Prescription Search

(Version 1.3.x) The frontend prescription search lets a shopper upload a prescription image on the storefront and instantly filter the product listing down to the medicines their prescription mentions — so they can find and buy exactly what the doctor prescribed.

Enable it on the Optional Features tab (Enable Frontend Prescription Search Engine) and choose where it appears.

How it works

  1. The customer uploads a prescription image into the search block.
  2. On‑device OCR (Tesseract) reads the image right in the browser — no server upload for the scan itself.
  3. The plugin extracts medicine names from the recognized text.
  4. The visible product listing is filtered to show the matching, in‑stock medicines.

The customer sees friendly status messages along the way, such as:

  • "Please select a prescription image first."
  • "Prescription processed successfully! Items filtered below."
  • "Prescription processed! No matching products found on screen."
  • "Could not read any text from this prescription."

Where it appears

Set the location on the Optional Features tab:

OptionPlacement
Display on Shop & Product Category PagesAbove the product grid on shop/category archives
Display Above WooCommerce Cart TableAbove the items on the cart page

When to use it

  • Large catalogs — shoppers skip the search bar and jump straight to what's on their script.
  • Pharmacy UX — mirrors the "hand over your prescription and we'll find it" experience of a physical pharmacy.

Discovery aid, not a bypass

Search only filters what's shown. Prescription‑required products still go through the normal upload and approval flow at checkout — search helps customers find products, it doesn't grant purchase without a valid prescription.

Reading accuracy

Because recognition runs on a photo of a prescription, results depend on image quality. Clear, well‑lit scans match best; blurry or heavily handwritten scripts may return few or no matches.