SmartTrace: Streamlit Embedded Tool for Automating Fibre Trace Reports from Work Orders & Circuit Data

SmartTrace is a Python-based automation tool that transforms raw Work Order (WO) files and circuit JSON exports into structured, engineer-ready Excel reports and KML files. The project was designed to eliminate repetitive manual processing when generating fibre trace documentation especially splice details, device summaries, action logs, and geospatial references.

👉 Source Code: https://github.com/Kristiehu/SmartTrace

Problem Statement

In fibre network operations, generating a complete trace report typically involves:

  • Parsing Work Order CSVs
  • Extracting metadata (Order ID, Designer, A/Z end, etc.)
  • Interpreting large “Connections” text blobs from circuit JSON
  • Counting fibre breaks and splices
  • Extracting cable lengths and OTDR values
  • Identifying equipment locations
  • Generating Excel reports that follow strict internal formatting
  • Optionally exporting KML for spatial visualization

This process is time-consuming, error-prone, and difficult to scale as network complexity grows. SmartTrace helpes to automate the entire workflow.

Architecture Overview

The project is modular and organized by responsibility:

app/
├── app.py                  # Streamlit UI
├── trace_report.py         # Excel report generation
├── fibre_trace.py          # Splice & cable parsing logic
├── parse_device_sheet.py   # Device extraction from JSON
├── remove_add_algo.py      # Action summary & fibre counts
├── _to_kml.py              # KML export
└── kml_helper.py           # helpers

Tech Stack

Language
Python 3
UI
Streamlit
Data Processing
pandas
Excel Reporting
openpyxl + xlsxwriter
Geospatial Export
KML generation
Regex Parsing
Python re module

Core Functionalities

1. Data Parsing: Work Orders & Circuit JSON

The tool extracts structured key-value metadata from WO CSV files:

  • Order Number
  • Work Order Number
  • Designer Info
  • A-End / Z-End
  • Date
  • Circuit Details

It also isolates the Action / Description / SAP table for inclusion in the final report. From the circuit JSON, it parses the large “Connections” text blob to extract:

  • Extracts Connections blocks
  • Decodes encoded tokens (<COMMA>, <COLON>, etc.)
  • Identifies:
    • Equipment Locations
    • Splice Boxes (FOSC)
    • SS / Coil devices
    • Fibre ranges [1-12]
    • Cable Length
    • OTDR Length
    • Meter Marks
  • Detects latitude & longitude for Google Maps linking

2. Fibre Analytics: Actions, Trace, and Activity Overview Map

The system automatically computes:

  • Number of fibre breaks
  • Number of fibre splices
  • End-to-end cable length
  • Total OTDR length

This eliminates manual counting from long splice descriptions.

3. Excel Report Generation

Produces a cleaned & structured Excel report:

  • Header grid (Order Info + Fibre Metrics)
  • Action / Description / SAP table
  • Fully formatted cells
  • Clean layout matching engineering standards
  • Equipment Location
  • Equipment Type
  • Splice Details
  • Cable Attachments
  • Length + OTDR metrics
  • Google Maps hyperlink (if lat/lon available)

4. KML Export

Automatically generates KML files for:

  • Visualizing fibre routes
  • Equipment coordinates
  • Mapping trace paths

This enables direct import into Google Earth or GIS platforms.

How to Run

pip install -r requirements.txt
streamlit run app_v2.py

myImage