Health Data plugin for NativeScript

This is a NativeScript plugin that abstracts Apple HealthKit and Google Fit to read health data from the user's device.

Prerequisites

Android

Google Fit API Key - Go to the Google Developers Console, create a project, and enable the Fitness API. Then under Credentials, create a Fitness API OAuth2 client ID for an Android App (select User data and press the What credentials do I need? button). If you are using Linux/maxOS, generate your SHA1-key with the code below.

keytool -exportcert -keystore path-to-debug-or-production-keystore -list -v

Note that the default (debug) keystore password is empty.

iOS

Make sure you enable the HealthKit entitlement in your app ID.

Installation

Install the plugin using the NativeScript CLI:

tns plugin add nativescript-health-data

API

The examples below are all in TypeScript, and the demo was developed in Nativescript w/ Angular.

This is how you can import and instantiate the plugin, all examples expect this setup:

import { AggregateBy, HealthData, HealthDataType } from 'nativescript-health-data';

export class MyHealthyClass {
    private healthData: HealthData;

    constructor() {
        this.healthData = new HealthData();
    }
}

isAvailable

This tells you whether or not the device supports Health Data. On iOS this is probably always true. On Android the user will be prompted to (automatically) update their Play Services version in case it's not sufficiently up to date. If you don't want this behavior, pass false to this function, as shown below.

this.healthData.isAvailable(false).then((available) => console.log(available));

isAuthorized

This function (and the next one) takes an Array of HealthDataType's. Each of those has a name and an accessType.

• The name can be one of the 'Available Data Types'.
• The accessType can be one of read, write, or readAndWrite (note that this plugin currently only supports reading data, but that will change).

iOS is a bit silly here: if you've only requested 'read' access, you'll never get a true response from this method. Details here.

this.healthData
    .isAuthorized([<HealthDataType>{ name: 'steps', accessType: 'read' }])
    .then((authorized) => console.log(authorized));

requestAuthorization

This function takes the same argument as isAuthorized, and will trigger a consent screen in case the user hasn't previously authorized your app to access any of the passed HealthDataType's.

Note that this plugin currently only supports reading data, but that will change.

const types: Array<HealthDataType> = [
    { name: 'height', accessType: 'write' },
    { name: 'weight', accessType: 'readAndWrite' },
    { name: 'steps', accessType: 'read' },
    { name: 'distance', accessType: 'read' },
];

this.healthData
    .requestAuthorization(types)
    .then((authorized) => console.log(authorized))
    .catch((error) => console.log('Request auth error: ', error));

query

Mandatory properties are startData, endDate, and dataType. The dataType must be one of the 'Available Data Types'.

By default data is not aggregated, so all individual datapoints are returned. This plugin however offers a way to aggregate the data by either hour, day, or sourceAndDay, the latter will enable you to read daily data per source (Fitbit, Nike Run Club, manual entry, etc).

If you didn't run requestAuthorization before running query, the plugin will run requestAuthorization for you (for the requested dataType). You're welcome. 😉

this.healthData
    .query({
        startDate: new Date(new Date().getTime() - 3 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000), // 3 days ago
        endDate: new Date(), // now
        dataType: 'steps', // equal to the 'name' property of 'HealthDataType'
        unit: 'count', // make sure this is compatible with the 'dataType' (see below)
        aggregateBy: 'day', // optional, one of: "hour", "day", "sourceAndDay"
        sortOrder: 'desc', // optional, default "asc"
    })
    .then((result) => console.log(JSON.stringify(result)))
    .catch((error) => (this.resultToShow = error));

queryAggregateData

Difference between query and queryAggregateData: if you use query, you will probably find that the number of steps (or other types of data) do not match those shown by the Google Fit and Apple Health apps. If you wanted to accurately compute the user's data then use: queryAggregateData

Mandatory properties are startData, endDate, and dataType. The dataType must be one of the 'Available Data Types'.

By default data is aggregated by day. This plugin however offers a way to aggregate the data by either hour and day. (month and year available soon)

Note that queryAggregateData only supports steps, calories and distance on Android. (More data types available soon).

If you didn't run requestAuthorization before running query, the plugin will run requestAuthorization for you (for the requested dataType). You're welcome. 😉

this.healthData
    .queryAggregateData({
        startDate: new Date(new Date().getTime() - 3 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000), // 3 days ago
        endDate: new Date(), // now
        dataType: 'steps', // equal to the 'name' property of 'HealthDataType'
        unit: 'count', // make sure this is compatible with the 'dataType' (see below)
        aggregateBy: 'day', // optional, one of: "hour", "day" ; default: "day"
    })
    .then((result) => console.log(JSON.stringify(result)))
    .catch((error) => (this.resultToShow = error));

startMonitoring (iOS only, for now)

If you want to be notified when health data was changed, you can monitor specific types. This even works when your app is in the background, with enableBackgroundUpdates: true. Note that iOS will wake up your app so you can act upon this notification (in the onUpdate function by fi. querying recent changes to this data type), but in return you are responsible for telling iOS you're done. So make sure you invoke the completionHandler as shown below.

Not all data types support backgroundUpdateFrequency: "immediate", so your app may not always be invoked immediately when data is added/deleted in HealthKit.

Background notifications probably don't work on the iOS simulator, so please test those on a real device.

this.healthData
    .startMonitoring({
        dataType: 'heartRate',
        enableBackgroundUpdates: true,
        backgroundUpdateFrequency: 'immediate',
        onUpdate: (completionHandler: () => void) => {
            console.log('Our app was notified that health data changed, so querying...');
            this.getData('heartRate', 'count/min').then(() => completionHandler());
        },
    })
    .then(() => (this.resultToShow = `Started monitoring heartRate`))
    .catch((error) => (this.resultToShow = error));

stopMonitoring (iOS only, for now)

It's best to call this method in case you no longer wish to receive notifications when health data changes.

this.healthData
    .stopMonitoring({
        dataType: 'heartRate',
    })
    .then(() => (this.resultToShow = `Stopped monitoring heartRate`))
    .catch((error) => (this.resultToShow = error));

Available Data Types

With version 1.0.0 these are the supported types of data you can read. Also, make sure you pass in the correct unit.

Note that you are responsible for passing the correct unit, although there's only 1 option for each type. Well actually, the unit is ignored on Android at the moment, and on iOS there are undocumented types you can pass in (fi. mi for distance).

The reason is I intend to support more units per type, but that is yet to be implemented... so it's for the sake of future backward-compatibility! 🤯

Credits

• Filipe Mendes for a superb first version of this repo, while working for SPMS, Shared Services for Ministry of Health (of Portugal). He kindly transferred this repo to me when he no longer had time to maintain it.
• Daniel Leal, for a great PR.