Most entrepreneurs and startups are looking for ways to optimize the development costs and time required to complete their projects. And here comes SDK integration and development.
Instead of building cost-consuming from-scratch functionality, you can leverage the benefits of the existing software development kits (SDK) built specifically for your project needs.
For this reason, we prepared an in-depth post on SDK integration, covering:
We hope you will find this content valuable to better understand the way you can build and launch mobile applications in a cost- and time-effective manner.
Before we move towards discussing the core benefits and drawbacks of SDK, its implementation steps, and our expertise, let’s find out what means SDK.
Put it simply, a software development kit (SDK) is a product that includes a ready-to-use technology solution with many software instruments engineers need to utilize it.
Speaking technically, SDK is about a library that contains a ready-made source code. Depending on the technologies, software development kits may have different approaches, file extensions, functionality. The code in SDK may be compiled or ready to distribute through other methods.
What is SDK
Software development kits gained extreme popularity within mobile app development. Initially, engineers had to complete the same mandatory tasks each time they started building a new mobile app.
With the help of SDK, mobile app developers can now save lots of time by migrating ready-made solutions from one project to another. This way, engineers avoid handling similar routine tasks like setting up default analytics and crash reporting tools, push notifications, UI frameworks, and many others.
This way, software development kits allow entrepreneurs and startups to avoid implementing routine business processes, thus decreasing development costs and the time-to-market period.
Pros and Cons of SDK Integration
Reduced development costs
One of the core SDK advantages for your business is the ability to save much time and funds on implementing basic integrations and setting up must-have operations.
Engineers of software development kits make their best to create a smooth and intuitive process of SDK integration. Mostly, integration steps include just adding the library file to the development project and creating several lines of code.
Surely, the SDK functionality and project-required features may complicate the integration process, but it is still much cheaper than building an entire functionality from scratch.
For example, just imagine that you want to add the functionality of voice calls to your social mobile app to let users speak to each other in real time. It becomes technically possible by implementing VoIP calls and here comes the question.
Would you choose to implement the VoIP calls functionality from scratch or use the VoIP SDK with the most ready-made features inside?
Obviously, there are no business and financial benefits of hiring senior software engineers and investing in setting up a large IT infrastructure in case you are able to use VoIP SDK functionality out-of-the-box.
Technical simplicity
SDK integration does not require much technical skills from an engineer to successfully integrate the software development kit functionality into your project.
It means that technical specialists do not need to know all the ins and outs of the required software development kit and its mechanisms for integration.
This way, you achieve extra financial benefits again as you can avoid investing funds in hiring an experienced professional to help you with the required SDK integration.
SDK integration leads to integrating all its pros and cons
Put it simply, each software development kit may have its specific limitations and dependencies which should be supported by your parent application to work properly.
Let’s imagine you want to build a mobile app with Bluetooth printing functionality. So, you will integrate a required SDK that demands specific permissions to work with Bluetooth.
It means that your entire mobile app should be developed to provide those permissions. Otherwise, the integrated software development kit won’t be able to utilize Bluetooth.
As a technology advisor, we partner with small firms and global enterprises helping them bring automation to their operational processes.
Now we want to share our experience and expertise in integrating software development kits for one of our clients, covering the initial project information, client’s requirements, the core challenges, solutions, and results.
Initially, the client had a native mobile application within a Proof-of-Concept state, so they contacted Ascendix Tech for assistance in extracting key application features to an SDK, polishing the existing functionality, and extending the software development kit with new features.
What’s more, the client asked us to develop comprehensive documentation and instructions on SDK integration.
Below are the main challenges we had:
Ascendix Challenges of an SDK Integration & Development Project
Conflict of dependencies
When software engineers integrate the required software development kit into the project, they usually incorporate all dependencies available inside the chosen SDK.
As a result, all limitations available within the SDK dependencies become integrated into a parent application. In the worst-case scenario, this can lead to a conflict between dependencies and libraries or packages integrated into the parent application.
What’s more, different versions of third-party libraries can also produce conflicts of dependencies, which might become a labor-intensive task to solve.
While implementing native mobile SDK for the client’s project, we decided to avoid using third-party libraries during the software development kit implementation process to evade potential dependencies conflict.
