Application of Barcode Technology in the Information Management System of Automobile Passenger Transport
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1. Preface
As an advanced information collection and input technology, bar code technology has been widely used in many industries in the automatic processing of logistics information and industrial automation production processes, such as commodity sales. Automated warehouses, library information processing, postal systems and other fields. my country’s railway passenger service has begun computer ticket sales. Research and development of ticket checking system. However, due to the large volume of passenger stations and the scattered geographical locations, only a few cities have invested and developed integrated information management systems in a few stations on their own, but the functions are relatively simple, and ticket sales, ticket checking, dispatching, settlement, etc. have not been formed. Integrated computer function system. Based on the actual situation of my country’s automobile passenger transportation, this paper puts forward the overall plan of the passenger station microcomputer ticket sales and inspection information management system (QYMIS), discusses and analyzes the key to the calculation and issuance of the integrated software system of ticket sales, ticket inspection, dispatching and settlement based on bar code automatic identification technology. Technology and solutions.
2. The overall structure of QYMIS
2.1 Principles and goals of QYMIS development
The computerized ticketing system is not simply an imitation of the functions of manual ticketing, ticket checking, scheduling, and statistics in the past. It reforms the entire management system on the basis. The development of this system aims to explore an information integration method suitable for my country’s automobile passenger transportation management system. The specific goals achieved by the system are as follows:
According to the passenger transportation plan, control the ticket allocation;
Carry out seat allocation and management;
Real-time printing of tickets with barcode symbols;
Automatic ticket checking and can verify the authenticity of the ticket;
Carry out fare calculation, statistics and financial settlement;
Automatic dispatch management;
Reserve ports for networking and upgrade possibilities.
2.2 The overall structure of the system
QYMIS is established on the basis of computer network and communication technology, adopts the client/server network structure model, and designs the system hardware environment structure (as shown in Figure 1). Choose Foxpro For Windows database management software as the application software development platform, and use Trubo C2.0 language to develop barcode generation and printing software.
Based on the requirements of the above-mentioned design goals, according to the principle of new integration and functional processing distribution, the passenger station function design is carried out from top to bottom, and the QYMIS hierarchical function module structure is proposed as shown in Figure 2.
2.2.1 Ticketing Subsystem
The main tasks completed by the ticketing system are: barcode generation and ticket production; unified management and allocation of seats; fare calculation; refunds and transfers; real-time query; ticket sales statistics and password management.
Ticket production is the main link of the entire system, which will be discussed further in Section 3.2. The management of seats involves the issue of the order of ticket sales, because most passengers prefer window seats, and passengers who purchase consecutive tickets want the seats to be close together, so the method of selling them in order from small to large can be adopted. The fare calculation function is convenient for the conductor and avoids mistakes. When the conductor enters the number of trains, arrivals and the number of tickets required by the passenger, the computer can automatically and quickly display the total fare; when the conductor enters the actual amount paid by the passenger, the refund will be automatically displayed on the screen; After the conductor confirms that it is correct, the computer can automatically print the ticket. The interface of the ticketing process is shown in Figure 3.
The ticketing system is also integrated with the refund function. The ticket seller can switch to the refund function by pressing a function key. When the ticket seller enters the ticket number or scans the barcode on the ticket with a decoder, the ticket can be refunded after confirming that the ticket is valid Work. If the refunded ticket has been checked or is a counterfeit ticket, the computer will immediately report to the police and let the ticket seller respond in order to deal with it in time. If you change, you can refund the ticket first, and then switch back to the ticket sales function to sell the number of trains that passengers need to change.
The ticket sales statistics and password management of the conductor should be convenient for financial management. The database records each ticket sales situation separately. Each ticket seller has its own password. The computer adds the ticket sales amount of the ticket seller that day to the ticket store of the ticket seller according to the password entered by the ticket seller when entering the system, and settles at the financial office within a certain time. account.
The ticketing system also provides a real-time query function, which allows the conductor to query the departure status and fare at any time according to the questions of passengers. Bar code setting function, when the form of the ticket changes, the bar code can be adjusted and printed in a suitable position only by changing the bar code setting.
