EduConnect is a desktop application that enables private tutors to manage their work contacts, optimized for use via a Command Line Interface (CLI) while still having the benefits of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). If you can type fast, EduConnect can get your contact management tasks done faster than traditional GUI apps.

Quick start

  1. Ensure you have Java 17 or above installed in your Computer.
    Mac users: Ensure you have the precise JDK version prescribed here.

  2. Download the latest .jar file from here.

  3. Copy the file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for EduConnect.

  4. Open a command terminal, cd into the folder you put the jar file in, and use the java -jar educonnect.jar command to run the application.
    A GUI similar to the below should appear in a few seconds. Note how the app contains some sample data.
    Ui

  5. Type the command in the command box and press Enter to execute it. e.g. typing help and pressing Enter will open the help window.
    Some example commands you can try:

    • list: List all contacts.

    • add n/John Doe p/98765432 a/1A Kent Ridge Rd, 119224: Add a contact named John Doe with a phone number 98765432 and address 1A Kent Ridge Rd, 119224 to the Address Book.

    • del 3: Delete the contact with an ID of 3.

    • clear: Delete all contacts.

    • exit: Exit the app.

  6. Refer to the Features below for details of each command.

Features

:information_source: Notes about the command format:

  • Words in UPPER_CASE are the parameters to be supplied by the user.
    e.g. in add n/NAME, NAME is a parameter which can be used as add n/John Doe.

  • Items in square brackets are optional.
    e.g n/NAME [t/TAG] can be used as n/John Doe t/Student or as n/John Doe.

  • Items with …​ after them can be used multiple times including zero times.
    e.g. [t/TAG]…​ can be used as ` ` (i.e. 0 times), t/Student, t/Student t/Parent etc.

  • Parameters can be in any order.
    e.g. if the command specifies n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER, p/PHONE_NUMBER n/NAME is also acceptable.

  • Extraneous parameters for commands that do not take in parameters (such as help, list, exit and clear) will be ignored.
    e.g. if the command specifies help 123, it will be interpreted as help.

  • If you are using a PDF version of this document, be careful when copying and pasting commands that span multiple lines as space characters surrounding line-breaks may be omitted when copied over to the application.

Viewing help: help

Show a message explaining how to access the help page.

help message

Format: help

Adding a person: add

Add a person to the address book.

Format: add n/NAME [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [a/ADDRESS] [t/TAG]…​ [r/REMARK]

:bulb: Tip: A person can have any number of tags (including 0)
  • Only n/NAME is required.
  • p/PHONE_NUMBER, a/ADDRESS, t/TAG, r/REMARK are optional.
  • add n/John Doe and add n/John Doe p/ are both valid. Both create a contact without a phone number.
  • Similarly, add n/John Doe and add n/John Doe a/ are both valid. Both create a contact without an address.
  • This behaviour is similar for remark. add n/John Doe and add n/John Doe r/ are both valid. Both create a contact without a remark.
  • If the new contact is a duplicate of an existing contact, it will not be added. Duplicate contacts are defined as those with the same name, phone number and address.

Examples:

  • add n/John Doe t/Student p/98765432 a/John street, block 123, #01-01 r/new student
  • add n/John Doe a/John street, block 123, #01-01 t/Parent t/Tutor
  • add n/Jane Doe p/98765432
  • add n/Jane Doe p/
  • add n/Jane Doe a/

The first example gives the following expected output:

result for 'add n/John Doe t/Student p/98765432 a/John street, block 123, #01-01 r/new student'

Listing all persons: list

Show a list of all persons in the address book.

Format: list

  • Since phone number, address and remark fields are optional, the UI alerts the user if a particular person has no phone number or address:

    result for 'list' with no phone number, address and remark

Editing a person: edit

Edit an existing person in the address book.

Format: edit ID [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [a/ADDRESS] [t/TAG]… [r/REMARK]​

  • ID specifies the person to be edited.
  • ID must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
  • At least one of the optional fields must be provided.
  • Existing values will be updated to the input values.
  • Use this command for all tag updates. EduConnect does not provide a separate tag command.
  • When editing tags, the provided tags will be appended to the person’s existing tags.
  • Only valid tags may be used: Student, Parent, Tutor.
  • Repeating an existing tag has no effect because duplicate tags are not stored.
  • You can remove all the person’s tags by typing t/ without specifying any tag after it.
  • t/ must be used on its own. Do not combine t/ with tag values in the same command.

Examples:

  • edit 1 p/91234567: Edit the phone number of the person with ID 1, changing it to 91234567.
  • edit 2 t/Parent: Append the tag Parent to the person with ID 2.
  • edit 2 t/Parent t/Tutor: Append both Parent and Tutor to the person with ID 2.
  • edit 2 n/Betsy Crower t/: Edit the name of the person with ID 2, changing it to Betsy Crower, whilst clearing all existing tags.

