User Guide

StaffConnect (SC) is a desktop app for managing Professors’ and Tutors’ contact information and associated meetings, 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, SC can get your contact management tasks done faster than traditional GUI apps.

• Quick start
• Navigability
  • Overall UI layout
    • [UI] Persons Info
    • [UI] Meeting List
    • [UI] Scrollbars and Menu
  • Mouse and Keyboard controls
  • Alternative UI arrangements
• Features
  • Viewing help : help
  • Adding a person: add
  • Listing all persons : list
  • Editing a person : edit
  • Locating persons by name: find
  • Filtering persons: filter
  • Sorting persons: sort
  • Adding a meeting to a person: meeting-add
  • Deleting a meeting from a person: meeting-delete
  • Deleting a person : delete
  • Setting a person as favourite: fav
  • Removing a person as favourite: unfav
  • Refreshing and clearing all outdated meetings: refresh
  • Selecting the person to display: select
  • Clearing all entries : clear
  • Exiting the program : exit
  • Saving the data
  • Editing the data file
    • Valid Data Values for Person in JSON file
    • Valid Data Values for Meetings (for each Person) in JSON file
    • Sample Data File Content
• FAQ
• Known issues
• Attribute summary
  • Valid Faculty Values
• Command summary

Quick start

1. Ensure you have Java 11 or above installed in your Computer.

2. Download the latest StaffConnect.jar from here.

3. Copy the file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for your StaffConnect application.

4. Open a command terminal, cd into the folder you put the jar file in, and use the java -jar StaffConnect.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.
   (The data in preview image below may not match with the sample data provided)
   

5. Type the command in the Command Line Interface (CLI) 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 : Lists all persons.

   • add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com m/CS2103 f/Computing v/John street, block 123, #01-01 : Adds a person named John Doe to the persons list.

   • delete 3 : Deletes the 3rd person shown in the current list.

   • clear : Deletes all persons.

   • exit : Exits the app.

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

Navigability

Overall UI layout

[UI] Persons Info

*Note that the availability will not be displayed in sequential order.

• The values of Module will be displayed and stored in capital letters.
• The values of Faculty will be stored to their full names.
• The values of day part of Availability will be stored as their full form such as MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY.

[UI] Meeting List

[UI] Scrollbars and Menu

*Note that Persons List Scrollbar will open appear when the number of Persons in the list exceed the amount to be displayed by the view. *Note that the Exit button is in the dropdown of the File button.

Mouse and Keyboard controls

Before we get started StaffConnect offers a unique suite of UI controls for users to customise their own unique experience!

1. Clicking any items on the left persons list panel will allow you to select the person’s attributes and meeting list to display.
   Alternatively, clicking anywhere in the persons list panel then using your arrow keys to navigate and hitting enter to select would give the same result.
   Intended Behaviour:
   Hovering the selection with mouse or arrow keys would not cause the person information and meeting list panels to switch to the selected person. This is to allow users to browse the persons list panel without switching.
   

2. There is a divider that is draggable up and down to hide and show details on the right side and to customise the look of your application.
   

3. The person information and meeting list panels on the right are able to pan in all four directions to view the content:
   • For mouse pad users, dragging around with two fingers the around would pan around the pane.
   • For mouse users, [Mouse Wheel] will scroll up and down while [Shift + Mouse wheel] will scroll left and right.
   • [Left click + Drag Mouse] would pan around in the details pane as well.
   • Keyboard arrow keys are able to pan around as well, but the scroll speed may differ on different systems.
   • There are scroll bars at the vertical and horizontal dividers of the window pane, dragging them in the respective direction will pan around as well.
4. Command Output:
   The scroll bars can only be scrolled by two ways:
   1. For mouse pad users, dragging around with two fingers the around would pan around the pane.
   2. For mouse users, [Mouse Wheel] will scroll up and down while [Shift + Mouse Wheel] will scroll left and right.
   3. Simply dragging the scroll bar with a left mouse click.
      Scrolling by arrow keys is not fully supported in the Command Output panel
5. Command Line Interface:
   The input can only be scrolled by [Holding Left Click + Drag Mouse] to the edge in the direction to scroll. This is to allow making adjustments on very long commands.

