SDKs are powerful tools used to create new applications since they include a variety of utilities. APIs and SDKs are similar, so it can be difficult to understand exactly what the difference between the two is, or when you should choose to use one or the other. Another possible source of confusion comes from the fact that SDKs often contain one or more APIs and help implement them. While an API is purpose-built to perform a specific function of allowing communication between applications, an SDK is an integrated platform that boasts a set of tools to create these applications.
APIs facilitate and allow interaction between applications, but they alone are not enough to create a brand new app. In other words, an API might be better for your project if you are looking to add a few specific features. If you are starting a completely new project, an SDK will provide the tools you need to get up and running. If you are trying to explain the difference between an API and an SDK to a non-developer or someone who is less familiar with the concepts, consider using the different parts of a house as an analogy.
In this situation, the SDK represents the entire house: all of the rooms, furniture, telephone lines, and other components. An API represents just the telephone lines that allow communication in and out of the house. Understanding the differences can help you choose which is best for your project. Very informative article! Your email address will not be published.
APIs are telephone lines, allowing for communication in and out of the house. The SDK is the house itself and all of its contents. 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. Companies make their SDKs available to developers in order to help them easily integrate with their services. When a developer uses an SDK to create systems and develop applications, those applications need to communicate with other applications.
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.
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