Cyanogen Inc, which is known to be working on a Platform SDK, has now briefed some of the feature of its upcoming addition to the open source project CyanogenMod. The SDK is currently in alpha stage, and company expects a lot to change in the future.
The Platform SDK is an open source SDK that allows developers to either use existing APIs newly presented in CyanogenMod’s own framework, or contribute their own APIs to be leveraged by any other application, notes company on its official Developer blog.
Cyanogen said that it is launching the alpha SDK by seeding it with the Quick Settings Tile API, hoping that it will inspire the developer community to think of additional APIs that can also be added to the Platform SDK. So if their app uses the Quick Settings (QST) API, then the developer will be able to quickly add a tile that toggles a particular setting in their app, essentially for on/off purpose.
For example, during a recent company hackathon, a team came up with an app called Bike O’Clock that turns your CM device into a bike computer. Bike O’Clock uses the Platform SDK by creating a quick settings tile to toggle the app’s recording of your progress as you bike on and off.
Furthermore, the Platform SDK enables Platform API cores to be submitted by the community, such that anybody interested in using the SDK can then take advantage of these open APIs to create apps, adds blog.
Lastly, Cyanogen wants developer to make sure that the interface changes and functionality is up to the standards, and backward compatibility is present along.