AF SDK versus PI SDK

OSIsoft recommends using AF SDK for all new software development projects. If you have experience coding with the older PI SDK, you should be aware of the following differences:

• AF SDK cannot be used with ModuleDB, PIModules, and so on.

• AF SDK cannot be used with PI message logs (for this, you should use PowerShell instead) .

Applications that do not reference any of the items in the above list will execute faster if they are written using AF SDK.

In addition, AF SDK uses managed .NET code, whereas PI SDK uses un-managed code that relies upon Microsoft COM (Component Object Module), which might be awkward to use for beginning developers.

Another difference is that AF SDK uses the AFValue object while PI SDK uses a PIValue object. While a PIValue is composed of a Value and Timestamp property, an AFValue includes a UOM (unit of measure) property.

Virtually everything you could do with PI SDK (with only limited exceptions), you can do with AF SDK.