API vs. SDK: What's the difference?

What is an API? What is an SDK? How are they related and enable users to streamline their cloud application development workflows?

In this lightboard video, Nathan Hekman with IBM Cloud, answers these questions and much more while providing a real life scenario which explains the difference and similarities, and ultimately how the two technologies can work together to allow you to spend less time connecting/configuring a cloud service, and more time coding and actually using the service in your app.

#API #SDK #RESTAPI

[sourabhch]

Out of all the tech giants putting out educational videos, IBM has the most visually appealing videos.

[richa]

An SDK is just a pre-packages set of code (for a specific language) that you don’t have to write yourself. Sometimes free and sometimes you have to, purchase them. In the case of this video, he is suggesting a “API-Interaction” SDK a developer would use. There are all sorts of other SDK’s out there including things like an SDK to simplify building a User Interface.

[jh]

I'm impressed that you wrote all this backwards, and didn't even screw up

[saketmodi]

Summary :
- API : enables a system to communicate with another (without having to understand the complexity of the other system)
- SDK : enables you to use APIs easily

[PoolarityChannel]

Prior to 2000 and there is a period of overlap, API was synonymous with function calls to external libraries exposed by other modules. It could be local, in memory, inter-process or remote libraries (or set of libraries SDK), whether it was binary or textual. API's around 2000 became synonymous with HTTP SOAP Web Services, and circa 2012 became synonymous with REST Web Services.

[abiraroychoudhury]

Even before I can concentrate on the subject he is explaining, my brain is lingering on the board and its depiction, it is so amazing

[bariscanyilmaz]

i am wondering how he learned writing reverse

[mateuszczmer]

Great video. Sound of that pen on glass though...uff shivering

[chicharon]

API is also the library of interfaces to a desktop application or program. For example, you can integrate a program to Excel by using its COM API Interface. API is basic, it's only an interface. An SDK is more complete as it can have library API interfaces AND Tools to work with a specific technology. For example, if you want to develop mobile apps from Windows, you will need an SDK for a mobile OS, which is a complete set of tools to compile the code to Native Mobile OS, a debugger, an IDE, etc. etc.

[hervem]

I do not understand why some people put a thumb down ?? This video is design to give an overview of technical concepts. It does an excellent job and reach it goal, it simplifies those technical notions without giving wrong info.

[ricky]

Perfect. Was struggling with these terms. Helped me get a basic idea to build on.

[bsummer]

Never knew programming was this easy. You have really open my mind to endless ways of developing solutions to problems.

Thanks Bro!

[electricz]

I save you some time here:

API is if you make the requests yiursefl to an url to get, post, put etc. json data.

SDK is a sort of module written by the service provider which contains functions you can use to complete your task.
Example would be: upload_image("cat.png")

[ArquimedesOfficial]

Some misconceptions on this video:
1. API is not synonymous of REST, API it’s about interface exposition.
2. There are kinds of APIs: Communications API: Like Rest; Systems API: Like Windows API, Programming Languages API: Like JAVA APIs… and so forth
3. SOAP it’s a specification for a messaging protocol, not an API effectively. His implementation can be.
I really don’t like to see people using the words API and REST indistinctly…

[thecodeninjaeu]

This was absolutely simplified! Thanks IBM and amazing instructor

[dayvs]

I understand now what all this means, but sometimes you are just looking for simple definitions:
API is a URL that does something (retrieve info, change something or perform an action).
SDK is a file or files which have libraries that developers download and use in their proyects.

Then it comes everything else that you brilliantly explained.

[vladpaul]

These IBM videos are NOTCHES above the google ones . Great stuff !!

[aicancode]

i think this is the most clear and easy to understand video i've watched about api and sdk . love it, keep it up!!

[ronaldseo]

this is pretty good movie clip to get basic understanding of between both. It is really helpful.

[karianpour]

The down side of the SDK is its size. It has many funcrionality that one app might not use, also as SDK should be consistent over time, it should have the older versions which make them even larger over time. Also, as they run on our thread, they could have security issues, as well as malwares. It is better to make a good document for API vs an SDK. But big companies like to creare SDK to abscure data from developer. So never use an SDK unless it is open source.