Learning Azure Functions. Build scalable cloud systems with serverless architecture

Mitesh Soni, Manisha Yadav

Functions help you easily run small pieces of code in cloud with Azure functions without worrying about a whole application or the infrastructure to run it. With Azure functions, you can use triggers to execute your code and bindings to simplify the input and output of your code. This book will start with the basics of Azure Functions. You will learn the steps to set up the environment and the tools that we will be using in the further chapters. Once you have a better understanding of this, we will be creating our first hello world function app. Later you will be introduced to triggers, how they are used to activate a function, and how binding can be used to output results of a function.You will also explore the steps to create an assembly with complex functionality that can be used by functions. Next, this book will teach you to scale your functions and use them to process data, integrate systems, and build simple APIs and microservices. Finally, this book will cover some diagnostic techniques with Azure App services and best practices of working with Azure Functions. By the end of this book, you will be well-versed with the techniques of scaling your Azure functions and making the most of serverless architecture.

Vue.js Quick Start Guide. Learn how to build amazing and complex reactive web applications easily using Vue.js

Ajdin Imsirovic

Vue.js is the latest trending frontend framework. Simplicity, reactivity, and ?exibility are some of the key benefits that Vue offers to developers. This book will help you learn everything you need to know to build stunning reactive web apps with Vue.js 2 quickly and easily.This book will take you through the Vue 2 framework. You will start by learning the different Vue installation options: CDN, NPM, and Vue CLI. Then we will look at the core concepts of Vue: templates and components – ways to modularize Vue code. You will learn how to utilize directives, which are Vue-specific HTML attributes with additional features. Also, you will see how Vue uses a streamlined approach to development, with reusable methods, computed properties, and watchers, and how it controls state with the help of its data option.You will learn about the concepts of reactive programming in Vue, and how to understand communication between parent and child components. We will take a look at props and slots, working with CSS, filters, and mixins. We will also look at ways to add transitions and animations to Vue apps. Then you will extend Vue by building custom directives and your own plugins. Finally, you will learn about Vuex – a Vue plugin that allows us to centralize state, and also introduce Nuxt, which is a framework that builds on top of Vue and solves some issues of single-page applications. After learning about these components, you will be ready to build your own reactive web apps with Vue.js 2.

WSO2 Developer's Guide. SOA and data services with WSO2 Enterprise Integrator

Ramón Garrido, Fidel Prieto Estrada

WSO2 Enterprise Integrator brings together the most powerful servers provided by the WSO2 company for your SOA infrastructure. As an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), WSO2 Enterprise Integrator provides greater flexibility and agility to meet growing enterprise demands, whereas, as a Data Services Server (DSS), it provides an easy-to-use platform for integrating data stores, creating composite views across different data sources, and hosting data services. Using real-world scenarios, this book helps you build a solid foundation in developing enterprise applications with powerful data integration capabilities using the WSO2 servers.The book gets you started by brushing up your knowledge about SOA architecture and how it can be implemented through WSO2. It will help build your expertise with the core concepts of ESB such as building proxies, sequences, endpoints, and how to work with these in WSO2.Going further, you will also get well-acquainted with DSS data service concepts such as configuring data services, tasks, events, testing, and much more. The book will also cover API management techniques. Along with ESB and DSS, you will also learn about business process servers, the rules server and other components that together provide the control and robustness your enterprise applications will need. With practical use cases, the book covers typical daily scenarios you will come across while using these servers to give you hands-on experience.

Learning Microsoft Cognitive Services. Leverage Machine Learning APIs to build smart applications - Second Edition

Leif Larsen

Microsoft has revamped its Project Oxford to launch the all new Cognitive Services platform-a set of 30 APIs to add speech, vision, language, and knowledge capabilities to apps.This book will introduce you to 24 of the APIs released as part of Cognitive Services platform and show you how to leverage their capabilities. More importantly, you'll see how the power of these APIs can be combined to build real-world apps that have cognitive capabilities. The book is split into three sections: computer vision, speech recognition and language processing, and knowledge and search.You will be taken through the vision APIs at first as this is very visual, and not too complex. The next part revolves around speech and language, which are somewhat connected. The last part is about adding real-world intelligence to apps by connecting them to Knowledge and Search APIs.By the end of this book, you will be in a position to understand what Microsoft Cognitive Service can offer and how to use the different APIs.

