Order medication

The Order medication action places an order for one product at a Farmad pharmacy. The order is paid at pickup. Only users with administrator rights can run this action.

Give the product as a CNK code, a seven-digit code that identifies a product. Use the Search medication action to find the CNK code of a product. A CNK code that already appears in your order history can be ordered without a search.

This action does not support targets. You select the pharmacy through the Pharmacy field instead of choosing an area, device, entity, or label.

Using this action from the user interface

If you prefer building automations and scripts visually, Home Assistant walks you through this action step by step. You pick what to target, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To order a product from an automation or a script:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation or script, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. If you’re setting up a new automation, add a trigger in the When section. Scripts don’t need a trigger. They run when something else calls them.
4. In the Then do section, select Add action.
5. From the search box, search for and select Mijn Farmad Apotheek: Order medication.
6. Under Product, enter the CNK code of the product to order.
7. Set the Quantity, the number of packages to order.
8. Under Pharmacy, enter the APB number of the pharmacy to order from, for example 343602.
9. Optionally, enter a Comment for the pharmacist.
10. Optionally, in the Response variable field, enter a name to store the order details in, such as order_result.
11. Select Save.

Options in the UI

Using this action in YAML

If you work directly in YAML, or you want to know exactly what Home Assistant does under the hood, this section has the technical reference. It lists the field names you use in YAML, their types, and which ones are required. For how an automation or a script is built in YAML, refer to Automations in YAML and Scripts.

In YAML, refer to this action as mijn_farmad_apotheek.order_medication. A basic example looks like this:

action: mijn_farmad_apotheek.order_medication
data:
  product: "3093242"
  apb: "343602"
  comment: "I will pick the order up on Saturday."

This orders one package, the default, of the product with CNK code 3093242 at the pharmacy with APB number 343602, with a comment for the pharmacist.

Options in YAML

YAML sometimes provides additional options for more complex use cases that are not available through the UI.

Response data

The action returns:

• basket_id: The ID of the order at the pharmacy.
• description: The product name, in Dutch.

Good to know

• The action refuses to order when your draft basket at the pharmacy still holds products or a comment. If a previous order could not be confirmed, check the order history first and contact the pharmacy if its status remains unclear. Once you know the order was not placed, either submit the draft in the Mijn Farmad Apotheek app, or clear it and run the action again.
• Each order holds one product. To order several products, call the action once per product.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Open Settings > Tools > Actions, search for this action, fill in the fields, and select Perform action. You see what happens on your actual entitiesAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more] without writing a line of YAML.

More examples

Real scenarios where this action shows up in automations and scripts. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup. In the visual editor, select the UI options listed in the example or paste the YAML code.

Automation: order a product every month

This automation orders a known product on a monthly schedule, with a comment for the pharmacist. Create a calendar first, for example with the Local Calendar integration, and add an event that repeats on the first day of every month at 09:00.

• Trigger: Calendar event started
  • Calendar: Medication orders (calendar.medication_orders)
• Action: Mijn Farmad Apotheek: Order medication
  • Product: 3093242
  • Quantity: 2
  • Pharmacy: 343602
  • Comment: For monthly pickup

alias: "Order a product every month"
description: "Orders two packages of a known product every month."
triggers:
  - trigger: calendar.event_started
    target:
      entity_id: calendar.medication_orders
actions:
  - action: mijn_farmad_apotheek.order_medication
    data:
      product: "3093242"
      quantity: 2
      apb: "343602"
      comment: "For monthly pickup"

Automation: order a product when the supply runs low

This automation orders a known product when a supply you track in Home Assistant runs low. Create a number helperA helper is a virtual entity you create inside Home Assistant. It is not backed by a physical device. Helpers store values, track state, or do calculations that your automations and dashboards need. [Learn more] first, for example input_number.paracetamol_boxes, and set it to the number of packages you have left. Lower the number every time you take a package. When it reaches zero, the automation orders a new package. A condition keeps the automation from ordering again after a restart while the supply still reads zero.

• Trigger: Numeric state: Paracetamol boxes below 1
• Condition: The supply changed from a number, not from unavailable
• Action: Mijn Farmad Apotheek: Order medication
  • Product: 3093242
  • Pharmacy: 343602

alias: "Order a product when the supply runs low"
description: "Orders a new package when the supply reaches zero."
triggers:
  - trigger: numeric_state
    entity_id: input_number.paracetamol_boxes
    below: 1
conditions:
  - >-
    {{ trigger.from_state is not none
    and is_number(trigger.from_state.state) }}
actions:
  - action: mijn_farmad_apotheek.order_medication
    data:
      product: "3093242"
      apb: "343602"

Still stuck?

To test the action on its own, run it in the automation editor with Run action, and check the message that it shows. To see what the action did when the automation ran, open the trace of that run. For details, refer to Testing automations. For common problems and their solutions, refer to Troubleshooting automations.

If that doesn’t help, the Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the action you’re calling and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.

Related actions

Explore related actions:

• Search medication: Searches the catalog of a Farmad pharmacy by product name or CNK and returns up to 25 matching products.