Does for most developers consuming a public API in reality mean to consume a SDK? What are the implications for API providers? Does the API program target just the API, the API and a SDK or a SDK only? Looking at the IoT space, the availability of a SDK covering a wide range of platforms appears to become a crucial market differentiator. A wide range of different models for SDK support exists. This talk will look at the benefits as well as the drawbacks of providing a SDK with your API.

1. SDK vs API @ APIDays Berlin 2014
Holger Reinhardt
@hlgr360
holger.reinhardt@ca.com

2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/21470089/
You want a Library
with that (API)?

3. http://www.layer7tech.com/blogs/index.php/sdks-work-until-they-dont/
You don’t have to be here
You can read it over there

4. Designing an API is easy
Effective API design is difficult

5. • Informaton
• Product
• Service
Business
Asset
• API
• SLA
• EULA
API Provider
• Building
App
Developer
• Using API
Application
• Using App
End-User
The API Value Chain

6. • Informaton
• Product
• Service
Business
Asset
• API
• SLA
• EULA
API Provider
• Building
App
Developer
• Using API
Application
• Using App
End-User
Effective API Design

7. A story about two APIs

10. I love it

13. I wanted Javascript, but got PHP

14. I wanted Client-side, but got Server-side

15. - need to install peck or pearl on my Mac
http://pear.php.net/manual/en/installation.getting.php
- went back to documentation to install oauth
extension, needed autoconf - tried another way
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5536195/install-pecl-
on-mac-os-x-10-6
- still required autoconf
http://mac-dev-env.patrickbougie.com/autoconf/
- Error: PECL: configuration option "php_ini" is
not set to php.ini location
http://arcadian83.livejournal.com/16386.html
=> Ready to run php lib from fitbit website

16. - Enable php
http://editrocket.com/articles/php_apache_mac.html
- Enable apache server
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57481978-263/how-to-
enable-web-sharing-in-os-x-mountain-lion/
- sudo apachectl start
=> Ready to start playing with the php lib

17. small annoyances add up
to create a poor experience

18. Using a SDK might be easier, until it isn’t

19. SDK Benefits
• Time to First Use (Developer On-boarding)
• Best client for your API
• Simplify API design by extracting business
logic into the SDK
• Strongly-typed language representation

20. SDK Drawbacks
• Picking platform and framework winners
• 3rd party framework dependencies
• Version dependencies between SDK and API
• SDK carry-on weight
• Long-term support costs

21. Making API design an afterthought?

22. Provide SDKs for on-boarding
Transition to Web-APIs for production