What is the recommended approach (if any) to use other languages SDKs?

Questions / Help
1

I work with several commercial products that only offer SDKs for Java, .NET and, sometimes, C++. I do not see any of them offering an Elixir SDK any time soon. So, I was thinking: if I still need to develop my applications to integrate with these products, what should be the best approach?

  • Forget about Elixir and just use one of the languages as of the SDKs availability?

  • Build specific small modules in the language of the chosen SDK and have them pass information back and forth ? E.g.: myElixirApp <–> midleware module <–> SDK <–> Product.

  • Rebuild the :weary: SDK functions I want to use in Elixir.

I am not sure how much of a void point this question is (I mentioned previously in another post I am a telecom guy just trying to make some sense of the dev way of doing things).

In any case, is there a standard way of dealing with this type of situation ?

Any advice is highly welcome.

Thanks very much!

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2

Have you seen JInterface? Haven’t had a chance to use it, but this has been around for quite a while now: http://erlang.org/doc/apps/jinterface/jinterface_users_guide.html

3

Hi @bentanweihao,

I had not seen JInterface, I think it would take me in the right path. I found this article from Paolo that explains well the process of how to get started.

Thanks very much

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4

I chose option 2. The SDK I work with expose C headers, I can’t stand writing C so I write my wrapper program in modern C++, Elixir runs those programs (think unix philosophy) via port. I tried NIF first but I don’t want to take the risk of crashing. I didn’t want to bring in boost either for c node, so that didn’t leave much choices.

5

if it is a Java SDK, I’d use the erlang-built-in jinterface to make a Java BEAM Node (it pretends to be a node in the elixir/beam/evm mesh).

If it is a C/C++ SDK I’d use either a port or a C/C++ Node.

The Port method is slightly faster in communication, but the Node method is safer and has a lot more power, you can make such an sdk feel very native that way with fairly little code.

6

Thanks @OvermindDL1.

Interesting point, I also do have a C++ SDK which I actually feel more comfortable working with (for the only reason that my knowledge of Java is much more limited than my working confidence with C/C++). I am not yet familiar with Ports and Nodes in Elixir / Erlang, I shall look into that,

Thanks again

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