Health Graph tip: Test data options

This tip expands upon one of the slides in our “Health Graph Hacking 101” presentation (click here to access). You can work through the complete presentation embedded at the bottom of this post.

One question we often get from developers new to the Health Graph platform is “How can I create test data?”. Here are some ways you can get up and running quickly.

After you request developer Health Graph access, you have automatic read access to any data in your developer account. You can take advantage of that by using various free Health Graph apps to add data to your account. For example, you can record or manually enter:

• Fitness activities using our RunKeeper app (iOS | Android | Windows Phone).
• Sleep information with GKSleep (web app) or Sleepy (Android).
• Nutrition information via GKNutrition (web app).
• Weight data using Weighty (iOS) or the “Body Measurements” update widget on the lower left of your RunKeeper homepage (web app).

Another way to add data to your developer account is to use an existing non-development account and Street Team tagging.

You can copy existing fitness activity data into your developer account by:

1. Logging into an existing non-development account containing fitness activities.
2. Adding your developer account as a Street Team member in your non-development account; you’ll need to make the request from the latter and then approve it from the former.
3. For each activity you wish to copy from your non-development account into your developer account, tag the developer account from that activity’s page; this copies the activity data into your developer account.
4. Optional: When you’re done tagging and copying data, you can remove the tags while in your developer account, then remove your non-development account from your developer account Street Team, to sever the linkages but keep the copied data.

One more option: You can export an existing user’s data (click here for details) then parse that data and write it back into your own developer account via the Health Graph API. In fact, doing so is very instructive as it requires you to explore several different aspects of the Health Graph platform.

The above options should give you plenty of ways to get test data together for your application. I hope this helps and happy health hacking!

Cross-posted from the Health Graph blog.