Keras Reinforcement Learning Projects. 9 projects exploring popular reinforcement learning techniques to build self-learning agents

Giuseppe Ciaburro

Reinforcement learning has evolved a lot in the last couple of years and proven to be a successful technique in building smart and intelligent AI networks. Keras Reinforcement Learning Projects installs human-level performance into your applications using algorithms and techniques of reinforcement learning, coupled with Keras, a faster experimental library.The book begins with getting you up and running with the concepts of reinforcement learning using Keras. You’ll learn how to simulate a random walk using Markov chains and select the best portfolio using dynamic programming (DP) and Python. You’ll also explore projects such as forecasting stock prices using Monte Carlo methods, delivering vehicle routing application using Temporal Distance (TD) learning algorithms, and balancing a Rotating Mechanical System using Markov decision processes.Once you’ve understood the basics, you’ll move on to Modeling of a Segway, running a robot control system using deep reinforcement learning, and building a handwritten digit recognition model in Python using an image dataset. Finally, you’ll excel in playing the board game Go with the help of Q-Learning and reinforcement learning algorithms.By the end of this book, you’ll not only have developed hands-on training on concepts, algorithms, and techniques of reinforcement learning but also be all set to explore the world of AI.

Ethereum Projects for Beginners. Build blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, and DApps

Kenny Vaneetvelde

Ethereum enables the development of efficient, smart contracts that contain code. These smart contracts can interact with other smart contracts to make decisions, store data, and send Ether to others.Ethereum Projects for Beginners provides you with a clear introduction to creating cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, and decentralized applications. As you make your way through the book, you’ll get to grips with detailed step-by-step processes to build advanced Ethereum projects. Each project will teach you enough about Ethereum to be productive right away. You will learn how tokenization works, think in a decentralized way, and build blockchain-based distributed computing systems. Towards the end of the book, you will develop interesting Ethereum projects such as creating wallets and secure data sharing.By the end of this book, you will be able to tackle blockchain challenges by implementing end-to-end projects using the full power of the Ethereum blockchain.

SAS for Finance. Forecasting and data analysis techniques with real-world examples to build powerful financial models

Harish Gulati

SAS is a groundbreaking tool for advanced predictive and statistical analytics used by top banks and financial corporations to establish insights from their financial data.SAS for Finance offers you the opportunity to leverage the power of SAS analytics in redefining your data. Packed with real-world examples from leading financial institutions, the author discusses statistical models using time series data to resolve business issues.This book shows you how to exploit the capabilities of this high-powered package to create clean, accurate financial models. You can easily assess the pros and cons of models to suit your unique business needs.By the end of this book, you will be able to leverage the true power of SAS to design and develop accurate analytical models to gain deeper insights into your financial data.

Salesforce Lightning Reporting and Dashboards. Create, customize, and manage your Salesforce reports and dashboards in depth with Lightning Experience

Johan Yu

Built on the Salesforce App Cloud, the new Lightning Experience combines the new Lightning Design System, Lightning App Builder, and Lightning Components to enable anyone to quickly and easily create modern enterprise apps.The book will start with a gentle introduction to the basics of Salesforce reports and dashboards. It will also explain how to access reports in depth. Then you will learn how to create and manage reports, to use Schedule Report, and create advanced report configurations. The next section talks about dashboards and will enable you to understand and compare various types of dashboard component and how you can benefit the most from each of them. Then we move on to advanced topics and explain tips and tricks related to reports and dashboards, including reporting snapshots, report parameters, and collaboration.Finally, we will discuss how to access dashboards and reports from the Salesforce1 mobile app.