Get Activity TCX

The Training Center XML (TCX) is a data exchange format that contains GPS, heart rate, and lap data. This endpoint retrieves the details of a user's location using GPS and heart rate data during a logged exercise.

Scope: activity and location

Request

GET	/1/user/[user-id]/activities/[log-id].tcx

URI Arguments

user-id	required	The encoded ID of the user. Use "-" (dash) for current logged-in user.
log-id	required	The activity's log ID.

Query Parameters

includePartialTCX

optional

Includes the TCX points when the GPS data is not available.

boolean

Request Headers

authorization	required	Specify the token type and Fitbit user’s access token. Token type: `Bearer`
accept	optional	The media type of the response content the client is expecting. Supported: `application/vnd.garmin.tcx+xml`
accept-language	optional	The measurement unit system to use for response values. See Localization.
accept-locale	optional	The locale to use for response values. See Localization.

Examples

URL
CURL

GET https://api.fitbit.com/1/user/-/activities/20510012273.tcx?includePartialTCX=true
GET https://api.fitbit.com/1/user/GGNJL9/activities/20510012273.tcx?includePartialTCX=true

curl -X GET "https://api.fitbit.com/1/user/-/activities/20510012273.tcx?includePartialTCX=true \"
-H "accept: application/json" \
-H "authorization: Bearer <access_token>"

Element Name	Description
Activity : Sport
Activity : Id	The identifier or timestamp of the associated exercise.
Lap : StartTime	Timestamp representing each lap's start time.
Lap : TotalTimeSeconds	Length of the exercise lap in seconds.
Lap : DistanceMeters	Number of meters traveled during the exercise lap. See Distance
Lap : Calories	Number of calories burned during the exercise lap.
Lap : Intensity	Specifies when the user is in an "active" or "resting" state during an interval activity. Currently, "active" is returned for all activities, and "resting" is not supported. Supported: `Active`
Lap : TriggerMethod	Value associated with the recorded exercise's logType.
Track : Trackpoint : Time	The time metrics were recorded during the exercise.
Track : Trackpoint : Position : LatitudeDegrees	The GPS latitude recorded at the specified time.
Track : Trackpoint : pPosition : LongitudeDegrees	The GPS longitude recorded at the specified time.
Track : Trackpoint : AltitudeMeters	The altitude in meters recorded at the specified time.
Track : Trackpoint : DistanceMeters	The distance in meters recorded at the specified time.
Track : Trackpoint : HeartRateBpm : Value	The heart rate recorded at the specified time. Heart Rate scope is required to see this value.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
  <trainingcenterdatabase xmlns="http://www.garmin.com/xmlschemas/TrainingCenterDatabase/v2">
    <activities>
      <activity sport="Other">
        <id>2020-01-01T14:59:42.000-07:00</id>
        <lap starttime="2020-04-01T14:59:42.000-07:00">
          <totaltimeseconds>1077.0</totaltimeseconds>
          <distancemeters>1585.9</distancemeters>
          <calories>221</calories>
          <intensity>Active</intensity>
          <triggermethod>Manual</triggermethod>
          <track>
            <trackpoint>
              <time>2020-04-01T14:59:42.000-07:00</time>
              <position>
                <latitudedegrees>37.906381487846375</latitudedegrees>
                <longitudedegrees>-122.06224000453949</longitudedegrees>
              </position>
              <altitudemeters>44.959400001389895</altitudemeters>
              <distancemeters>0.0</distancemeters>
              <heartratebpm>
                <value>105</value>
              </heartratebpm>
            </trackpoint>
.
.
.
          
        </lap>
        <creator xsi:type="Device_t" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
          <unitid>0</unitid>
          <productid>0</productid>
        </creator>
      </activity>
    </activities>
  </trainingcenterdatabase>

Response Headers

content-type	The media type of the response content being sent to the client. Supported: `application/json`
fitbit-rate-limit-limit	The quota number of calls.
fitbit-rate-limit-remaining	The number of calls remaining before hitting the rate limit.
fitbit-rate-limit-reset	The number of seconds until the rate limit resets.

Note: The rate limit headers are approximate and asynchronously updated. This means that there may be a minor delay in the decrementing of remaining requests. This could result in your application receiving an unexpected 429 response if you don't track the total number of requests you make yourself.

Response Type

HTTP Status Code	HTTP response code. List of codes are found in the Troubleshooting Guide.
Status Message	Description of the status code.
Response Body	Contains the JSON response to the API call. When errors are returned by the API call, the errorType, fieldName and message text will provide more information to the cause of the failure.

Response Codes

200	A successful request.
400	The request had bad syntax or was inherently impossible to be satisfied.
401	The request requires user authentication.

Note: For a complete list of response codes, please refer to the Troubleshooting Guide.

Additional Information

TCX returns GPS and heart rate data which are tied to the GPS data points. If you only want heart rate, see Heart Rate Intraday Time Series.

To retrieve the TCX data without GPS data, use the endpoint's query parameter includePartialTCX=true. If the exercise does not contain GPS data, the lowest heart rate granularity available is 1 minute.

Finding an activity's "log id"

The activity's log-id can be found 2 ways:

Programmatically, execute the Get Activity Log List endpoint. Get the value of the logId element for each exercise returned.
Non-programmatically, find the list of activity logs in the Fitbit web application. Click on the "View Details" button next to each activity. The activity log ID will be displayed in the URL, e.g. 213560689 in https://www.fitbit.com/activities/exercise/213560689.

Distance

Devices that support on-device or connected GPS will record distance when the exercise is initiated using the on-device Exercise application. The Get Activity TCX endpoint needs GPS to record distance. These exercises have the activity logType value of “tracker” or “mobile_run”. Manually recorded and SmartTrack exercises do not use GPS. Instead, they use the steps and the stride length of the user to estimate distance. To determine how the exercise was recorded, see the Get Activity Log List response element "logType".

Activity webhook notifications

The Fitbit Web API can send notifications when a Fitbit user has new data to download. This is possible by implementing the Subscription API and subscribing to one or more data collections. See Using Subscriptions. Whenever the activity service recognizes a change to the user’s data, a notification is sent to your application’s subscriber.

The activity collection recognizes changes to a user’s recorded activities, step count, calories burned, distance traveled, etc. Keep in mind that even when a person is not in motion, their body is burning calories. It’s possible to receive activity notifications representing calorie burn even when the user is sleeping or stationary. Today, you cannot subscribe to a subset of the user’s activity data. So, it is the responsibility of your application to query the necessary activity endpoint(s) to reconcile the data in your system.

Get Activity Log List

Get Activity Type