Alternative UI arrangements

Intended Limitations

1. The divider position is not controllable by keyboard input, hence the only way to customise the look is mostly by mouse input.
2. Panel switching by keyboard input, like a terminal is not supported.
3. Font sizes does not automatically resize in this application, scroll bars will appear in smaller window variants of this application to help with the viewing of details.
4. The UI will do a soft reset on its divider position every time the application is relaunched, as this is to allow users who wish to fall back to the default layout settings.

Features

Viewing help : help

Shows a message explaining how to access the help page.

Format: help

Adding a person: add

Adds a person to the staff book.

Format: add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL m/MODULE f/FACULTY v/VENUE [t/TAG]…​ [a/AVAILABILITY]…​

• NAME is case-sensitive and has to be unique among persons in staff book.
• PHONE_NUMBER, EMAIL, MODULE, FACULTY, VENUE do not need to be unique and can be duplicated among persons to staff book.
• TAG and AVAILABILITY have to be unique for a person but can be duplicated among persons in staff book.

Tip: A person can have any number of tags and availabilities (including 0)

Examples:

• add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com f/Computing v/John street, block 123, #01-01 m/CS2103
• add n/Chihiro Ogino m/GEC1024 e/spirited@example.com f/FASS v/The Spirit Realm p/20122001 a/tues 21:00 22:00 a/wednesday 00:00 23:59

• add n/Betsy Crowe t/friend m/CS2103T e/betsycrowe@example.com f/Computing v/Newgate Prison p/1234567 t/criminal a/monday 11:00 12:00 a/wednesday 14:00 16:00

Listing all persons : list

Shows a list of all persons in the staff book.

Format: list

Editing a person : edit

Edits an existing person in the staff book.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [m/MODULE] [f/FACULTY] [v/VENUE] [t/TAG]…​ [a/AVAILABILITY]…​

• Edits the person at the specified INDEX. The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list. The index 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.
• When editing tags, the existing tags of the person will be removed i.e adding of tags is not cumulative.
• You can remove all the person’s tags by typing t/ without specifying any tags after it.
• When editing availabilities, the existing availabilities of the person will be removed i.e adding of availabilities is not cumulative.
• You can remove all the person’s availabilities by typing a/ without specifying any availabilities after it.
• NAME is case-sensitive and has to be unique among persons in staff book.
• PHONE_NUMBER, EMAIL, MODULE, FACULTY, VENUE do not need to be unique and can be duplicated among persons in staff book.
• TAG and AVAILABILITY have to be unique for a person but can be duplicated among persons in staff book.

Examples:

• edit 1 p/91234567 e/johndoe@example.com Edits the phone number and email address of the 1st person to be 91234567 and johndoe@example.com respectively.
• edit 3 m/GEA1000 Edits the module of the 3rd person to be GEA1000.
• edit 2 n/Betsy Crower t/ Edits the name of the 2nd person to be Betsy Crower and clears all existing tags.
  Before editing the second person:
  
  
  After editing the second person:
  

Locating persons by name: find

Finds persons whose names contain any of the given keywords.

Format: find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

• The search is case-insensitive. e.g hans will match Hans
• The order of the keywords does not matter. e.g. Hans Bo will match Bo Hans
• Only the name is searched.
• Only full words will be matched e.g. Han will not match Hans
• Persons matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search). e.g. Hans Bo will return Hans Gruber, Bo Yang

Examples:

• find John returns john and John Doe
• find li returns David Li
• find alex david returns Alex Yeoh, David Li
  

Filtering persons: filter

Filters persons whose module, faculty, tags or availabilities match the given filtering criteria.

format: filter [m/MODULE] [f/FACULTY] [t/TAG]… [a/AVAILABILITY]…

• At least one of the optional fields must be provided.
• Only module, faculty, tags and availabilities can be filtered.
• The filter only accepts a single module to filter from.
• The filter only accepts a single faculty to filter from.
• The filter only accepts valid values for faculty. e.g faculty of business is an invalid faculty value.
• The filter accepts single or multiple tags to filter from.
• The filter accepts single or multiple availabilities to filter from.
• The filter only accepts whole values for the available filtering criteria. e.g mon does not match mon 12:00 13:00, cs does not match CS2030S
• The filter is case-insensitive for the available filtering criteria. e.g tUTOR will match tutor, cs2100 will match CS2100
• Persons matching all fields will be returned (i.e. AND search). e.g. filter m/CS2030S f/Computing will return Charlotte Oliveiro

