Beginning

Product Description

From the Back Cover

Regular expressions help users and developers to find and manipulate text more effectively and efficiently. In addition, regular expressions are supported by many scripting languages, programming languages, and databases. This example-rich tutorial helps debunk the traditional reputation of regular expressions as being cryptic. It explains the various parts of a regular expression pattern, what those parts mean, how to use them, and common pitfalls to avoid when writing regular expressions.

With chapters on using regular expressions with popular Windows platform software including databases, cross platform scripting languages, and programming languages, you'll learn to make effective use of the power provided by regular expressions once you fully comprehend their strengths and potential.

What you will learn from this book

• Fundamental concepts of regular expressions and how to write them
• How to break down a text manipulation problem into component parts so you can then logically construct a regular expression pattern
• How to use regular expressions in several scripting and programming languages and software packages
• The variations that exist among regular expression dialects
• Reusable, real-world working code that can be used to solve everyday regular expression problems

Who this book is for

This book is for developers who need to manipulate text but are new to regular expressions. Some basic programming or scripting experience is useful but not required.

3D-printing and personal fabrication are upon us! You've heard of incredibly sophisticated, but cheap, 3D printers that supposedly produce almost anything we tell them to. But how do you become part of that revolution?

Sandeep Singh takes you through the skills we need to learn, and the services and technologies you need to knowâ€"separating the hype from reality and explaining what 3D printing is, how it works, and why you need to be able to engage in it. You’ll gain the knowledge needed to produce complex designs that can be fabricated by online 3D printing services or privately owned 3D printers.

This book first be dives into using Sketchup and its plugins to make design products. Then it demonstrates how to present and animate 3D models, and in particular how to use Google Earth and 3D Warehouse to make an optimal case for sales and marketing your 3D models. Finally, you’ll take a look into the future of 3D printing, ripe with even more disruptive technologies like RepRap and widespread personal fabrication.

• Introduces Sketchup
• Teaches 3D Modeling
• Builds 3D Printing Expertise

What you’ll learn

• 3D design for beginners
• Using Sketchup
• Using the online 3D printing pipeline
• Animating Sketchup 3D models
• Becoming familiar with rapid prototyping technology
• Navigating new 3D and personal fabrication technologies
• Negotiate Google Earth and 3D Warehouse with confidence

Who this book is for

3D Designers, hobbyists, woodworkers, craftsmen and artists.

A practical guide to securing ASP.NET sites

Beginning ASP.NET Security is for novice to intermediate ASP.NET programmers and provides a step-by-step solution to securing each area of ASP.NET development. Rather than approaching security from a theoretical direction, MVP Barry Dorrans shows you examples of how everyday code can be attacked, and describes the steps necessary for defense. Inside, you’ll learn how you can defend your ASP.NET applications using the .NET framework, industry patterns and best practices, code libraries and resources provided by Microsoft and others.

Beginning ASP.NET Security:

• Explores issues with user input including validation, cross-site scripting (XSS) and cross-site request forgery (CSRF)

• Teaches how to securely access your database and defend against SQL injection attacks

• Shares techniques for keeping secrets, including encryption, hashing and preventing information leaks

• Examines methods for authenticating and authorizing users, including ASP.NET membership providers and preventing cookie theft

• Shares tips for securing your web server, including how ASP.NET uses trust levels and locking down IIS

• Unveils ways to securely use WCF web services

• Presents security with the Microsoft ASP.NET Ajax framework and Silverlight

• Includes an overview of security with the Microsoft MVC framework

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

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The authors of the bestselling Beginning iPhone 3 Development are back, with the same excellent material completely updated for iOS 4 and written from the ground up using the latest version of Apple's Xcode 3. All source code has been updated to use the latest Xcode templates and current APIs, and all-new screenshots show Xcode 3 in action.

Beginning iPhone 4 Development is a complete course in iOS development. You’ll master techniques that work on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. We start with the basics, showing you how to download and install the tools you'll need, and how to create your first simple application. Next you’ll learn to integrate all the interface elements iOS users have come to know and love, such as buttons, switches, pickers, toolbars, and sliders. You’ll master a variety of design patterns, from the simplest single view to complex hierarchical drill-downs. The confusing art of table building will be demystified, and you’ll learn techniques to save and retrieve your data using SQLite, iPhone’s built-in database management system and Core Data, the standard for persistence that Apple brought to iOS with the release of SDK 3.  

