Mobile Tickets Dashboard

The Virginia Tech Network Infrastructure and Services Field Engineers play a vital role in the school and community. They are the ones that respond to network and telephone trouble calls. Since the majority of their work is done on the go, it is important for them to be able to communicate with the rest of their team efficiently. It is much easier to send updates by way of a smart phone or tablet rather than carrying a laptop everywhere. Since the engineers would be utilizing touch screens it is essential that they have an interface that is easy to interact with, hence the need for a mobile web application.

The mobile web application is for Virginia Tech’s instance of the JIRA issue tracking system. The goal for the finished product was to create a web dashboard for viewing and updating trouble tickets. The expected impact of the project is that it should improve the response time by providing the field engineers with a means for faster status updates and a more efficient way for gathering information on the job. From a design standpoint the mobile application should include a menu driven list that allows for quick access to specific pages and modules.

The utilization of JIRA in the mobile web application was implemented by using the JIRA REST API version 4.3.3. The development of the back-end was handled using Python2 and Flask. Using both the language and framework, respectively, all necessary integrations were met. The front-end of the mobile dashboard was done using Twitter’s Bootstrap. This front-end framework was essential in meeting the design expectations such as menu driven lists and forms. In addition, Bootstrap provides a simple way for the front-end to be responsive to interface changes, which was important for our front-end. The capacity to provide aspect support for multiple resolutions was vital for the mobile web application because of its ability to be run on the web and be utilized via a tablet, smartphone, or laptop. Due to the breadth of devices that can be used, the dashboard must cater to each type of user. The user interface of the dashboard is supplied with large buttons and large text to be easily selected and read, respectively.

The features for the mobile dashboard were selected carefully after making use of the Virginia Tech’s JIRA instance and consultations with Kimberley Homer, Director of Quality Assurance at Virginia Tech Network Infrastructure and Services. The support for a log-in screen, ticket views, project views, search, and resolving issues are all features that are included in the web application. The ticket-views provide the field engineer with the description of the ticket, reporter, and due date -- as well as the history logs. If the ticket is theirs then they are able to resolve the issue and leave a note. However, some features of JIRA, such as ticket creation and editing, could not be implemented.