🎯 ConnectDesk - Customer Service Platform

A comprehensive customer service ticketing system built with Django, featuring real-time chat functionality and automated ticket assignment. 🚀

✨ Features

• 👥 User Management: Role-based system with customers and service providers
• 🎫 Ticket Management: Create, track, and manage support tickets with UUID-based identification
• 💬 Real-time Chat: WebSocket-based chat system for ticket communication
• 🤖 Automated Assignment: Intelligent ticket assignment to least busy service providers
• 🔌 RESTful API: Complete API endpoints for all operations
• 🐳 Containerized: Docker-ready with MySQL and Redis support

🛠️ Tech Stack

• 🐍 Backend: Django 5.1.7, Django REST Framework
• 🗄️ Database: MySQL 8
• ⚡ Cache/Message Broker: Redis
• 🔌 WebSockets: Django Channels with Redis channel layer
• 🐳 Containerization: Docker & Docker Compose
• 🐍 Python: 3.13

📁 Project Structure

ConnectDesk/
├── Customer_Service/          # Main Django project
│   ├── settings.py           # Django settings
│   ├── urls.py              # URL configuration
│   ├── asgi.py              # ASGI configuration for WebSockets
│   └── wsgi.py              # WSGI configuration
├── home/                     # Main application
│   ├── models.py            # Database models
│   ├── views.py             # API views
│   ├── serializers.py       # DRF serializers
│   ├── consumers.py         # WebSocket consumers
│   ├── signals.py           # Django signals
│   └── urls.py              # App URLs
├── requirements.txt          # Python dependencies
├── Dockerfile               # Docker configuration
├── docker-compose.yml       # Multi-container setup
└── manage.py               # Django management script

🏗️ Models Overview

👤 CustomUser

• Extends Django's AbstractUser
• Role-based system: CUSTOMER or SERVICE_PROVIDER
• Automatic group assignment via signals

🎫 Tickets

• UUID-based primary key
• Status tracking: OPEN, IN_PROGRESS, RESOLVED, CLOSED
• Automatic assignment to least busy service provider
• Links customers with service providers

💬 ChatRoom & Messages

• One-to-one relationship with tickets
• Real-time messaging capability
• Automatic room code generation

🚀 Installation & Setup

📋 Prerequisites

• 🐳 Docker & Docker Compose
• 🐍 Python 3.13 (for local development)

🐳 Using Docker (Recommended)

1. 📥 Clone the repository

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd ConnectDesk

2. 🔨 Build and run with Docker Compose

   docker-compose up --build

3. 🔄 Run migrations

   docker-compose exec web python manage.py makemigrations
   docker-compose exec web python manage.py migrate

4. 👤 Create superuser

   docker-compose exec web python manage.py createsuperuser

5. 🌐 Access the application

   • API: http://localhost:8000/
   • Admin: http://localhost:8000/admin/

💻 Local Development Setup

1. 📦 Install dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt

2. ⚙️ Configure database

   • Update DATABASES in settings.py for local MySQL setup
   • Or use SQLite for development

3. 🔄 Run migrations

   python manage.py makemigrations
   python manage.py migrate

4. 🏃 Start development server

   python manage.py runserver

🔌 API Endpoints

👥 Users

• GET /users/ - List all users
• POST /users/ - Create new user
• GET /users/{id}/ - Get user details
• PUT /users/{id}/ - Update user
• DELETE /users/{id}/ - Delete user

🎫 Tickets

• GET /tickets/ - List all tickets
• POST /tickets/ - Create new ticket
• GET /tickets/{id}/ - Get ticket details
• PUT /tickets/{id}/ - Update ticket
• DELETE /tickets/{id}/ - Delete ticket

💬 WebSocket Chat

• ws://localhost:8000/ws/chat/{room_code} - Connect to chat room

💡 Usage Examples

👤 Creating a User

POST /users/
{
    "username": "john_doe",
    "password": "secure_password",
    "role": "CUSTOMER"
}

🎫 Creating a Ticket

POST /tickets/
{
    "customer_id": 1,
    "title": "Login Issue",
    "description": "Unable to log into my account"
}

💬 WebSocket Chat Message

{
    "sender": 1,
    "message": "Hello, I need help with my account"
}

🎯 Key Features Explained

🤖 Automatic Ticket Assignment

• New tickets are automatically assigned to the least busy service provider
• Uses Django ORM annotations to count active tickets per provider

💬 Real-time Chat

• WebSocket-based communication using Django Channels
• Messages are persisted in the database
• Room-based chat linked to specific tickets

🔐 Role-based Access

• Automatic group assignment based on user role
• Signal-based group management
• Customizable permissions per role

⚙️ Configuration

🌍 Environment Variables

• DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE: Django settings module
• MYSQL_DATABASE: Database name
• MYSQL_USER: Database user
• MYSQL_PASSWORD: Database password

🐳 Docker Services

• web: Django application server
• db: MySQL 8 database
• redis: Redis for caching and channel layer

👨‍💻 Development

🧪 Running Tests

python manage.py test

🔄 Database Migrations

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

🐚 Accessing Django Shell

python manage.py shell

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Database Connection Error

   • Ensure MySQL service is running
   • Check database credentials in settings

2. WebSocket Connection Failed

   • Verify Redis is running
   • Check channel layer configuration

3. Permission Denied

   • Ensure user groups are properly assigned
   • Check role-based permissions

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Run tests
5. Submit a pull request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Support

For support and questions, please create an issue in the repository or contact the development team.

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Note: This is a development setup. For production deployment, ensure you:

• Set DEBUG = False
• Configure proper secret keys
• Use environment variables for sensitive data
• Set up proper logging
• Configure static file serving
• Use a production-grade web server (e.g., Gunicorn with Nginx)