Quickstart

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1. API keys

Let’s test out running Vital locally by cloning the Quickstart app. You can get API keys by signing up in the Dashboard. Once registered, you can create a team. A team is associated with a region (either EU or US), the region dictates where data is stored. You can learn more at regions.

To create a team and get your API keys, you first need to sign up for a Vital account in the Dashboard.

Once registered, you can create a team by hovering over your username at the bottom of the Dashboard sidebar. A team is associated with a region (either EU or US), the region dictates where data is stored. You can learn more at regions.

To create your API keys, go to the configuration section of the Dashboard. For each region, you’ll have access to two environments Sandbox and Production. We’ll start in the Sandbox environment, so create a new Sandbox API key.

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2. Running Quickstart locally

Once you have your API keys, it’s time to run the Vital Quickstart locally! The instructions below will guide you through the process of cloning the Quickstart repository, customizing the .env file with your own Vital API_KEY and finally, building and running the app.

# Note: If on Windows, run
# git clone -c core.symlinks=true https://github.com/tryVital/quickstart
# instead to ensure correct symlink behavior
git clone https://github.com/tryVital/quickstart.git

# Create .env, then fill
# out VITAL_API_KEY, VITAL_REGION (eu, us) and VITAL_ENV in .env
touch .env

# Note: must use python 3
# For virtualenv users:
# virtualenv venv
# source venv/bin/activate
poetry install

# Start the backend app
cd backend/python
source ./start.sh

Open a new shell and start the frontend app. Your app will be running at http://localhost:3000.

# Install dependencies
cd quickstart/frontend
npm install

# Open .env.local, then fill
# out NEXT_PUBLIC_VITAL_API_KEY, NEXT_PUBLIC_VITAL_ENV and NEXT_PUBLIC_VITAL_REGION

# Start the frontend app
npm run dev

# Go to http://localhost:3000

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3. Creating your first User

When retrieving data or connecting devices, Vital will require a user_id as input. A user_id is a unique representation that we hold for a user. It allows you to fetch data for that user. To create a user, you need to pass an unique id (client_user_id). This represents the user in your system. Our recommendation is to store the Vital user_id in your db against the user row.

Enter a new client_user_id and tap Create:

This can also be achieved via the API as follows.

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4. Connecting a source

A source, at Vital, is a medical device, wearable, or lab. It is a source of information for health data. To connect a source tap the connect button, this will launch the Vital Link Widget for that user.

Once you have entered your credentials and moved to the next screen, you have connected your first source! You can now make API calls to retrieve data for that Source.

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How it works

As you might have noticed, you use both a server and a client-side component to access the Vital APIs. A more detailed explanation on how linking works can be found in link flow

The first step is to create a new link_token by making a /link/token request and passing in the required configuration. This link_token is a short lived, one-time use token that authenticates your app with Vital Link, our frontend module.

# TEST BACKEND IMPLEMENTATION
from vital.client import Vital
from vital.environment import VitalEnvironment
from vital.client import Vital
from fastapi import FastAPI
from starlette.middleware.cors import CORSMiddleware

client = Vital(
  api_key=<YOUR_API_KEY>,
  environment=VitalEnvironment.SANDBOX,
  timeout=30
)

app = FastAPI()

app.add_middleware(  # type: ignore
    CORSMiddleware,
    allow_origins=["*"],
    allow_credentials=True,
    allow_methods=["*"],
    allow_headers=["*"],
)


@app.get("/token/{user_key}")
def get_token(user_key: str):
    return client.link.token(user_id=user_key)

Once you have a link_token, you can use it to initialize Link. Link is a drop-in client-side module available for web, iOS, and Android that handles the authentication process. The Quickstart uses Link on the web, which is a pure JavaScript integration that you trigger via your own client-side code.

import { Button } from "@chakra-ui/react";
import { useState, useCallback } from "react";
import { useVitalLink } from "@tryvital/vital-link";

export const LinkButton: React.FC<{ userID: string | null }> = ({ userID }) => {
  const [isLoading, setLoading] = useState(false);

  const onSuccess = useCallback((metadata) => {
    // Device is now connected.
    console.log("onSuccess", metadata);
  }, []);

  const onExit = useCallback((metadata) => {
    // User has quit the link flow.
    console.log("onExit", metadata);
  }, []);

  const onError = useCallback((metadata) => {
    // Error encountered in connecting device.
    console.log("onError", metadata);
  }, []);

  const config = {
    onSuccess,
    onExit,
    onError,
    env: "sandbox",
    region: "us",
  };

  const { open, ready, error } = useVitalLink(config);

  const handleVitalOpen = async () => {
    setLoading(true);
    const token = await getTokenFromBackend(userID);
    open(token.link_token);
    setLoading(false);
  };

  return (
    <Button
      bg="blue.400"
      color="white"
      fontSize={"12px"}
      px={2}
      py={0}
      onClick={handleVitalOpen}
      isLoading={isLoading || !ready}
      isDisabled={userID ? false : true}
    >
      Connect
    </Button>
  );
};

This is what your users see to connect their medical device or wearables:

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5. Making your first API request

We can now explore what happens when you press the analyze button in the Quickstart to make an API call. As an example, we’ll look at the Quickstart’s call to /summary/sleep, which retrieves sleep summary data for a user. The request is simple and requires the Vital user_id, start_date and end_date.

Getting user sleep data

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6. SDK’s and Libraries

We offer different SDKs so you can start building your app right away:

You can also download our API collection or by installing postman first and clicking on the below button.

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Next Steps

Congratulations, you have completed the Vital Quickstart!

There are a few directions you can go in now:

• Vital Link
• Vital SDKs
• Vital Webhooks