SDK error and exception handling
Depending on the complexity, software development kits can have different out-of-the-box logic. Mostly, it means that they require specific preconditions which should be available for proper operation.
That is why SDK application development specialists provide some APIs or other technical approaches in order to inform the parent application about potential errors. In case of a critical issue, the parent app can provide end-users with insightful log reports to fix the issues.
During SDK implementation, we faced the conflict of dependencies and came with a solution to implement the SDK initialization mechanism. It checks all required preconditions before using the software development kit and provides error logs with details in case of any problems.
What’s more, we improved the mechanism so that it returns errors in case of incorrect API usage.
Integration with popular mobile technologies
One of the client’s requirements was to build a mobile application that uses the SDK functionality to decrease the time-to-market period and save much funds. We accepted the challenge and concluded on the following solution.
From a technical point of view, it is possible to implement a software development kit that supports integration with multiple mobile development technologies.
The matter is that all of them are built based on native SDKs (Android/iOS) meaning that the entire native code could be bound into a mobile application no matter what technology it is built on.
Once we discussed this challenge with our technical teams, we decided to use Xamarin and build Xamarin.Forms application for iOS and Android platforms. The core reason is that this technology supports cross-platform implementation and SDK functionality built on Java and Swift.
This way, we saved much time and development costs for our client, thus reducing the time-to-market period.
How to integrate SDK in Android app?
In terms of our project, we successfully surpassed Xamarin.Android SDK integration as it required only following Xamarin Guidelines and instructions by dragging and dropping the SDK file into the project folder and updating several values in supporting files.
In terms of Xamarin.iOS integration, we used additional Android SDK tools like Sharpie to generate method headers required to integrate the SDK functionality for the iOS platform.
As a result, we successfully integrated the native software development kit in Xamarin by following Xamarin Guidelines for native library binding.
Our above-mentioned case shows that SDK integration is possible for all other popular mobile development frameworks you could use to build a mobile app.
Ascendix Project Solutions
To sum up, we want to share a list of solutions we delivered to the client in terms of the project development process:
Ascendix SDK Integration Project Solutions | Ascendix Tech
SDK integration and development are essential parts to succeed within your mobile app development project.
They accelerate the time-to-market period and reduce final project costs, thus providing absolute benefits and no reasons to avoid them.
In the mentioned above case, we shared our success story in both Android and iPhone SDK development and integration. This experience clearly shows that you may still have multiple unique project challenges and requirements that cannot be solved by integrating existing software development kits available.
So, let’s now discuss why Ascendix SDK developers are a great choice for your project:
We help companies automate their workflow by developing bespoke software solutions. Leverage our experience in real estate, legal, financial, and transportation industries.
We hope you now get a better understanding of what is SDK, its benefits and drawbacks, and the way SDK integration and development can help your project.
At Ascendix, we would be glad to offer our SDK developers and their expertise to help transform your project into a powerful technology solution.
So, if you are looking for a software vendor, feel free to check our case studies and contact us to discuss your project and build next-gen mobile applications that will revolutionize the market.
A software development kit (SDK) is a ready-made product that stands for specific functionality you can just integrate into your iOS and Android applications. So, you avoid multiple routine development tasks and infrastructure setup focusing on building essential features for your mobile application.
Android SDK is a ready-made functionality built specifically for Android mobile applications to help you develop your mobile app in a cost- and time-efficient manner. It becomes possible as you can just find the required Android SDK functionality and integrate it within your Android mobile app.
You can integrate multiple software development kits (SDK) into your iOS and Android applications to avoid building basic functionality and infrastructure setup from scratch. This way, you greatly save time and development costs simply by integrating SDKs into your application environment.
You can hire freelance SDK developers on Upwork, Toptal, Freelancer, Guru or outsource SDK development and integration to Ascendix Tech. Our SDK developers will help you build a custom software development kit and integrate it into your iOS or Android apps.
Daniil specializes in content marketing and has a deep knowledge of promoting the company's products and services through high-quality content. On the Ascendix blog, Daniil shares his tricks and tips on custom software development, provides technology trends and insights, and helps you get valuable content to make your business even more successful and profitable.
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