Automated Ticket Management System

Course: CS2001 Data Structures & Algorithms

Instructor: Miss Ayesha Ali

Overview

The Automated Ticket Management System (ATMS) is a comprehensive service request and agent management application designed to efficiently handle tickets from creation through resolution. Built in C++, it leverages multiple Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA) to provide fast operations for ticket creation, searching, sorting, assignment, and resolution. Key components include:

• Ticket Management via a doubly linked list
• Agent Management via a dynamic array
• Pending Tickets via a max‐heap priority queue
• Resolved Tickets via a stack
• Configuration Management through an external .conf file
• Fast Lookups via hash tables and an AVL tree for range queries

Project Blueprint & Framework

Administrative & User Control Panel

Data Structures & Class Composition Specification

Data Structures & Algorithms

S.No	Data Structures	Classes	Description
1	Doubly Linked List	TicketLinkedList	Stores all tickets with support for insertion, deletion, and traversal.
2	Dynamic Array	AgentDynamicArray	Stores all agents; resizable structure allowing random access.
3	Max-Heap Priority Queue	PendingTicketsQueue	Manages open tickets ordered by priority for assignment.
4	Stack	ResolutionLogisticsStack	Logs resolved tickets in LIFO (Last-In, First-Out) order.
5	Hash Table (Separate Chaining)	HashTableByID	Enables fast lookup of tickets by integer Ticket ID.
6		HashTableByName	Enables fast lookup of tickets by customer name (string key).
7	AVL Tree	AVLTree	Balanced binary tree for range queries and sorted traversal by Ticket ID.
8	Text File	ONESTOPMS.conf	Stores sorting configuration (algorithm types and threshold).

S.No	Algorithms	Name	Description	Implementation Area
1	Sorting	Bubble Sort	Compares adjacent items and swaps them if out of order.	Tickets, Agents
2	Sorting	Insertion Sort	Builds the sorted list by inserting each item into its correct position.	Tickets, Agents
3	Sorting	Selection Sort	Selects the minimum (or maximum) element and places it in the correct position.	Tickets, Agents
4	Sorting	Merge Sort	Divide-and-conquer algorithm that recursively merges sorted subarrays.	Tickets, Agents
5	Sorting	Quick Sort	Divide-and-conquer algorithm that partitions and sorts subarrays recursively.	Tickets, Agents

System-Level Functions & Operations

S.No	Functions/Operations	Name	Description	Implementation Area
1	Heap Operations	Heapify Up/Down	Maintains max-heap property during insertion or deletion of tickets.	Pending Ticket Queue
2	Stack Operations	Push / Pop	Adds or removes resolved tickets in LIFO order.	Resolution Stack
3	Hashing	Modulo Hashing	Computes hash index using modulo of ticket ID.	Ticket ID Hash Table
4	Hashing	Polynomial Hashing	Computes hash index from character-weighted sum of names.	Ticket Name Hash Table
5	Tree Traversal	In-order Traversal	Visits nodes in ascending order of Ticket ID.	AVL Tree
6	Tree Balancing	AVL Rebalancing	Ensures balanced tree via rotations after insertions.	AVL Tree
7	File I/O	Configuration Parsing	Reads and writes sorting algorithm settings and thresholds.	ONESTOPMS.conf Configuration

Features & Requirements

1. Service Request (Ticket) Management

• Create, view, and manage service tickets.
• Each ticket has:
  • Unique Ticket ID (randomized 0–999,999)
  • Priority level (integer)
  • Request type/statement (e.g., IT, Admin, Accounts, Academics)
  • Creation timestamp; optional closing timestamp
  • isOpen flag
• Operations:
  • Print all tickets, open-only, or closed-only
  • Close a ticket (records closing time)

2. Agent Management

• Agents have:
  • Unique Agent ID
  • Name and department/type
  • Up to 5 assigned tickets
  • Availability flag
• Operations:
  • Add new agents
  • Assign tickets to least-busy appropriate agent
  • Resolve tickets (pop from agent’s queue)
  • Print agent summaries

3. Ticket Resolution & Pending Tickets

• Pending Tickets Queue:
  • Max-heap based priority queue (heap array doubles as needed)
  • Enqueue only open tickets by priority
  • Dequeue highest-priority ticket; peek front/back
  • Display sorted snapshot of pending tickets
• Resolution Logistics Stack:
  • Push closed tickets (LIFO)
  • Peek most recent resolution
  • Print full resolution log

4. Thread Safety with Mutexes

• Mutex Integration:
  • mutex is declared in PendingTicketsQueue as mutable mutex mtx
  • Used in all public methods to protect heap operations
• Lock Management:
  • lock_guard automatically locks/unlocks mutexes using RAII (Resource Acquisition Is Initialization)
  • Ensures exception-safe unlocking even if operations throw errors
• Protected Operations:
  • enqueueTicket(): Safely adds tickets to the heap
  • dequeueTicket(): Safely removes highest-priority ticket
  • peekFront()/peekBack(): Safe priority inspection
  • displayQueue(): Thread-safe snapshot of pending tickets
  • isEmpty(): Atomic queue status check

5. Configuration Management

• External file: ONESTOPMS.conf
• Parameters:
  • threshold: number of items to switch sort algorithm
  • sortHigh: algorithm for datasets > threshold
  • sortLow: algorithm for datasets ≤ threshold
• Load on start; save on change
• Default: quick for large, insertion for small, threshold = 10

6. Search & Reporting

• HashTableByID: O(1) lookup of tickets by integer ID
• HashTableByName: O(1) lookup by customer name
• AVLTree: balanced BST on Ticket ID for range queries
• Main menu options for:
  • Search by ID, name, or ID range
  • Display AVL range query results

7. Sorting & Analysis Reports

• Tickets and agents can both be sorted via configurable algorithms
• Measures and reports sort duration in milliseconds
• Sorting algorithms implemented for each DS (see table above)