Is there a Fitbit API user?

[colton7]

I'm developing an app that will integrate into Fitbit for a university study in which the participants of said study will NOT have fitbit hardware/account until 6 months in. We would like to leverage fitbit's food database in which it requires authentication (a user) so I'm currently having a designated user to be the fitbit api user for searching foods. I fear that this user will have too many requests given there will be about 1600 participants in this study and all using the same user to search the food database. Does fitbit have a api user for such usage or is there a better way to handle this?

Thanks,

Colton

[JeremiahFitbit]

What you described is a misuse of the Fitbit Web API. You should only make API requests on behalf of a Fitbit user.

You can register a Fitbit user account without having Fitbit hardware. Perhaps the participants could do that before they get the hardware.

[colton7]

Thanks Jeremiah. The intent certainly wasn't to misuse. What is the logic behind ensuring only those signed up users can search the public foods database?

Going forward, we plan on forcing participants to sign up with fitbit when they sign in initially so it will take care of this issue, but just seems strange to do so for the sole purpose of searching the public foods. The reason we are using it is to grab the calories from a food (ease of use). It would make more sense from the participant's perspective they sign up with Fitbit when they begin using Fitbit's hardware.

I understand the API is yours and you can do as you like, just trying to gain insight as to why this approach was taken for something that is considered 'public' ?

Thanks,

Colton

[JeremiahFitbit]

The Fitbit Web API exists to enhance the Fitbit product experience. When you're using the Fitbit Web API's food database, but not on behalf of Fitbit users, you're not contributing to the Fitbit product experience.

Fitbit has a great food logging experience. Your participants can create an account through the Fitbit apps by selecting "No device yet?" when signing up. You wouldn't have to recreate that UI and the data would already be associated with your participants' activity data when they eventually get devices.

If you only want a great food database and API without Fitbit user accounts, I recommend Nutritionix.

[colton8]

Thanks for the follow up Jeremiah as well as another service to use.

I personally like Fitbit's UI, but I believe it is also a violation of terms if the UI were embedded (iFrame) and we wouldn't want the users to have to go in between two separate sites to do the study. Trying to make it as easy as possible. We'll most likely proceed with them required to create a fitbit account from the beginning and use our simplified UI.

Thanks again for the clarification and the speedy response.

Cheers,

Colton