Why sdk

Documentation : These are the instructions that explain how developers should use the code. Clear, thorough documentation is an important criterion for a good SDK.

A debugger : Debugging automatically corrects minor errors, smoothing out the app development process. Code samples : These get developers started by giving them some examples of the code in action and helping them use it in simple ways. Some SDKs also include tutorials and other support tools. So if you purchase a set of solar panels, for example, the hardware provider might include an SDK, so developers can program them as desired.

Mobile device operating system : As we mentioned, designing an app that works on both Android and Apple phones requires an SDK for each. This can confer advantages when it comes to customizability but may also introduce security risks. For example, Auth0 customer Kiva was able to eliminate over 20, lines of legacy code by switching to Auth0 for authentication. In fact, this issue is one of the most common reasons Auth0 customers give for choosing us over our competitors.

Customizable : Some SDKs are resistant to customization, meaning you can only implement them with their out-of-the-box settings. Easy to use : A good SDK should provide tutorials and sample code and also let developers connect to a trusted community or support services if they run into any problems.

Because this suite provides tools for both active users and developers, it includes both an API and an SDK, each with different functionalities and use cases.

Used internally and with third-party application providers, the Facebook API allows for communication across the wide Facebook social platform, and utilizes the social connections and profile information data points of every Facebook user to conduct application functions.

Page, photo, event, friend, and group data is collected and collated and used to form meaningful and useful connections that increase the extensibility of the service.

The API also allows for the limiting of this data sharing on a per-user basis, allowing for users to limit their profile content and the use thereof. This integrated security allows for extensive use of multiple data points and resources while still maintaining high privacy and security levels. The functionality of this API extends beyond internal usage, however. This service allows for the observation of relational data between users, photos, accounts, feeds, and more.

Here we see a sample API issuance. While this is a rather simple use, consider the possibilities — a restaurant manager or even host could use this API call to generate a list of users in a photo shoot at a specific engagement, generating a list of social accounts they can reach out to for further publicity or promotion.

Try doing that without the API! Facebook also provides the Marketing API, designed specifically to allow brands to craft engaging and effective social campaigns for their products.

Because the Marketing API primarily drives advertising campaigns, the structural design reflects this purpose and is laid out in such a way as to inspire proper campaign design as a secondary benefit.

These costs can be best optimized by the advertiser to prioritize marketing goals and deliver ads in the most effective and efficient way possible. In this example, the Marketing API has created a campaign that can be bid upon under constraints set up by the campaign budget values. A dynamic bidding system allows for the best return on the dollar — this is the power of a properly crafted API, allowing for complex interactions and manipulations above and beyond what any portal or internal page could deliver on its own.

While the previously mentioned APIs are clearly designed for interaction between applications and campaigns or other applications, the SDKs provided by Facebook are clearly designed for the creation of these applications. Designed specifically to allow for the development of Facebook applications for iOS, the SDK is fully featured, allowing for a multitude of functions to be defined and called. This example allows for the logging of application activations and is thus one of the more basic possible examples to provide.

While the API calls existent sources and functions to perform an action already defined, the SDK is used to first define this function and to create a way to call the source and function. Libraries from which to build functionality, code samples for increased understanding and easier implementation, and references for easy linking and explanations — without any of these, an application or service might be functional, but it certainly would be severely hampered. See this following example code from the SDK reference guide:.

On the other hand, while the API can be used for the communication, it cannot create a brand-new application. To help you better understand, think about baking a cake. When you bake a cake, you more or less need a recipe that gives you the instructions and guidelines. An API can be thought of as this recipe. It is a set of programming instructions that can be used when accessing an online application or database.

This is not unlike software companies that provide their API online for programmers to use. In those instances, a premade cake mix is your go-to. A premade cake mix provides you with the main ingredients, already measured out, and only requires you to add one or two additional ingredients before you bake and serve. That is, in the simplest terms, what an SDK is. It provides you with all the tools, including pieces of code, that you need to build a product or application.

Premade mixes also come in a lot of different varieties and flavors for everything from cupcakes to pancakes. In the same way, each SDK is a toolset that has been created in a specific programming language for a specific platform and is made to interact with the underlying services. For example, with web development, you need to identify which features you want to implement into your website and then identify which APIs you need to make those features come to fruition.

It may sound overwhelming, but the first thing to do is decide where you want to start, understand the best approach, and identify what your end goal is.

Depending on that, your decision can affect your experience, the user experience, reliability, and the timeline. Each integration and program is different, so you need to weigh the pros and cons of different areas like expertise needed to integrate, time to market, security, cost, and reliability.