Web API vs. Hub SDK

The difference between SDK and API is:

  • API provides remote access through SyncSign Web Service and allows integration between existing third-party web services

  • Hub SDK allows developer to run customized Python code on Hub directly. It’s faster and requires no web service or even Internet

Usually, developers don’t need to learn both SDK and API. Just select one of them and start your work.

Web API

An API is simply an interface that allows one software to interact with other software. This is part of its name - API, Application Programming Interface - and is core to its functionality. Think of an API as a Rosetta stone, a tablet by which two vastly different languages, two different instruction sets, can be translated and transferred for mutual understanding.

Web APIs allow for interaction between disparate systems, often for specific use cases. For instance, when a user interacts on Twitter, they’re utilizing an API to comment, to store their data, to follow a user, to delete tweets, and so forth. Ultimately, a web API is simply a set of instructions, just like the personal computer API, but based in the web space.

Third-party applications can be cloud-native or tradition desktop programs.

Other than using Hub SDK, developers can access the Hub/Display/Sensor from anywhere through a RESTful API.

SyncSign provides three Web API endpoints:

  • “Cloud API”: the web API on the SyncSign Cloud, accessible anywhere.

  • “On-Premise API”: the web API on the On-Premise Server, accessible within the enterprise.

  • “Hub API”: the web API on each Hub, accessible from the local area network.

Cloud-Based Web API

This API is available on SyncSign Cloud. You may obtain an API Key from your SyncSign account and start integration.

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See: https://dev.sync-sign.com/webapi

On-Premise Server Web API (Coming Soon)

This API is available on SyncSign On-Premise Server (SOPS). You may obtain an API Key by sign-in the SOPS. The SOPS’s web API is the same as the cloud-based web API.

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Hub-Based Web API

This API is provided on the Hub itself. You can visit http://<Hub’s IP Address>/api to get the API Key. Please note the Hub’s API is a subset of the cloud-based API.

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Details are coming soon.

Hub SDK

SDK stands for “Software Development Kit”, which is a great way to think about it - a kit. Think about putting together a model car or plane. When constructing this model, a whole kit of items is needed, including the kit pieces themselves, the tools needed to put them together, assembly instructions, and so forth.

An SDK functions in much the same way, providing a set of tools, libraries, relevant documentation, code samples, processes, and or guides that allow developers to create software applications on a specific platform. If an API is a set of building blocks that allow for the creation of something, an SDK is a full-fledged workshop, facilitating creation far outside the scope of what an API would allow.

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