2.2.2 Ticket Checking Subsystem
The ticket checking system is composed of computers, barcode scanners, decoders, large-screen displays and other hardware and application software. According to the passenger’s ticket, the identification and inspection are carried out, and the seat number of the ticket and the status of the checked ticket are displayed in a dynamic simulation. After the ticket check is over, the settlement is automatically carried out. The main functions of the ticket checking system are:
Train operation scheduling arrangements, real-time advance notice of the code of the train going to be checked at the ticket gate, departure time and terminal information.
Any ticket gate can be used to check the ticket for one test, or for the ticket for two tests at the same time, and the computer automatically recognizes and distinguishes the number of trains to which any ticket belongs.
The recognition speed of bar code bills meets the real-time requirements, it can automatically determine the possible occurrences of the tickets (such as checked tickets, non-checked tickets, invalid tickets, etc.), and give corresponding text prompts and sound alarms for the ticket inspector to deal with.
Ticket checking information is integrated. When checking a certain ticket, the computer automatically displays all the information corresponding to the ticket, and dynamically displays the seat status corresponding to the ticket on the big screen, which is convenient for real-time grasp of the ticket checking status and progress.
After completing a ticket checking task, the dispatching room management software is automatically started through the network system to perform statistics and print the settlement list in real time.
This system has good openness and fault tolerance, which is convenient for transplantation and expansion. The main screen of the ticket checking subsystem is shown in Figure 4.
2.2.3 Dynamic display subsystem
The dynamic display system is mainly distributed at ticket gates and ticket gates. It can report the company’s car operation to passengers at any time, so that passengers can choose the number of trains they need to take. At the same time, the display subsystem increases the transparency of ticket sales, can make better use of resources, so as to avoid unnecessary human losses, and also establish a good company image among passengers.
2.2.4 Financial Subsystem
The financial system is the company’s financial fortress, so password setting and management are very important. It is mainly divided into four functional modules: receipt record, statistics and transfer, query, and settlement statements.
The ticket collection record records the ticket collection status of each conductor, and it manages the flow of original tickets.
Statistics and transfer to the conductor. When the ticket inspector finishes the work of the day, the computer automatically counts the ticket sales of each ticket seller. It can also automatically classify, make statistics for each participating company and each vehicle number, and transfer the statistical results to the last statistical result. It is convenient for ticket sellers and participating companies to check out on time.
The query function is provided to financial management personnel. It can perform daily or monthly statistics according to the requirements of financial personnel, and verify with the statistical transfer function. You can also query the current ticket details of each conductor or the entire company.
The settlement report manages the settlement of the ticket sellers and participating companies. The ticket sellers and participating companies can settle at the financial office at any time on a daily or monthly basis, and the computer prints out the settlement statement. Bill offset is the use of invalid tickets caused by printing errors and unsold tickets caused by management sales staff.
2.2.5 Scheduling subsystem
The dispatching system mainly manages departures, parking, overtime and other situations. It uniformly arranges the departure day of the company and the participating companies. If a train is late or cannot start due to a breakdown, it must promptly make reasonable coordination. When the passenger flow on holidays increases, some shifts need to be temporarily added. It can automatically determine the fare according to the itinerary and model of the added shift, and re-coordinate the departure time of each train.
3 QYMIS key technical problems and solutions
3.1 Information integration method
Since QYMIS involves multiple functional modules such as ticket sales, ticket checking, statistics, scheduling, and query, it is very important to develop a consistent database system. QYMIS stores shared information, such as train number library, ticket checking library, refund library, password library, and lead library, on the server for centralized and unified management. Each functional module can obtain corresponding information services according to its own usage rights. For non-shared information, such as printing libraries, temporary ticketing libraries, etc., can be distributed on each client to reduce the pressure on the server, ease the competition on the bus, and speed up the transmission rate of information.
