Medcopia is a hosted subscription service that tracks changes to the ASHP drug shortages list and sends email alerts to subscribers whenever changes are detected.
Medcopia is currently installable by cloning the Github respository:
git clone https://github.com/eddie-cosma/medcopia.git
We recommend setting up a virtual environment before downloading the required dependencies using pip:
cd medcopia python3 -m venv venv source venv/bin/activate pip install -r requirements.txt
We also recommend installing uwsgi as a WSGI service and nginx as a reverse proxy to run the web portion of Medcopia:
pip install uwsgi sudo apt install nginx
The default configuration is stored as a dict in the medcopia/config/__init__.py file. Configuration should be customized further by setting environment variables to override the default values.
Warning
Make sure to replace the SECRET_KEY with a generated value. In python, this can be done, for example, using:
import secrets secrets.token_urlsafe(16)
Example configuration:
SECRET_KEY=prod SERVER_NAME=localhost:5000 PREFERRED_URL_SCHEME=https SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS=False [email protected] MAIL_ALERT_TEMPLATE=d-sendgrid_alert_template_id MAIL_CONFIRM_TEMPLATE=d-sendgrid_confirm_template_id MAIL_DEFAULT_ASM_GROUP=12345 RECAPTCHA_SITE_KEY=your_recaptcha_site_key RECAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY=your_recaptcha_secret_key SENDGRID_API_KEY=your_sendgrid_api_key
When testing, set the environment variable TESTING=True. This prevents emails from being sent, and allows reCAPTCHA to be bypassed.
Medcopia is composed of two components that require installation:
- A Flask web service called
signupthat displays the website and allows users to subscribe to email alerts. - A module,
scraper, that scrapes the ASHP shortages list and checks for any changes whenever run. This should be run once a day.
The web service should be configured to run on a WSGI. For example, if using uwsgi, you can save a config.ini file to the medcopia root directory:
[uwsgi] module = signup master = true processes = 5 socket = /tmp/signup.sock chmod-socket = 666 vacuum = true die-on-term = true
This configuration can then be run:
uwsgi --ini config.ini
Once the WSGI service is running, a reverse proxy like nginx can be configured to point to the WSGI socket, allowing web access:
# /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
server {
listen 80 default_server;
listen [::]:80 default_server;
listen 443 ssl default_server;
listen [::]:443 ssl default_server;
# Substitute your own SSL certificates
ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/your_ssl_certificate.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/your_ssl_certificate_key.pem;
location / { try_files $uri @signup; }
location @signup {
include uwsgi_params;
uwsgi_param HTTP_HOST $server_name;
uwsgi_pass unix:/tmp/signup.sock;
}
# Substitute your own server name
server_name example.com;
}
Restart nginx after saving your configuration:
sudo systemctl restart nginx
You can use systemd to run this config automatically on system start. DigitalOcean has a fantastic tutorial giving more detail on this setup.
scraper is run as a module from the medcopia root directory:
set -a source /path/to/.env set +a export PYTHONPATH=/path/to/medcopia python3 -m scraper
This script should be run once a day. The easiest way to do this automatically is by using cron. For example, place the previous commands in a scraper.sh file in the medcopia/instance folder. Edit the crontab file using crontab -e and add the following to automatically run the script every day at 16:30:
30 16 * * * /path/to/medcopia/instance/scraper.sh >> /path/to/medcopia/instance/scraper.log 2>&1
Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.
This software is licensed under the GPL 3.0 license.
This service is not affiliated, associated, authorized, or endorsed by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists or the University of Utah Drug Information Service. All names and brands are properties of their respective owners.