Building software in the current world requires high-speed development to meet ever-changing business needs. Products and services are delivered incrementally in Agile mode.
To meet speed and quality requirements, a development team will need to identify the following:
- Development tools and frameworks that ensure standardization
- Ready-made solutions that can be integrated directly or customized to serve their needs
Modern development approaches need to make a choice – SDK vs API framework to meet these challenges. Instead of wasting time and resources on researching, developing, and testing, teams can use a plethora of API frameworks and SDKs with extensive community support.
SDK vs API Examples
An SDK is a full-fledged installable library, while APIs are services exposed by a third party or another service, to be communicated with. Both take away the development effort of a module or feature that you might not be ready with. Depending on the scenario, a developer or team will either need an SDK or just an API framework. Making an informed decision on when to use one over the other is crucial to successful software development.
To understand this, let us take an example in which we want to build a native health tracking app. The app will have the following features:
- Social authentication through Google or Facebook accounts
- Location tracking to figure out distance covered from point A to B as per the user’s activity. It could be cycling or walking
- BMI calculator
- Diet options
The list can continue, but we do not want to digress from our main intent of understanding SDKs and API frameworks.
Android App and Social Authentication Implementation
For our scope, let’s just consider the Android app. The official language for building Android apps is Java. Kotlin has also become an official language for Android development and is heavily promoted by Google. C, C++ runs natively on the phone. Then there is LUA, which is not supported natively and requires an Android SDK. You can even use C# depending on your team’s core competency. This will require either Xamarin with Visual Studio or Unity.
We are going to choose Java here.
The best way to get started for a Java developer is to install Android Studio, which is an IDE that automatically downloads the Android SDK and emulator. The Android SDK is a complete set of development, debugging, testing, and build tools, API frameworks, and documentation. Using the SDK, you can generate APIs that can be deployed to different Android-supported devices. The developer just focuses on the language of his choice based on what is supported by the SDK and uses standard code and framework to get the app up and running.
The next feature to be built is single-sign-on into the app using a social account. Both Google and Facebook provide client or server-side SDKs to hide the complexity of the actual implementation and enable the integration through popular languages. The developer just rides on the authentication provided by Facebook and Google. Additionally, the user also grants the app permission to access information or perform operations on either platform based on our need. In our case, we will have to use the Android SDK provided by Facebook and Google.
To Sum Up
The Android SDK enables the following:
- Development of the Android app using a language of our choice, Java.
- Provides API frameworks to access location, UI, camera, and other native features.
- Enables localization of the app for different languages through the SDK’s framework if required.
- The Java code is compiled into an Android application package along with the required libraries of the SDK.
Hence, for our health tracking app, we can use the Android SDK for social authentication.
Unsure of which SDK framework to use? Send in your requirement and we will be happy to assist you!
SDK vs API – Location Tracking Functionality
One of the key features of the app we are trying to build here is to figure out the distance walked or cycled by the user. We can take the route of custom implementation by spending a couple of days or weeks to come up with an algorithm, implementing and finally testing it. A better approach would be to use an out-of-the-box solution such as Google Maps and save on SDLC time and effort. Google provides both SDK and API framework related to Maps and distance. In our case, we do not really need the entire Google MAP SDK. We can use just the relevant API frameworks such as the Distance Matrix API, which gives you the distance and time between one or more endpoints.
Consider the JavaScript Implementation of the Distance Matrix API
The endpoint provided looks like this:
Based on the above URL, we can glean that an API framework comprises the following:
- Protocol – SOAP, REST, or GraphQL. In our case, it is REST. SOAP is the oldest mode of interaction with heavy schemas and data. REST is an architectural style relying on HTTPs GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE operations. GraphQL is a query language promoted by Facebook, which solves the problem of under-fetching or over-fetching by REST.
- URL – as provided by the service provider.
- Request Parameters – Either all parameters are mandatory or some are optional. Any service exposing API frameworks will share the parameters and their structure. In our case, for instance, destinations and origins are required parameters. Mode (bicycling or walking) is an optional parameter.
- API Key – We will need to pass a unique API key that points to our application using the service for authentication and authorization.
- Response – The output is either JSON or XML.
What is API Advantage Here
An API framework enables easy and seamless data transfer between a client application and the server providing the service. There is no installation required, unlike an SDK. The API logic is completely abstracted by the service provider from the client. API frameworks contribute to a loosely coupled, flexible architecture. Since the API code lies on the server, it’s maintained by the provider. Because of this dependency, we need to ensure that we choose a reliable provider and also keep an eye out for newer versions.
Hence, for our health tracking app, we can use the Google Map API for location tracking.
BMI Calculator and Diet Options Implementation
This would be either a custom implementation, an API, or SDK. If it’s not available readily as an API or SDK and is required in a number of different health services or products, the organization wants to provide, it would be best to expose it as an API framework for current and future use.
Diet options clearly are a custom implementation in our scenario.
Difference between SDK and API
|
API Framework |
SDK |
|
An API framework is used to provide a feature by running on a third-party system in a request-response mode. |
An SDK provides all the tools, libraries, APIs, and documentation necessary to build the application or feature. |
|
API frameworks run on separate servers (internal or third party) and hence have a continued dependency on the service for reliable operation. |
SDKs typically run on the same environment and hence have no interdependencies. However, they use the processing power of the existing environment of the application being built. |
|
This just requires a SOAP/REST/GraphQL call to the server endpoint with request parameters defined as per the API framework documentation. |
This is available in languages supported by the provider, which is mostly based on what can run in the environment expected and the popularity of the language. |
|
No installation is required. |
It requires installation and is therefore bulky. Any upgrades will need to be handled at our end. Some SDKs also allow customizations as per our needs. |
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API frameworks contribute to a loosely coupled architecture with minimal dependencies. |
SDKs offer all-in-one solutions but can increase dependency on the platform. |
While SDKs are a superset of APIs, used appropriately, they both have many advantages over custom development.
Advantages of API and SDK
- Fast and easy adoption – A few lines of code and your feature is ready. The developer can focus on the core business functionalities of the application instead of re-inventing the wheel or working on something that is not our core area of expertise.
- Saves time and effort – Ready to use and can be directly plugged into, thereby shortening development cycle.
- Language – In the case of SDKs, they usually support all the popular languages that the implementation needs. For API frameworks, you just have to ensure the communication protocol and parameters are as per the requirements.
- Support – API frameworks and SDKs ensure best practices, provide robustness, and have community support.
- Documentation – API frameworks and SDKs have good documentation for developers to understand and use. No expertise required other than knowing the language to be implemented in.
- Updated – Newer features keep getting added to the stack by way of versions, which the developer, if required, needs to just update. Mostly backward compatibility is already handled by the service provider.
Disadvantages of Using APIs and SDKs
To summarize, whether it’s an API framework or SDK, it’s better to follow the reviews of the community before making a selection. Things to look out for are known bugs, limitations, and cost.
Trigent provides a number of ready-to-use SDKs and API frameworks for many domains such as mobile app development, SCM workflows, logistics, AR/VR development services, enabling you to focus on your core expertise and saving you a lot of time and effort in your development cycles.
To know more, please contact us.