In order to ensure the security and consistency of the shared information, based on the selection of a unified database system platform, we designed a unified data structure for the specific conditions of the passenger station, and performed a unified coding of the information. For example, to assign a unique code to each ticket, through the retrieval of the ticket number, the purpose of ticket sales, inspection, statistics, and query operations can be achieved.
Another feature of QYMIS’s information integration is the introduction of bar code automatic identification technology. Bar code automatic recognition technology has the advantages of fast input speed, high accuracy, low cost, strong reliability, and simple operation. The barcode is used to indicate the code of the ticket. When the ticket is sold, the barcode is generated in real time according to the code assigned by the system on the ticket. Only the barcode is scanned when checking and refunding the ticket, which greatly improves the speed and accuracy of information processing.
3.2 Real-time generation and printing method of barcode ticket
Bar codes are also printed on the tickets of some domestic passenger stations, but the bar codes are usually printed in advance. The bar code information has nothing to do with the ticket information. Therefore, the advantages of the bar code in information management are not fully utilized. In order to solve this problem, this article proposes a real-time generation of barcode tickets. Through the summary of actual use, the real-time generation of barcode tickets must first meet the following requirements:
The printing speed is fast. To complete the printing of a ticket within 20 seconds;
It is convenient to tear up the ticket. The ticket can be automatically sent to the printer for printing; after printing, the printed ticket is automatically sent out for the conductor to tear off. When printing next time, the printer can return the ticket to be printed;
Can achieve mixed printing of Chinese characters, Western characters and barcodes;
It is necessary to basically eliminate the phenomenon of printer paper jams;
Can print continuously variable bar codes.
To meet the above requirements, you must choose a suitable printer and bar code type, and solve the problem of mixed printing of Chinese characters, Western characters and bar codes in the software. At present, the popular needles on the market are: EPSON, BROTHER, Citizen, HP, FujitSu, Panasonic and other series. After a lot of trials and comparisons, we chose the EPSON series of LQ-150 printers. It is small in size, low in price, built-in ROM Chinese character model, can print Chinese characters at high speed, and has the feature of tearing paper back. Basically meet our printing requirements for tickets.
The bar code selection criteria for passenger tickets should be different from the selection criteria for general merchandise. It requires that as much information as possible can be expressed in the designated printing area, and it has a certain anti-counterfeiting function. So it first requires high information density. And because the barcode information only needs to indicate the ticket number and only contains numbers. In view of the above requirements, we choose the cross two and five codes in the one-dimensional bar code. In order to increase the information density, we have removed the check digits of the cross two or five codes, and added a check function in the application software.
Barcode printing has image method and font method. The advantage of the image method is that it has nothing to do with the method of operation. The density and precision of the printed barcode can be adjusted arbitrarily according to the precision value of the typewriter, and the changes are relatively abundant. The printed bar code can be designed to be arbitrary, and characters or other patterns and bar codes can be printed at the same time. But its disadvantages are: in the Chinese character mode, the fonts are not rich enough or the Chinese characters cannot be printed, the printing speed is slow, and the programming is complicated. The font method is to use the character creation software to create a bar code component in the empty area of the Chinese character library-bar code graphics Fonts, using the combination of graphic fonts to form barcodes with different content. The advantages of this method are: arbitrary mixing of barcodes and Chinese characters can be achieved; Chinese characters of different fonts and sizes in various Chinese character libraries can coexist with barcodes, and complex and beautiful layouts can be output; programming is simple. This method is used on the hard font library of the printer (without driver), and the printing speed of barcode is as fast as printing characters, which can double the speed of printing barcode. However, the dense scheduling of bar code printing by font method generally cannot be changed arbitrarily, and only some discrete codes can be printed, which is also restricted by different operating systems.
Since the selected cross two-five-five code is a continuous code, the bar code cannot be printed with the font method. However, in order to absorb the advantages of the font method, bar codes are printed using the image method, and characters and Chinese characters are printed using the font method. It combines the advantages of the fast printing speed of the font method and the flexible printing of the image method, and can receive good results.
