, and deploy efficient web applications using ASP.NET Core and Angular. This revised edition includes coverage of the Angular routing module, expanded discussion on the Angular CLI, and detailed instructions for deploying apps on Azure, as well as both Windows and Linux.Taking care to explain and challenge design choices made throughout the text, Valerio teaches you how to build a data model with Entity Framework Core, alongside utilizing the Entity Core Fluent API and EntityTypeConfiguration class. You’ll learn how to fetch and display data and handle user input with Angular reactive forms and front-end and back-end validators for maximum effect.Later, you will perform advanced debugging and explore the unit testing features provided by xUnit.net (.NET 5) and Jasmine, as well as Karma for Angular. After adding authentication and authorization to your apps, you will explore progressive web applications (PWAs), learning about their technical requirements, testing, and converting SWAs to PWAs.By the end of this book, you will understand how to tie together the front end and back end to build and deploy secure and robust web applications.

CQRS by Example. Master CQRS: Build Efficient and Scalable Systems with Real-World Examples

Carlos Buenosvinos, Christian Soronellas, Keyvan Akbary

This course offers an in-depth exploration of the Command Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS) pattern, a powerful architecture design that separates read and write operations to achieve greater scalability and performance in software systems. You'll begin by understanding the core principles behind CQRS and why it is essential for handling complex, high-traffic applications. Throughout the course, we’ll work through real-world examples that demonstrate how to apply CQRS to achieve a cleaner and more efficient codebase.Next, we will guide you through the practical aspects of implementing CQRS in a variety of use cases, focusing on how it enhances system maintainability and performance. You'll learn to distinguish between commands and queries effectively, and how to manage data consistency across distributed systems using techniques like event sourcing and eventual consistency.By the end of the course, you will have a comprehensive understanding of CQRS and its benefits. You'll be able to implement it in your own projects, whether you're building new applications or improving legacy systems. With a focus on scalability, maintainability, and performance, this course equips you with the skills needed to take on complex architectural challenges confidently.

Apache Solr Search Patterns. Leverage the power of Apache Solr to power up your business by navigating your users to their data quickly and efficiently

Jayant Kumar

The Music Producer's Ultimate Guide to FL Studio 21. From beginner to pro: compose, mix, and master music - Second Edition

Joshua Au-Yeung

The Music Producer's Ultimate Guide to FL Studio 21 is the essential handbook for any aspiring or professional music producer looking to take their craft to the next level.This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to make the most of FL Studio 21's powerful tools and features. You will learn the secrets to creating professional-sounding music, from creating chord progressions to tailoring your sounds to perfection with compression, equalization, and stereo width effects.You'll begin by getting up-and-running with FL Studio 21, creating a beat, and composing a melody. Once you're familiar with the piano roll and mixer console you'll learn how to use plugins to create your own instruments, explore audio width effects, and engage in sound design. You'll get insights into mixing and mastering, as well as promoting and selling your music.This new edition covers some of the most popular features and plugins in FL Studio 21, including FLEX, Luxeverb, Vintage Chorus, Vintage Phaser, Distructor, Fruity Newtime, VFX Sequencer, Pitch Shifter, Frequency Shifter, Fruity Granulizer, Multiband Delay, and Frequency Splitter.

Mastering 5G Network Design, Implementation, and Operations. A comprehensive guide to understanding, designing, deploying, and managing 5G networks

Shyam Varan Nath, Ananya Simlai, Oguzhan Kara

We are living in an era where ultra-fast internet speed is not a want, but a necessity. As applications continue to evolve, they demand a reliable network with low latency and high speed. With the widespread commercial adoption of driverless cars, robotic factory floors, and AR/VR-based immersive sporting events, speed and reliability are becoming more crucial than ever before. Fortunately, the power of 5G technology enables all this and much more.This book helps you understand the fundamental building blocks that enable 5G technology. You’ll explore the unique aspects that make 5G capable of meeting high-quality demands, including technologies that back 5G, enhancements in the air interface, and packet core, which come together to create a network with unparalleled performance. As you advance, you’ll discover how to design and implement both 5G macro and private networks, while also learning about the various design and deployment options available and which option is best suited for specific use cases. After that, you’ll check out the operational and maintenance aspects of such networks and how 5G works together with fixed wireline and satellite technologies.By the end of this book, you’ll understand the theoretical and practical aspects of 5G, enabling you to use it as a handbook to establish a 5G network.

Citrix XenDesktop Cookbook. Over 40 engaging recipes that will help you implement a full-featured XenDesktop 7.6 architecture and its main satellite components

Gaspare Silvestri