Backend-only Rails app to find pharmacies in the UK and Ireland that have current stocks of the ADHD medication lisdexamfetamine (branded 'Elvanse'). Polls the Boots prescription stock checker API at a rate of 5 requests per minute to populate a database with current stock levels, which can then be queried however you wish. Note:
- lisdexamfetamine is sold in the UK under multiple brand names ('Elvanse', 'Elvanse Adult', etc)
- This application refers to each dose of a given brand as a 'product' (i.e. 20mg Elvanse is a product, 20mg Elvanse Adult is a different product).
- There are 15 known 'products', covering doses from 20mg to 70mg inclusive
- Boots organises its pharmacies in 13 'regions', which are subdivided into 108 'areas', with a total of 1,110 pharmacies between them.
- Each request to the API must check the availability of exactly one product at 10 pharmacies (any deviation in either number produces a non-2xx response).
- Requests appear to be subject to a rate limit of five requests per minute per IP address
- Therefore it takes 111 requests to check the availability of a single product at all pharmacies, and 1,665 requests to check all products at all pharmacies. At the maximum permitted request rate, that's just over 5 hours 30 minutes.
To interpret StockStatus.status:
| StockStatus.status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| G | 🟢 Green - in stock |
| A | 🟡 Amber - limited stock |
| R | 🔴 Red - out of stock |
- Install dependencies:
bundle install - Import the contents of
data.yamlinto the database:bundle exec rake db:create bundle exec rake db:migrate bundle exec rake import:data
- Get the latest stock levels from Boots by running the following in the Rails console:
fetcher = StockFetcher.new # check all fetcher.fetch_all # check specific doses and/or regions medicine = Medicine.find_by(name: 'lisdexamfetamine') # currently this is the only medicine products = fetcher.products_for_dose(medicine, ['30mg', '50mg']) # dose options are 20mg, 30mg, 40mg, 50mg, 60mg and 70mg fetcher.fetch_custom(products, 'South East', 'London') # region options are "Central England", "East of England", "Ireland", "London", "Northern England and NI", "Scotland", "South East", "Specialist Pharmacy", "Travel", "Unassigned", "Wales", "Wales Merseyside West Midlands", "West of Scotland"
- Check stock levels. For example:
stores_with_50mg = Store.joins(area: :region).joins(stock_statuses: :product).where(stock_statuses: { status: ['A', 'G'], checked_at: 4.hours.ago... }, products: { dose: '50mg' }, regions: { name: ['South East', 'London'] }) stores_with_30mg = Store.joins(area: :region).joins(stock_statuses: :product).where(stock_statuses: { status: ['A', 'G'], checked_at: 4.hours.ago... }, products: { dose: '30mg' }, regions: { name: ['South East', 'London'] }) stores_with_both_doses = Store.where(id: stores_with_50mg).where(id: stores_with_30mg).distinct => [#<Store:0x00000001124837e0 id: 30, displayname: "Bromley The Glades Shopping Centre", isMidnightPharmacy: true, isPharmacy: true, isPrescriptionStoreCollectionAvailable: true, name: "Bromley The Glades Sc", ndsasqm: 2088, nhsMarket: "England", openDate: Mon, 28 Oct 1991, primaryCareOrganisation: "5A7", store_id: 836, area_id: 4, manager_id: 12, created_at: Sun, 22 Oct 2023 12:45:43.077080000 UTC +00:00, updated_at: Sun, 22 Oct 2023 12:45:43.077080000 UTC +00:00>, #<Store:0x0000000112cac778 id: 51, displayname: "Banstead 85-87 High Street", isMidnightPharmacy: true, isPharmacy: true, isPrescriptionStoreCollectionAvailable: true, name: "Banstead 85-87 High St", ndsasqm: 209, nhsMarket: "England", openDate: Thu, 27 Mar 1986, primaryCareOrganisation: "5P5", store_id: 1414, area_id: 6, manager_id: 33, created_at: Sun, 22 Oct 2023 12:45:43.316828000 UTC +00:00, updated_at: Sun, 22 Oct 2023 12:45:43.316828000 UTC +00:00>, ...