Developer Portals and Docs

_images/uc2.gif

Under construction

While engineers often refer to their installable binary as an “SDK”, in the context of a developer ecosystem, an “SDK” is the sum of the available developer assets. As a Kit, an SDK includes all libraries, docs, tools, demos, and utilities. These developer assets always deserve a comprehensive and well-designed front-end that includes a search engine and other bells and whistles such as navigation, themes, and JS widgets.

A partial list of projects:

Acrobat Sign

  • Status: In progress. I inherited 7 year old content. I’ve revamped the UI/doc frontend, information architecture, and so on. The content has just started a major overhaul.

  • Assets: New pipeline/format, new UI, dev guide content, REST API, image library, demos, code samples, SDKs (binaries with samples).

PDF viewer

  • Status: Active. Monthly releases.

  • Internal only. Microsoft-Adobe partnership. Adobe’s PDF viewer has been integrated into Edge and Teams. These libraries will eventually become public.

  • Assets: API Reference, dev guide, release notes, image library, code samples.

Acrobat.com

  • https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/docs/overview/pdf-services-api/

  • Status: 2018-present: Owned and built from scratch all of the PDF Services content, including the publish pipeline. In 2021, I handed this off to engineering. The new developer platform doesn’t have a search engine and other needed bells and whistles which is embarrassing. Since the content organization and style is deteriorating a bit, they’ve been asking me to fix some issues, and I recently wrote the PDF Electronic Seal API docs which goes live in October, 2022.

  • Assets: Dev guide, image library, demos, code samples, API reference.

Acrobat SDK

  • Status: I converted 2700 pages of Framemaker docs into markdown and pushed online. The work included removal of 700 pages of duplication, improving the organization and usability, and updating the branding.

  • I do not own the 10 year old dev guide content–I do own the UI/doc frontend, information architecture, and so on).

  • Assets: New pipeline/format, new UI, dev guide content, image library, demos, code samples, updated API references scheduled for 2023.

PDFL SDK

  • Status: I converted 2700 pages of Framemaker docs into markdown and pushed online. The work included removal of 700 pages of duplication, improving the organization and usability, and updating the branding.

  • I do not own the 10 year old dev guide content–I do own the UI/doc frontend, information architecture, and so on).

  • Assets: New pipeline/format, new UI, dev guide content, image library, demos, code samples, updated API references scheduled for 2023.

Internal Acrobat.com beta

  • Status: 2016 Archive. Internal

  • Assets: Dev guide, image library, tools, best practices, code samples, onboarding docs.

DEXI SDK

  • Status: 2015 Archive. Internal. Created back in the “hand code HTML” days.

  • Assets: Dev guide, API References, setup guides, tools, best practices, onboarding docs.

PDF Test Toolkit

  • Status: 2012-Present. Created back in the “hand code HTML” days.

  • Assets: Dev guide, release notes, test files, demos.

Other SDKs

  • Cocomo (Adobe Connect)

  • DPDF (dynamic PDF)

  • Adobe AIR

  • Knowmadic: BPEL Workflow SDK

  • Escalate: eCommerce stores with JSPs

API References

Note

API references are trivial. All SDKs include an API reference. I can use a wide array of tools and customize any output.