Fitbit – Perl API Hosted at GitHub
Last month I announced a new “hacking” project – creating a Perl API for my FitBit device. Traditionally, whenever I host one of my projects I usually include both the project page and source code all from my site. I’ve had a number of requests from various people to help with contributing changes on this project and others, so I’ve decided to start hosting some projects on GitHub. I’ll be the first to admit that my version control skills are stuck in the 90s (yes, I still use CVS). Git will take some getting used to, but the features seem powerful compared to CVS and I really do like the idea of social contribution. I’ve done tons of private and commercial development, but have been meaning to start doing some real open source for a while. Consider my FitBit API the first step in this direction.
Checkout my new repository at http://github.com/ericblue/Perl-FitBit-API
5 Responses
Very cool! Hopefully FitBit will see the value in officially opening up their web API, and even document how to access the device itself.
If you haven’t already, check out Dist::Zilla to get this on CPAN without nearly as much hassle. For a long time the perceived hurdles of getting code ready for CPAN (not to mention fear of scrutiny!) dissuaded me from working on perl modules aimed at public release. My outlook is changing, although I am still a ways off from uploading something 🙂
Thanks for your comment! Yes, I’m definitely looking forward to FitBit releasing the official API. While they are internally working away (possibly in Beta), it is interesting to see the organic growth of individual efforts to fill in the gap. In the last 3 months there have been a handful of efforts in multiple languages (PHP, Ruby, etc.) and I was surprised to see nobody had yet done Perl. The lightbulb went on… 🙂
Thanks for the tip on Dist:Zilla. Getting this up on CPAN is certainly the next step.
And, thanks for the post! http://www.semanticwave.com/blog/archives/2010/07/eric-blues-perl.tt
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