API BASICs

[Anonymous]

Hi All.

We are a group of young Architects in South Africa whom are looking at creating a simple api that helps us with the installation of a set of gdl tools relative to our market.

We where hoping to find a basic guide to the API creation, with the purpose of understanding the requirements and procedures so that we could brief a C++ programmer, much the same as the GDL help files. The documentation on API creation seems very limited.

While we have downloaded the API kit, the process does seem beyond our Please could someone assist with a step 1 - 5 type of approach to the API creation process. This would give us a great head-start to understanding the process, and having a programmer assist us.

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,
shawn.

[Karl Ottenstein]

This Wiki article has not been updated in over 4 years, but may be of some help:

http://www.archicadwiki.com/Developer/Getting%20Started%20with%20the%20API%20DevKit

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I just started using the API, and have a software architecture related question.

Is .apx a cross platform, or how is it possible to create an installer to build the .apx file on the target machine? I would like to include additional libraries in my project (mathematical), and I would like to know the limitation.

Thanks for the help: Andor

[Karl Ottenstein]

AndorSzamos wrote:
Is .apx a cross platform, or how is it possible to create an installer to build the .apx file on the target machine? I would like to include additional libraries in my project (mathematical), and I would like to know the limitation.

The .apx is a binary code file and is platform-specific. The source code is platform independent and must be separately compiled for each of Windows and Mac. The IDE environment settings (and/or makefiles) determine what libraries are linked/bound into the output.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Karl.

Could you please help me how to start with the development, what is the recommended direction? I mean is it recommended to use Java (with JNI) later on to have a kind of general UI, or are there any drawbacks of using that? (speed is secondary).
Could you please explain how to make an installer which generates the .apx file on the target machine (and maybe links that to the .jar)?

Best Regards,
Andor

[Karl Ottenstein]

C and C++ are really the only options. Other languages that produce compiled code can potentially be done, but there is no support for that. There is no support for Java.

This old article is a bit somewhat out of date, but the big picture hasn't changed:
http://www.archicadwiki.com/Developer/Getting%20Started%20with%20the%20API%20DevKit