Locating persons: find

Find persons whose specified fields contain any of the given keywords.

Format: find [n/NAME]... [a/ADDRESS]... [p/PHONE]... [t/TAG]... [r/REMARK]...

  • At least one prefixed keyword must be provided.
  • Unprefixed input is not allowed. e.g. find Ali is invalid.
  • n/ searches names, a/ searches addresses, p/ searches phone numbers, t/ searches tags and r/ searches remarks.
  • The search is case-insensitive for names, addresses, and tags. e.g. n/hans will match Hans and t/student will match Student
  • Phone matching is digit-based substring matching. e.g. p/9435 will match a phone number containing 9435
  • Partial matches are supported. e.g. n/Han will match Hans
  • Persons matching at least one prefixed keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search across all provided fields and keywords).
  • Repeating the same prefix is allowed. e.g. find n/Ali n/August

Examples:

  • find a/119224 returns persons whose address contains 119224
  • find n/Clement returns persons whose name contains Clement
  • find p/9435 returns persons whose phone number contains 9435
  • find n/aleX a/seran returns persons whose name contains aleX or whose address contains seran
  • find t/student returns persons whose tags contain student
  • find n/Ali n/August returns persons whose names contain Ali or August
  • find r/first returns persons whose remarks contain first or First (note that the search in case-insensitive)

Notes:

  • Every search term must be attached to a prefix.
  • Contacts matching multiple keywords still appear only once in the filtered list.
  • Contacts without an address will not match a/ keywords.

Deleting a person: del

Delete the specified person from the address book.

Format: del ID

  • Deletes the person with the specified ID.
  • ID must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

  • del 2: Delete the person with ID 2 from the address book.
  • find n/Betsy followed by del 1: Delete the person with ID 1 from the address book. Note that it does not delete the first person in the results of the find command.
  • add n/Andrew followed by del 1: Delete the person with ID 1 from the address book. Note that it does not delete the contact that was just added.
  • add n/Andrew followed by del 1: Fail if there is no person with ID 1 in the address book.

Copying a person information: copy

Copy a specified field of a person from the address book to the user clipboard.

Format: copy ID FIELD

  • Possible fields include n/ for name, p/ for phone number, and a/ for address
  • Copy is not supported for the remark field. The r/ field is invalid for this command.
  • If the person’s field is empty, then nothing will be copy to the clipboard.

Examples:

  • copy 6 n/: Copy the name of the person with ID 6 to the clipboard.
  • copy 7 p/: Copy the phone number of the person with ID 7 to the clipboard.
  • copy 9 a/: Copy the address of the person with ID 9 to the clipboard.
  • copy 1 p/: Fail if ID 1 is not found or the phone number field of the person with ID 1 is empty.

Clearing all entries: clear

Clear all entries from the address book, whilst displaying all the contacts that have been removed.

Format: clear

Exiting the program: exit

Exit the program.

Format: exit

Saving the data

EduConnect data is saved in the hard disk automatically after any command that changes the data. There is no need to save manually.

Editing the data file

EduConnect data is saved automatically as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/addressbook.json. Advanced users are welcome to update data directly by editing that data file.

:exclamation: Caution: If your changes to the data file makes its format invalid, EduConnect will discard all data and start with an empty data file at the next run. Hence, it is recommended to take a backup of the file before editing it.
Furthermore, certain edits can cause EduConnect to behave in unexpected ways (e.g., if a value entered is outside of the acceptable range). Therefore, edit the data file only if you are confident that you can update it correctly.

Archiving data files [coming in v2.0]

Details coming soon …

FAQ

Q: How do I transfer my data to another Computer?
A: Install the app in the other computer and overwrite the empty data file it creates with the file that contains the data of your previous EduConnect home folder.

Known issues

  1. When using multiple screens, if you move the application to a secondary screen, and later switch to using only the primary screen, the GUI will open off-screen. The remedy is to delete the preferences.json file created by the application before running the application again.
  2. If you minimize the Help Window and then run the help command (or use the Help menu, or the keyboard shortcut F1) again, the original Help Window will remain minimized, and no new Help Window will appear. The remedy is to manually restore the minimized Help Window.

Command summary

Action Format, Examples
Add add n/NAME [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [a/ADDRESS] [t/TAG]… [r/REMARK]​
e.g., add n/James Ho, add n/James Ho p/, add n/James Ho p/22224444 a/123, Clementi Rd, 1234665 t/Parent t/Tutor r/new student
Clear clear
Delete del ID
e.g., del 3
Edit edit ID [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [a/ADDRESS] [t/TAG]…​ [r/REMARK]
e.g.,edit 2 t/Parent t/Tutor
Find find [n/NAME]... [a/ADDRESS]... [p/PHONE]... [t/TAG]... [r/REMARK]...
e.g., find n/James t/Student
List list
Help help