workouts-to-ical

This project collects workout data posted by the Health Auto Export app, then serves up a subscribable calendar with the workouts. This allows the user to see their workouts on calendar clients like the iOS Calendar app or Google Calendar, which is a great way to visualize big picture progress on workouts.

Benefit and Motivation

Instead of seeing workouts in a list, we can see them in a calendar format:

This style of visualization helps me understand at a glance how I've been sticking to a workout program. Seeing consistent effort helps build and reinforce good habits!

Install and Run

Install:

git clone https://github.com/benmurrell/workouts-to-ical
cd workouts-to-ical
npm install

Configure:

• Make changes in Config.ts, parameters explained there.
  • Be sure to change the secret values! If you use the defaults, your data could be exposed.

Run:

npm run start

Set up as a service:

• upstart - Create /etc/init/workouts-to-ical.conf
  • See config-templates/workouts-to-ical.conf for sample upstart configuration

Interact with service:

service workouts-to-ical start
service workouts-to-ical status
service workouts-to-ical stop

Set up nginx reverse proxy:

• Edit relevant nginx site config file (/etc/nginx/sites-available/)
  • See config-templates/nginx-sites-available.conf for sample changes to proxy requests to this app

Use

Set up automatic exports

Create a REST API automation in the Health Auto Export app. Set the URL to {externalUrl}/workoutData. Add a header key/value pair that matches the {headerSecretKey} and {headerSecretVal} from src/main.ts.

• The URL should look like https://example.com/workouts-to-ical/workoutData

Subscribe to the calendar

Use your calendar client of choice to subscribe to the ical calendar hosted at {externalUrl}/workoutCalendar?{querystringSecretKey}={querystringSecretVal}.

• The URL should look like https://example.com/workouts-to-ical/workoutCalendar?secret=some-secret-value

Notes on calendar client caching

Different calendar clients follow different caching policies - the Google Calendar client only pulls from the subscribed calendar about once per 24 hours. The iOS calendar client pulls more frequently. This means that there will be some delay between when your device uploads workout data to the service and when it is shown on the calendar.

Health Auto Export version

This was built and tested against version 8.1.2 of Health Auto Export.