And there’s much more! You’ll learn to draw using Quartz 2D and OpenGL ES, add multitouch gestural support (pinches and swipes) to your applications, and work with the camera, photo library, accelerometer, and built-in GPS. You’ll discover the fine points of application preferences and learn how to localize your apps for multiple languages. You'll also learn how to use the new concurrency APIs included in iOS 4, and make robust multithreaded applications using Grand Central Dispatch.  

• The iPhone 4 update to the best-selling and most recommended book for Cocoa Touch developers  
• Written in an accessible, easy-to-follow style  
• Full of useful tips and techniques to help you become an iOS pro

What you’ll learn

• Everything you need to know to develop your own best-selling iPhone and iPad apps
• Best practices for optimizing your code and delivering great user experiences
• How to create “universal” apps for both iPhone and iPad

Who this book is for

Anyone who wants to start developing for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Make mind-blowing 2D games for iPhone with this fast, flexible, and easy-to-use framework!

• A cool guide to learning cocos2d with iPhone to get you into the iPhone game industry quickly
• Learn all the aspects of cocos2d while building three different games.
• Add a lot of trendy features such as particles and tilemaps to your games to captivate your players
• Full of illustrations, diagrams, and tips for building iPhone games, with clear step-by-step instructions and practical examples

In Detail

Cocos2d for iPhone is a robust but simple-to-use 2D game framework for iPhone. If you are just starting with game programming, cocos2d will enable you to make your first game in no time. Even if you are a seasoned game developer, you will still be able to benefit from what it offers. Yet beginning with cocos2d for iPhone may be an arduous task without a proper guide.

Cocos2d for iPhone 0.99 Beginner's Guide will help you to learn how to make games with cocos2d from the ground up. You will learn all the key concepts of the framework and game programming in general while building your first game using this exciting platform.

You will start by learning the basics of cocos2d then you will learn how to enhance your game with a lot of cool features and eye candy. After spending a little time learning the basics, you will jump straight into action. The book will then teach you to build games from scratch and how to add animations, sounds, and particle effects to them. Then you will be guided to have your game behave as in real life by using a physics engine. After reading Cocos2d for iPhone 0.99 Beginner's Guide, you will be able to write your own games for iPhone while using all the elements Pros use. There are a lot of examples, images, and diagrams to get you up to speed in no time.

This book is a practical guide for building your own fun and exciting iPhone games in no time using the cocos2d for iPhone framework.

What you will learn from this book

• Learn the basics of the most popular 2D framework for iPhone
• Packed with tips and tricks for using this framework.
• Use actions and effects to make your graphics stand out
• Implement particles to make your players vibrate
• Make huge levels with Tilemaps
• Play sounds in many different ways.
• Give your game real-life physics
• Integrate OpenFeint, the most popular social gaming network, with your game

Approach

This is a beginner's guide.

Who this book is written for

If you want to get into the iPhone industry and have your games compete with the best, this book is for you. You should have some basic programming experience with Objective-C and a good understanding of OOP. A little experience of game programming in any language is welcome but not a must.

Customize the appearance of your Magento 1.4 e-commerce store with Magento's powerful theming engine

• Install and configure Magento 1.4 and learn the fundamental principles behind Magento themes
• Customize the appearance of your Magento 1.4 e-commerce store with Magento's powerful theming engine by changing Magento templates, skin files and layout files
• Change the basics of your Magento theme from the logo of your store to the color scheme of your theme
• Integrate popular social media aspects such as Twitter and Facebook into your Magento store

In Detail

Magento is a popular open source e-commerce project. Whilst it comes with a number of default themes to change the look and feel of your store, many people, both new to Magento and old hands, struggle with even the more basic aspects of customizing Magento themes. When you read this book you'll learn how to change the basics of your Magento theme, create a new custom theme and much more.

The book is a step-by-step guide to theming Magento, aimed at readers with little technical expertise. The first chapters introduce Magento 1.4 and Magento themes, covering Magento theme hierarchy and the key components of a Magento theme: templates, skins, layout, and locales. Later chapters delve into changing the basics of your Magento store, including methods for changing the logo of your store, adding a custom favicon (favorites icon) and integrating Twitter and Facebook into your store. More advanced topics include customizing Magento templates and XML layout files to alter a theme to your own needs and creating a custom print stylesheet.

In short, the book provides guides to common aspects of theming and customizing Magento 1.4 and equally useful step-by-step walkthroughs of integrating more unusual items in to your Magento store.

