Fitbit Integration for an app

[sydefq]

I'm integrating Fitbit into an app where researchers create N-of-1 trials, and patients submit daily sleep, step, and heart rate data via the intraday API. Our platform only enables researchers to design and conduct trials digitally, we are not responsible for any trials created.

Each researcher should have their own client ID & secret, but I’m unsure about the best approach:

1. Should each researcher create a Client/Personal app on Fitbit, or should I set up a single Server-type app and manage credentials myself?
2. Managing all credentials centrally isn't ideal, but if researchers create their own apps, they’ll need to request intraday access manually, how can I simplify this?

Has anyone dealt with this before? What’s the best way to handle OAuth for multiple researchers?

[Gordon-C]

Hi @sydefq 

In general, its best to have each research study have their own client ID and secret.  This gives confidence to the participant that their data is being used for a single study.   Participants can consent to share their data with multiple studies.  If the revoke consent to one study, it doesn't impact any other studies a user is participating in.  Also, Intraday is enabled by the client ID, not the developer account.  Someone will have to request intraday for each client ID.  I would suggest making the researcher request intraday because we require researchers to register their study with Fitbit/Google prior to enabling the functionality.  There are a lot of questions and some documentation that we need from the researcher when they request Intraday.

With that said, it would probably be best to have the researcher manage the client IDs themselves.  Our documentation describes how to register the application.  You can refer the researchers to our docs, or write something similar for them.

Best,

Gordon