VMware vSphere software development kits (SDKs) added tons of notable community updates, integrations and more in 2017. To wrap your head around the momentous year, we compiled a 2017 year-end review of all the highlights around this open source tool. Sit back, buckle up and enjoy the exciting progress of vSphere SDKs in 2017.
Integration with vSphere Using Open Source SDKs
When VMware vSphere 6.5 launched in late 2016, one of the standout new features was a REST-based API. Designed with developers and automation in mind, this API provides a consistent, simplified way to access features via multiple channels, including SDKs.
To further this streamlined developer experience, we open sourced vSphere Automation SDK, giving developers and admins access to download, contribute and give back to the community much easier than before. This means that no matter which tools you use to automate or what language you program in, vSphere Automation SDKs will serve as the programmatic interface you need to complete your job.
The first SDKs for vSphere Automation released this way were REST and Python. Later in this blog, you will see how these initial releases snowballed throughout the year.
Behind the Decision to Open Source vSphere SDKs
Prior to open sourcing vSphere SDKs, giving feedback on the tool and its performance was a challenge due to its gated nature. VMware Senior Product Line Manager Alan Renouf wanted to make SDKs more readily available to VMware partners and customers. His team decided to open source them. Now that you can download vSphere SDKs on GitHub, providing feedback and seeing changes efficiently implemented marks a huge leap for both VMware products and customers.
This created a tight-knit open source community around the vSphere SDKs, while providing the internal VMware team with a better understanding of how to work with modern development and contribution tools.
Community Updates Around Open Source vSphere Automation SDKs
As the open source community around vSphere SDKs grew, contributors wasted no time in submitting their own updates and commits. Ludovic Rivallain boasts the distinct honor of being the first open source contributor to vSphere SDKs.
Ludovic’s commit featured 111 new requests to manage the VMware vCenter Server Appliance in conjunction with the Postman REST client. This commit became the catalyst for the open source community to jump on the vSphere SDK contribution wagon. Ever since, the contributions and community updates are rolling in. You can learn more about Ludovic’s pioneering vSphere SDK commit here.
Java, Perl, Ruby & .Net All Join vSphere Automation SDKs
Remember how the initial releases of vSphere Automation SDKs for Python and REST resulted in a snowball effect for other program languages? Introducing the other snowballs: Java, Perl, Ruby and .Net.
As a means of further bolstering our commitment to open source and better developer collaboration, VMware added four additional GitHub repositories this year to support these languages and facilitate greater community collaboration.
That’s 2017 in a nutshell for vSphere SDKs. With the open source community surrounding this tool flourishing, here’s hoping that 2018 will continue this upward trend.
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