Why SDKs Are Important in the Development of Modern Applications

Increasingly, developers are using SDK when developing applications. In addition to optimising processes, there is also a significant saving in resources and a reduction in the number of errors in the product. We have extensive experience in using various SDKs and believe that this is the solution that should be in service with every development company.

What is SDK and why is it important?

A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of specific tools. Thanks to this, the developer can create his own application that can be connected or added to another program. With SDK, you can quickly and efficiently create an application for a specific platform. Another important aspect is the use of SDK packages to enhance the functionality of applications.

So, SDK allows you to use what has been written and tested before for your solution. This not only saves time, but also a predictable result during development. Everything, that. what is required from developers is to avoid conflicting versions of packages and integrate them correctly based on documentation.

API and SDK: what you need to know?

Let's start with the truth that all SDKs are APIs, but not all APIs are SDKs. In other words, all SDKs usually contain an API; but no APIs contain an SDK. A typical SDK will contain a large number of APIs required by an application that can create almost any functionality.

For example, the PHP Development Kit will contain the API, as well as compilers, runtimes, and more. At the same time, the PHP API is a list of libraries to work with. Thus, SDKs help to create applications, and APIs allow applications to work within the designated SDK.

Why do developers choose the SDK?

SDK is a great way to simplify basic tasks without spending time and money on them. Reliability and the development cycle itself are significantly reduced, which is appreciated by all parties involved in the processes. That is, API has all the necessary features to create a product base and simplify integration.

The chance of an error occurring when using code from a working library is much lower. You also don't waste time manually entering API endpoints, it's all done through the IDE. There are APIs for virtually any type of application, regardless of the industry. You just need to choose the right option.

With a foundation in the form of SDK, the developer can focus on more important things and add new progressive features. And also work on new solutions.

What does the SDK contain?

The content of the SDK can vary significantly depending on the purpose.

SDK includes:

• Libraries or at least one API (predefined pieces of code to perform common tasks).
• Integrated Development Environment or IDE (visual editor for creating graphic elements and layouts).
• Tools (anything that allows you to debug, build, run and test applications).

Additional components:

• Documentation
• Editors
• Libraries
• Compilers
• Debuggers
• Drivers
• Network Protocols
• Examples and test projects.
• How to choose a good SDK?

How to choose a good SDK?

Since all SDKs are created according to the same principle, their performance and effectiveness can be checked even before integration at the selection stage. Consider the main components that you should pay attention to.

• integration: the process should not be laborious and lengthy;
• documentation: it should contain clear instructions and code examples;
• uniformity: all functions and methods should be the same for all platforms;
• resource usage: performance should not suffer from the SDK used;
• transparency: all permissions and actions regarding clients should be open;
• updates: they must be compatible with new versions of the OS and architecture, but not conflict with older versions, updates must also be recorded in the documentation;
• security: check that the SDK does not conflict with your application code and does not harm the user.

SDK Use Cases

The SDK is widely used by our team to implement various solutions. The use of ready-made parts of solutions in work helps to significantly reduce development time and the number of errors.

Among the SDKs that are widely used in web-development:

• AWS: Integration with AWS Services
• Stripe (JS, PHP): Payment system
• Firebase: Integration with various services
• Facebook: Integration with Facebook API
• Telegram: Messenger integration
• Mailchimp: Email Marketing Integration
• Twilio: Bulk SMS integration
• socket.io: Socket service
• Swagger: Writing Documentation
• Laravel Echo: Service for WebSocket
• Laravel Octane: Service for increasing project productivity, writing the project into memory, and passing requests at the highest speed
• Laravel Sanctum: Authentication Service
• Laravel Passport: Authentication Service
• Laravel Nova: Administration System
• Laravel Socialite: Authentication service through third-party services
• Elastic Search: Smart Full Text Search Engine

As for mobile development.

Android development:

JetpackCompose

Is Android’s modern toolkit for building native UI. It simplifies and accelerates UI development on Android. Quickly bring your app to life with less code, powerful tools, and intuitive Kotlin APIs.

OkHttp + Retrofit for REST API

The most popular, stable, configurable (custom adapters, converters), easy to use

Dagger Hilt for dependency injection

The most popular one and now also developed and supported by Android team which provides support and easy usage for Android projects rather than just Java

MPAndroidChart for chart/graphics

Very configurable library to implement different charts, also such library was implemented for iOS with the same interfaces of usage

Glide for fetching and displaying images

Efficient open source media management and image loading framework for Android that wraps media decoding, memory and disk caching

Timber

Logger with a small, extensible API which provides utility on top of Android's normal Log class.

LeakCanary

Popular memory leak detection library for Android

iOS:
UIKit

Standard library for working with UI

SwiftUI

SwiftUI is Apple's brand new framework for building user interfaces for iOS, tvOS, macOS, and watchOS

Helps build great apps for all Apple platforms with Swift and surprisingly small code

Firebase SDK

Great SDK, which we often use in projects. It combines a large amount of functionality: push notifications, authorization, in-app messages, remote database, remote configuration, analytics. It is possible to integrate not the entire SDK, but only the necessary components. Reliable product from Google.

Alamofire

Trusted wrapper on URLSession. Makes it easier to work with requests, resulting in fewer lines of code compared to URLSession. It contains the experience of many years from different developers. Maintained and updated to this day.

AlamofireImage

Convenient and easy to use thanks to the UIImageView extension and caching mechanism. Maintained and updated to this day.

SnapKit

Convenient, elegant wrapper for constructing constraints. Essentially, it simplifies working with constraints in the code and makes the code simpler and more readable. Maintained and updated to this day.

PhoneNumberKit

Those who have tried to do the same thing that PhoneNumberKit does know that this is not a trivial task. It will help to save a lot of time with fields for entering a phone number and their validation and formatting. Maintained and updated to this day.

IQKeyboardManager

The most simple integration. Added to the project and that's it, you no longer worry about whether the keyboard will close some of the content on the screen or not.

Conclusions

The SDK is a great help to developers and companies that want to work efficiently and efficiently. Easy integration and simple interfaces straight from existing code mean less time spent on basic stuff. A good SDK is all about the clear implementation of certain functions without complicating your code.

If you choose the right SDK vendor, you can be 100% sure of its performance and the level of service your end user will receive.