A practical guide to customizing and creating Magento 1.4 themes

What you will learn from this book

• Install and configure Magento 1.4
• Customize the appearance of your Magento 1.4 e-commerce store with Magento's powerful theming engine
• Learn the fundamental principles behind Magento themes
• Change Magento templates, skin files, and layout files to achieve your theming goals
• Change the basics of your Magento theme, from the logo of your store to the color scheme of your theme
• Customize product view pages in your store to maximize customer interest
• Create a new Magento theme using the Base theme as a beginning
• Using the @font-face declaration in Magento themes
• Integrate popular social media aspects such as Twitter and Facebook in to your Magento store
• Customize templates for e-mail sent to your store's customers
• Avoid common pitfalls with Magento
• Style your store for printing more effectively

Approach

The book is written in an informal tone with clear, step-by-step guides through the major tasks in the book.

Who this book is written for

This book is aimed at web designers and web developers who are not familiar with Magento at all, and at Magento designers and developers who are more familiar with Magento 1.3 than Magento 1.4. The book assumes knowledge of HTML and CSS and an awareness, but not in-depth knowledge of, PHP syntax.

We are visual animals. But before we can see the world in its true splendor, our brains, just like our computers, have to sort and organize raw data, and then transform that data to produce new images of the world. Beginning Python Visualization: Crafting Visual Transformation Scripts talks about turning many types of small data sources into useful visual data. And you will learn Python as part of the bargain.

What you’ll learn

• Write ten lines of code and present visual information instead of data soup.
• Set up an open source environment ready for data visualization.
• Forget Excel: use Python.
• Learn numerical and textual processing.
• Draw graphs and plots based on textual and numerical data.
• Learn how to deal with images.

Who is this book for?

IT personnel, programmers, engineers, and hobbyists interested in acquiring and displaying data from the Web, sensors, economic trends, and even astronomical sources.

About the Apress Beginning Series

The Beginning series from Apress is the right choice to get the information you need to land that crucial entry–level job. These books will teach you a standard and important technology from the ground up because they are explicitly designed to take you from “novice to professional.” You’ll start your journey by seeing what you need to know—but without needless theory and filler. You’ll build your skill set by learning how to put together real–world projects step by step. So whether your goal is your next career challenge or a new learning opportunity, the Beginning series from Apress will take you there—it is your trusted guide through unfamiliar territory!

One of the most popular open source blogging and content management systems, WordPress lets you create a website to promote yourself or your business quickly and easilyâ€"and better yet, it's free. WordPress is a flexible, user-friendly system, and it can be extended with a variety of themes and plugins.

Beginning WordPress 3 is a complete guide for the beginning developer who wants to start using WordPress. You'll learn how to publish and manage online content, add media, create widgets and plugins, and much more.

What you’ll learn

• How to get started with Wordpress, create new content, and import existing content
• How to change what appears on a home page, blog post, and more
• How to handle media uploads, audio/video players, and podcasting
• How to create themes, widgets, and plugins
• How to publish, move, maintain, and secure your WordPress sites

Who this book is for

This book is for first-time users, designers, and developers of online content, blogs, and content management systems.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: About WordPress
Chapter 2: Installing and Upgrading
Chapter 3: Dashboard and Settings
Chapter 4: Working with Content
Chapter 5: Importing Content
Chapter 6: Creating a Basic Theme 
Chapter 7: Creating an Advanced Theme
Chapter 8: Creating Widgets 
Chapter 9: Creating Plugins
Chapter 10: Users and Roles
Chapter 11: Performance and Security
Chapter 12: Custom Content Types, Taxonomies, and Fields
Chapter 13: Setting up the Network
Appendix 1: Plugin Index
Appendix 2: Theme Functions
Appendix 3: Plugin Recipes

Do you want the ability to manage documents, photos, and other content over the Web but dont want to shell out thousands of dollars in proprietary solutions? Want to create an online community for your hobby or user group? Youre not alone. For thousands of like-minded around the globe, the answer is Joomla!, an open source content management system used to manage all sorts of data over the Web.

While Joomla! is relatively easy to install, a fair amount of knowledge is required in order to configure the application to your specific needs. Beginning Joomla! answers many of the questions youre sure to have, guiding you through the process of creating your own design templates, adding and managing content, and adding popular community features such as article commenting, user profile management, and forums. Later chapters discuss e-commerce integration, explore search engine optimization, and show you how to extend Joomla! by creating your own plug-ins.