medberg 1.1.0

Download files from the Cencora secure file transfer site

Purpose

This Python package can be used to download files from the Cencora (formerly Amerisource) secure file transfer site for ingest into clinical data systems.

Downloads are performed from the web-based secure site located at https://secure.amerisourcebergen.com/. FTP is not supported. (There are many easier ways to automate FTP-based downloads.)

Requirements

• Python 3.10 or newer

Installation

Use pip to install the medberg package.

pip install medberg

Usage

Establishing a connection

Import the SecureSite class from the medberg module.

from medberg import SecureSite

Initialize a connection to the secure site by providing a username and password.

con = SecureSite(username='yourname', password='yourpassword')

Reviewing files

A list of files is automatically downloaded at connection time and stored in the files variable. Files are represented by objects comprising a name, filesize, and upload date.

print(con.files)
# [File(name=340B037AM1234567890330.TXT, filesize=self.filesize='1.3MB', date='03/30/2025'),  ...]

print(con.files[0].name)
# 340B037AM1234567890330.TXT

print(con.files[0].filesize)
# 1.3MB

print(con.files[0].date)
# datetime.datetime(2025, 3, 30, 8, 13, 58)

The library will attempt to automatically extract additional metadata from the filename describing account type (e.g., 340B, GPO, WAC), file specification (e.g., 037, 039), and account number.

print(con.files[0].account_type)
# 340B

print(con.files[0].specification)
# 037AM

print(con.files[0].account_number)
# 123456789

If the metadata is not present in the filename, the corresponding property will simply evaluate to None.

Downloading files

Any individual file can be downloaded using the get method of the File class. Optional parameters can be specified for the save directory (save_dir) and local filename (save_name). If these are omitted, the file will be saved in the current working directory using the original filename by default.

con.files[0].get(save_dir='C:\\Users\\yourname\\Downloads\\',
                 save_name='new_filename.txt')

Files can also be downloaded using the get_file method of the SecureSite class. In this case, the file to download must be specified in the first parameter as either an instance of the File class or a string containing the filename as it appears on the remote site. The optional save_dir and save_name parameters are again available as with the File.get method.

# Using a File object
file_to_get = con.files[0]
con.get_file(file_to_get)

# Using a string filename
con.get_file('039A_012345678_0101.TXT')

When a file is downloaded using either of the methods above, the return value will be a pathlib Path object pointing to the local file.

Filtering files

The list of files obtained from the server can be filtered using the match_files() method, which can take any number of arguments in the format file_property=filter_value. For example, to retrieve all files with account number 123456789, you can call match_files(account_number="123456789"). The result will be a list of File objects matching the specified arguments.

con.match_files(account_number="123456789")
# [File(name=340B037AM1234567890330.TXT, filesize=self.filesize='1.3MB', date='03/30/2025'),  ...]

Files can be matched on any attribute. In cases where the file property type differs from the filter value type, the filter value will be converted to the correct type automatically. For example, the account number above was filtered using a string (as account_number is stored in the file class), but it can just as well be filtered using an integer:

con.match_files(account_number=123456789)
# [File(name=340B037AM1234567890330.TXT, filesize=self.filesize='1.3MB', date='03/30/2025'),  ...]

String filter values can contain a wildcard (*) at the beginning or end of the filter. For example, match_files(file_specification="039*") will match "039", "039A", "039AM", etc.

List and tuple filters will cause a match if any one of the inner values matches. Effectively, this acts as a nested OR filter.

Callables can also be passed to allow for more complex filtering. For example, we can get all files from the current month as follows:

from datetime import datetime

current_month = datetime.now().month
current_year = datetime.now().year
con.match_files(date=lambda x: x >= datetime(current_year, current_month, 1))

Multiple filter arguments can be passed together to create a more specific filter.

To get a single file with the most recent upload time that matches a filter or series of filters, use match_latest_file(). This method takes the same arguments as the match_files() method.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. Please ensure all code submitted is formatted with Black and tested with pytest. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

When editing the codebase locally, you may install medberg in development mode to use it in REPLs:

pip install -e '.[dev]'

License

This software is licensed under the MIT License.

Disclaimer

This package and its authors are not afiliated, associated, authorized, or endorsed by Cencora, Inc. All names and brands are properties of their respective owners.