Accessing data from my fitbits

[MentalHealthFB]

Hi  forum, I am sure this question has been answered before so if you can direct me to an easy-to-understand step by step, that would be very helpful. I need to access the data from my Fitbits for the purposes of a research study on mental health. I am under the impression that I have to build a web application to do this, but I am not a software developer. Can I do this, or do I need to hire a software developer? Can someone direct me to a very basic instructions on how to do this? I see when I submit an application for an app, I need 4 urls: URL of my application, URL of the Terms of Service, URL of the privacy policy, and redirect URL. And once I have created these and submitted my application, how will I be able to link my devices to this application? I apologize if this is a rudimentary topic, but I have never done this before! 

[Gordon-C]

Hi @MentalHealthFB 

Welcome to using the Fitbit Web API.  We have a getting started guide in the documentation that should help you get started.   See https://dev.fitbit.com/build/reference/web-api/developer-guide/getting-started/.  You can develop an application using any programming or scripting language as long as you have an OAuth2 library for that language.   You'll have each user in your research study go through the authorization flow (See https://dev.fitbit.com/build/reference/web-api/developer-guide/authorization/) to consent to share their data.   Once consent is complete, your application will be provided with an access token that is used when executing the endpoints to access each user's data.

There are some technical skills needed to build an application.   

Gordon

[MentalHealthFB]

Hi Gordon, Thanks, this is very helpful. I will hire a developer to do this. I have another question, does each Fitbit I am using need it's own user account before I give it to the participant? We have purchased our own Fitbits and will distribute them to our own participants, but I was really hoping we don't have to create an email and Fitbit account for each one. 

[Gordon-C]

@MentalHealthFB 

Yes

[MentalHealthFB]

Hi Gordon, Thank you so much again for your help with this matter. I have found someone to help me. I am with him now, and we are wondering, since we have to submit a URL for our oAuth2.0, and a redirect URL, will this be a web application to download from the Fitbit User's account, or will this be an application to download on the watch itself? I am curious if and how they can access this app to download from the watch itself. Do the watches have browsers where they can paste the URL, or will Fitbit create an application using our URL? 

[Gordon-C]

Would you describe what type of application you're interested in building and on which platforms?   The Web API is used for building a web or on-premise application while the Device SDK allows you to build applications that get installed directly on the Fitbit smart watches.   Some people use both APIs if their use case warrants it.    Once I understand you're use case, I can recommend which API to use.