The barcode printing software chooses Turbo C2. O programming, its advantage is that the program is short, the speed is fast, and the compatibility is good. The C language is used to send data to the printer, which makes the bar code printing speed much faster. However, we use FOxpro2.5 For Windows to call the C program, and the WINDOWS graphics screen is not compatible with the DOS graphics screen, so avoid using the screen graphics initialization function in the C program. In the C program, through some calculations, the barcode symbols are converted into print data and stored in a set of numbers, and then sent directly to the printer without displaying on the screen. In this way, the image printing bar code under the text screen can be realized, which solves the problem of the interface between FOXPRO and C. An example of printing a barcode ticket is shown in Figure 5.
3.3 System reliability design
The reliability of the system is directly related to the success or failure of the system. If a system often fails, or even produces wrong data, leading to some serious consequences, it will give the user an unsafe psychological impact, and eventually cause the user to discard it. Of course, it is unrealistic to ensure that a system does not fail at all. The key is that the system should have a certain self-rescue ability. When the system fails or produces wrong data, the system itself should be able to respond, take measures to remedy and recover, and only provide corresponding prompt information.
In order to achieve this goal, QYMIS has adopted corresponding measures in the design of software, hardware and network structure. Various fault-tolerant functions are designed in the software to prevent users from wrongly operating and illegally modifying data. The program has also designed an automatic data backup function to avoid data loss caused by accidents. In the design of the database, a certain degree of data redundancy is reserved. When a data error occurs in one place, the correct state of the system can be reconstructed and restored through the redundant data elsewhere in the system. In terms of hardware design, the server is equipped with an array of hard disks, which has a disk mirroring function and automatically maps the protected data. When the main working disk fails, the system automatically activates the spare disk and gives alarm information so that the staff can respond. In addition, the system is also equipped with a UPS uninterruptible power supply to prevent the sudden death of the system when the power is off, causing unrecoverable. QYMIS uses a star-shaped network structure. When a client fails, it will not affect the normal operation of the entire system.
The reliability of the system is also related to the level of system management and operation personnel, and the correct use can ensure the long-term stable operation of the system. In order to prevent the system from being infected with viruses, the source and management of the software must be strictly controlled. Except for system operators, other personnel are not allowed to introduce software into the system by themselves. Generally, the floppy drive of the workstation is locked with software, and the personnel authorized to install the software must establish a responsibility system.
3.4 User interface design
For a practical MIS system. The quality of the user interface directly affects its vitality. The user interface has the characteristics of reliability, simplicity, flexibility and immediate feedback.
Reliability: It means that the interface must have a certain degree of fault tolerance, can promptly and correctly give operation status indications and error information, and guide users to correct errors.
Simplicity: Minimize the burden on users as much as possible. That is, the operation is simple, easy to remember, and the input/output is easy to understand. It provides a machine-led conversation form to guide users in operation.
Immediate feedback: respond to the user’s application request within the scope of the user’s psychological permission, even if the result is not available, some information should be given to alleviate the user’s waiting psychology.
4 Conclusion
QYMIS has actually been put into use for nearly a year, sold more than one million tickets, and it is operating normally. It has effectively improved the working environment of ticket sales and ticket checking, improved work efficiency, reduced the error rate of ticket sales and checking, and reached the expectation of improving the service automation level of passenger transport stations. Purpose.
The technical innovations and features of QYMIS are as follows:
The microcomputer ticket window has the functions of multiple arrival stations, multiple ticket types, as well as ticket sales, pre-sale and refund. The dynamic color screen display of information on passenger ticket sales is conducive to improving the service level.
It adopts barcode automatic identification technology, uniquely coded according to the information of the ticket, and automatically determines the authenticity of the ticket, whether it belongs to the current car and other information through the query of the ticket database, and automatically performs ticket checking statistics and prints the settlement statement.
QYMIS adopts a unified software and hardware platform, a unified data structure and information coding work. Data resource sharing and information integrated management realized between ticketing, ticket checking, query, financial and other subsystems.
The use of disk mirroring function and program design methods such as data backup, ticketing error self-correction, emergency handling, etc., effectively ensure the reliability and safety of the system and data.
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