Examples:

• filter m/CS1101S returns Alex Yeoh
  

• filter f/Computing t/professor returns Alex Yeoh, Charlotte Oliveiro, David Li and Roy Balakrishman
  

• filter t/tutor returns Bernice Yu, Irfan Ibrahim
  

• To illustrate the next example, the sample data are edited first to let Alex Yeoh, Charlotte Oliveiro and Irfan Ibrahim have tags friend, professor and youtuber. They are available on Monday 12:00 13:00 and Thursday 12:00 13:00.
  

You can see that for Roy Balakrishnan, while he is available on Monday 12:00 13:00 and Thursday 12:00 13:00, he does not have tags friend and youtuber.

filter f/soc t/professor t/friend t/youtuber a/mon 12:00 13:00 a/thurs 12:00 13:00 returns Alex Yeoh, Charlotte Oliveiro and Irfan Ibrahim.

Sorting persons: sort

Sorts the list of persons based on specified attribute.

Format: sort [n/] [p/] [m/] [f/] [v/] [s/] [meet/]

• By default, sorting is done in alphanumeric order.
• The order of character priority would be letters (A-Z), numbers (0-9), special characters (!@#$%^&*).
• The capitalisation of the letters do not affect their priority such that Aaron will have same priority as aaron.
• For attribute with exact same values, the tie-breaker is determined by their added order.
• For sorting of multiple attributes, the weightage will be determined by the order in which it was entered. E.g sort m/ p/ v/ will sort persons by their module, among those with equal modules would then be sorted by their phone number and similarly for venue.
• s/ sorts the list by person with the earliest meeting
• meet/ sorts the list by person with the earliest meeting, followed by alphanumeric order of meeting description

Examples:

• sort m/ p/ returns person by ascending module codes followed by ascending phone numbers CS2000 80000000, CS2000 90000000, CS3000 80000000followed by CS3000 90000000
• sort n/ returns person by ascending names Alex, Bernice followed by Charlotte

• sort p/ returns person by ascending phone numbers 87438807, 91031282 followed by 92492021
  

Adding a meeting to a person: meeting-add

Add a meeting to a person based on specified description and date.

Format: meeting-add INDEX d/DESCRIPTION s/DATETIME

• Adds a meeting to the person at the specified INDEX. The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list. The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3,…​ and tally within range index of the displayed list.
• Both of the fields must be provided and valid values.
• A valid DESCRIPTION of the meeting can only contain latin alphanumeric characters and is case-sensitive.
• A valid DATETIME of the meeting can only contain valid date and 24 hour time values with a single space to separate the date and time. Multiple formats are allowed.
  • Date Formats
    • Separators: -
      1. d-M-yyyy
      2. dd-M-yyyy
      3. d-MM-yyyy
      4. dd-MM-yyyy
      5. yyyy-M-d
      6. yyyy-MM-d
      7. yyyy-MM-dd
    • Separators: /
      1. d/M/yyyy
      2. dd/M/yyyy
      3. d/MM/yyyy
      4. dd/MM/yyyy
      5. yyyy/M/d
      6. yyyy/M/dd
      7. yyyy/MM/d
      8. yyyy/MM/dd
  • Time Formats
    1. HH:mm
    2. H:mm
    3. HHmm
• Duplicate meetings with the same DESCRIPTION and DATETIME for the same person is not allowed. DESCRIPTION only matches its duplicate when both case sensitivity matches.
• Meetings with the same DESCRIPTION and DATETIME does not need to be unique among persons in staff book.
• StaffConnect does not limit the flexibility for users, hence the user is able to add any meeting at any point of time and even meetings of different topics at the same time.

Examples:

• meeting-add 1 d/Meet for finals preparation s/12/04/2024 18:00 adds a meeting to the first person with the description of Meet for finals preparation and the date and time of 12/04/2024 18:00
• meeting-add 1 d/CS2100 Consultation s/11/06/2024 08:00 adds a meeting to the first person with the description of CS2100 Consultation and the date and time of 11/06/2024 08:00
• meeting-add 2 d/Meet for practical exam s/20/04/2024 15:00 adds a meeting to the second person with the description of Meet for practical exam and the date and time of 20/04/2024 15:00

Result for add meeting:
meeting-add 1 d/Meet for finals preparation s/12/04/2024 18:00

Deleting a meeting from a person: meeting-delete

Deletes a meeting from a person based on specified meeting index.

