Community Work & Open Source in the AXIS Developer Community

Open source is part of my everyday life as a developer. If we’re honest, most modern software wouldn’t exist without it, frameworks, libraries, tooling, and the countless building blocks that make development possible in the first place.

How I Got Deeper Into ACAP Development

When I started diving into ACAP application development, I began the same way many of us do: with small, practical apps built around real project needs from our integrator work. I’ve always been a self-learner and I’ve worked with different programming languages over the years.

But one thing became clear pretty quickly: while I respect C and what it enables, it was never the language I wanted to live in every day at least not for my personal workflow and productivity.

A Weekend Project That Turned Into a Library

So I decided to build something that would make my life easier: I started creating a library that wraps and abstracts the ACAP SDK so I could develop in a different programming language that I genuinely enjoy working with.

It began as a weekend project, but it grew fast. I had many questions about internal details, patterns, and best practices. In that phase, GitHub was incredibly valuable, not only because of code examples. And as a TIP partner, the support was very helpful as well.

Over time, I was able to build a solid abstraction layer around the ACAP SDK in another language. That work started about two years ago, and it became a major learning experience for me.

Why I Released It as Open Source

I strongly believe that if you take knowledge from the community, you should also give something back. That’s why I released the library as an open source project, so other developers can use it and build on it.

For me, the benefits were huge:

• It strengthened my understanding of AXIS devices and the ACAP ecosystem
• It enabled rapid development in my preferred language
• It kept the “backbone” quality of the official AXIS SDK while improving my day-to-day productivity

Also another project here that do a listing of useful resources in ACAP space.

The Missing Piece: A Place to Talk

One important lesson I learned along the way: community connection matters.

Developers often run into the same issues, discover useful workarounds, or have insights that save others a lot of time. Back then, there wasn’t really a place for quick, informal exchange, ,mostly just GitHub and TIP support.

TIP support is great, but it’s also normal that answers can take time. AXIS is a large organization, and giving a professional response often means validating details across teams, SDK versions, or firmware releases. That’s exactly how high-quality support should work, but it also means you sometimes need a place to discuss things while you wait.

Why I Created a Developer Discord

That’s why I created an AXIS Developer Community Discord Channel: a place where developers can simply chat, share experiences, ask questions, and help each other out, especially when you want quick feedback or real-world input from people building similar things. It’s still a small community, but we already have 56 people.

Giving Back Beyond Code

In recent years, GitHub Discussions also became a valuable space for me. I’ve gotten a lot of impressions and inspiration there, and I try to contribute back whenever I can because helping others helps me too. It pushes me out of my bubble, exposes me to new ideas, and strengthens my own knowledge.

And I definitely want to give credit to Vivek Kumar here, he’s doing an amazing job in Discussions and supports the community a lot.

Why I Love Developing With AXIS Devices

I’ve been working with AXIS devices for almost 18 years, and to me they’ve always felt one step ahead compared to many other vendors.

Do you remember the old days with ActiveX plugins and all that painful browser chaos? Yeah… good times. 😄 For me, AXIS moved past that kind of experience earlier than most and that “ahead of the curve” feeling also shows up in their development ecosystem. The overall tooling and platform approach is simply solid: it feels like you have what you need to build real solutions without constantly fighting the basics.

Here are a few reasons why I enjoy developing in the AXIS ecosystem:

• Available examples There are practical examples that help you get started quickly and understand recommended patterns.
• Good documentation Clear structure, useful references, and typically enough detail to move forward without guessing.
• Excellent support When you need help, you can usually get solid answers, especially when you provide a clear scenario and logs.
• Test tools (like the Virtual Loan Tool) Having tools to test and validate development setups makes a big difference in day-to-day work.

Final Thoughts: Why Community Work Pays Off

For me, community work isn’t just “being nice” it has real benefits as a developer.

When you share what you learn, you get feedback, new ideas, and different perspectives you wouldn’t find alone. Other people spot issues you missed, suggest better approaches, or point you to tools and patterns that save hours. Over time, that turns into something even more valuable: trust and connections. And those connections often become your fastest way to solve problems, validate ideas, or sanity-check a design before you spend days building the wrong thing.

Open source and community spaces also push you out of your comfort zone. Helping someone else usually forces you to explain things clearly and that’s where you notice gaps in your own understanding. In my experience, teaching and contributing is one of the best ways to learn.

So even if a community starts small, it’s worth it. Every shared snippet, every answered question, every discussion it strengthens the ecosystem. And in the end, that means we all build better solutions faster.

If you’re developing with AXIS devices, consider joining the discord channel, sharing your experience, and contributing when you can. You don’t have to be an expert you just have to participate.