#fitbit tableau web data connector iot

[tableaujunkie]

Fitbit Web Data Connector 2.0

I don’t actually own a Fitbit, but a colleague persuaded me to build this WDC after complaining about how difficult it was to extract any meaningful data from his Fitbit. After applying to Fitbit in order to obtain access to intraday Fitbit data, I created this WDC to help people get data at the minute/second level from their Fitbit into Tableau. The WDC allows you to extract information on your sleep, steps, heart rate, distance, floors, elevation, and calories. 

The WDC is available here: http://files.tableaujunkie.com/fitbit/html/fitbitconnect.html

and the source code is on GitHub here. 

To use the WDC simply browse to the WDC in Tableau Desktop and authenticate using your Fitbit username and password:

Next, select the number of days that you want to return data for and hit the “Get Data” button. Note that Fitbit API throttles a maximum of 150 requests per user per hour, so you will only be able to retrieve a maximum of 150 days (or less if you select multiple measures):

Drag out the table(s) you want to analyse in Tableau. Each table includes a field called “Activity Minute” which can be used to join together multiple activities into a single data source. Note that heart rate and sleep are returned at the second level so you will want to keep these in a separate data source and blend them together as needed:

Click on the viz below to open on Tableau Public:

Special mention to Craig Bloodworth from the Information Lab who wrote the original Fitbit WDC which really helped me understand how to authenticate against the Fitbit API!