Format: meeting-delete INDEX i/MEETING-INDEX

• Deletes the meeting at specified MEETING-INDEX from the person at specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3,…​ and tally within range index of the displayed person list.
• The meeting-index refers to the index number shown in the displayed meeting list.
• The meeting-index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3,…​ and tally within range index of the displayed meeting list.
• The meeting from the person must exist before it can be deleted otherwise an error will be displayed.

Examples:

The following commands assumes that meetings have been added prior to the command. Otherwise, an error will be thrown.
(Refer to the section above on how to add a meeting)

• list followed by meeting-delete 1 i/1 deletes the 1st meeting from the 1st person in the list.
• meeting-delete 1 i/3 deletes the 3rd meeting from the 1st person in the current displayed contacts list.
• find Bernice Yu followed by meeting-delete 1 i/2 deletes the 1st meeting from the 1st person in the results of the find command.

Results for delete meeting:
The following command was applied: find Bernice Yu followed by meeting-delete 1 i/2.
(Disclaimer: The content shown in the examples may not match what you have added to your own meetings within the staff book).

After find Bernice Yu:


After meeting-delete 1 i/2:


After meeting-delete 1 i/1:

Deleting a person : delete

Deletes the specified person from the staff book.

Format: delete INDEX

• Deletes the person at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

• list followed by delete 2 deletes the 2nd person in the list.
• sort p/ followed by delete 1 deletes the 1st person in the list in the results of the sort command, which should be the person with the smallest phone number.
• find Bernice Yu followed by delete 1 deletes the 1st person in the results of the find command.

Before deletion:

First find Bernice:

Then delete Bernice:

List all persons and Bernice is deleted:

Setting a person as favourite: fav

Sets the specified person from the list as favourite.

Format: fav INDEX

• Sets the person at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

• list followed by fav 2 sets the 2nd person as favourite in the staff book.
• sort p/ followed by fav 1 sets the 1st person as favourite in the staff book in the results of the sort command, which should be the person with the smallest phone number.

• find Betsy followed by fav 1 sets the 1st person as favourite in the results of the find command.

Removing a person as favourite: unfav

Removes the specified person from the staff book as favourite.

Format: unfav INDEX

• Removes the person at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

• list followed by unfav 2 removes the 2nd person as favourite in the staff book.
• sort p/ followed by fav 1 removes the 1st person as favourite in the staff book in the results of the sort command, which should be the person with the smallest phone number.
• find Betsy followed by unfav 1 removes the 1st person as favourite in the results of the find command.

Refreshing and clearing all outdated meetings: refresh

Deletes all meetings that start before the very moment the user types in the command and enters. Notice that only persons currently filtered in the list will be affected.

Format: refresh

• The deleted meetings will be explicitly printed again to the use, specifying content of the meeting and who “owns” the meeting.
• If no meetings are deleted, there will no error thrown. Instead, a prompt will be given to user that no meeting is deleted.
• The command will not delete meetings for persons not currently shown in the list due to filter command or find command. If the user wants to execute the command for all persons, type in list first to show all persons.

Examples:

• If there is a meeting Avengers Assemble that happened in 31/08/1939 12:00, when the user types in refresh, it will be deleted.
• If there is a meeting French Revolution that happened in 14/07/1789 12:00, when the user types in refresh, it will be deleted.
• If there is a meeting Future Meeting that will happen in 31/12/2999 12:00, when the user types in refresh, it will not be deleted.

Before:

After:

Known limitations: Refresh is only used when the user decides to remove clutter in the staff book, and wants to remove outdated meetings. This process is not done automatically as sometimes the user would like to retain old meetings for bookkeeping purposes.

Selecting the person to display: select

Selects the person identified by their current displayed index number to display their attributes and meeting list.

Format: select INDEX

• Select the person at the specified INDEX to display its attributes and meeting list.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the current displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

• list followed by select 2.
  Selects the 2nd person in the staff book.
• filter t/tutor followed by select 1
  Selects the 1st person in the results of the filter command.
• sort p/ followed by select 1
  Selects the 1st person in the results of the sort command, which should be the person with the smallest phone number.

Clearing all entries : clear

Clears all entries from the staff book.

Format: clear

Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Saving the data

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

Editing the data file

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

Caution: If your changes to the data file makes its format invalid, StaffConnect 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 StaffConnect to behave in unexpected ways (e.g., if a value entered is outside of the acceptable range). The application will not prompt the user if the format of the data file is incorrect, but instead provide the user with an empty staff book.
Therefore, edit the data file only if you are confident that you can update it correctly.

Valid Data Values for Person in JSON file

All attributes’ restrictions except Favourite can be found in the Attribute Summary table.

Valid Data Values for Meetings (for each Person) in JSON file

Sample Data File Content

{
  "persons" : [ {
    "name" : "Alex Yeoh",
    "phone" : "87438807",
    "email" : "alexyeoh@example.com",
    "module" : "CS1101S",
    "faculty" : "School of Computing",
    "venue" : "Blk 30 Geylang Street 29, #06-40",
    "tags" : [ ],
    "availabilities" : [ ],
    "meetings" : [ ],
    "favourite" : "Not favourite"
  }, {
    "name" : "John Smith",
    "phone" : "99272758",
    "email" : "johnsmith@example.com",
    "module" : "CS2103S",
    "faculty" : "School of Computing",
    "venue" : "Blk 30 Lorong 3 Serangoon Gardens, #07-18",
    "tags" : [ "friends", "tutor" ],
    "availabilities" : [ "TUESDAY 12:00 13:00", "WEDNESDAY 12:00 13:00" ],
    "meetings" : [ {
      "description" : "test",
      "date" : "12/12/2024 12:12"
    }, {
      "description" : "test2",
      "date" : "10/10/2024 10:10"
    } ],
    "favourite" : "Favourite"
  } ]
}

FAQ

Q: How do I transfer my data to another Computer?
A: Install the app in the other computer and overwrite the generated data file with the file that contains the data from your current StaffConnect device.
Q: Why are concurrent or past meetings allowed?
A: This is to allow greater flexibility for users who wish to segregate meetings of different topics happening concurrently or users who wish to store meetings in the past for bookkeeping purposes etc..
Q: Why are meeting’s description with the same content but different case-sensitivity allowed?
A: Sometimes the user would like to have finer control over how they want to differentiate between topics, and a single capital letter could make that difference.

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. When adding/editing an availability to a person, the allowed formats for time is not as flexible as typing in a meeting start date. The only allowed format is HH:mm. HH is a valid 24-hour (00-23), mm are valid minutes (00-59).
3. When adding/editing phone number with a descriptor, If you try to add a number with a descriptor such as 98731094 (home), the application rejects this input and advise the user to only provide phone numbers with numerical values only. The phone number is not intended to store phone number descriptor but users can consider using tags such as t/homePhone as a workaround.
4. When adding/editing name containing special characters, If you try to add a name such as Jason s/o William, the application rejects this input and advise the user to only provide name with alphanumeric values only. The name is not intended to store special characters but users can consider using so or son of as a workaround. If a person’s name includes special characters (characters not included in modern English) like arabic characters (such as أ, ب, ت, etc.), it should be latinized first.
5. When adding/editing name that already exists in the staff book, if you try to do so, an error message will be prompted, as two persons are considered the same person as long as they have the same name. It is inplausible to has two persons with the same name but other different attributes.
6. When adding/editing venues containing space with an attribute prefix, If you try to add a venue such as Room 12 t/r, the application will add a person with a venue Room 12 and a tag r instead of the intended venue Room 12 t/r. The venue is not intended to store venues that contains a space followed by an attribute prefix but users can consider omitting the space or replace with a hyphen such as Room 12t/r or Room 12-t/r as a workaround.
7. When generating the default file and exiting via the Exit button, If you try to generate the default JSON file [JAR file location]/data/staffconnect.json by running the JAR file, without manipulating any data and exiting via the Exit button, the JSON file would not be generated. You may consider using the exit command via the command line interface to generate the default JSON file instead.

Attribute summary

Valid Faculty Values

Command summary