User Guide

AddressBook Level 3 (AB3) is a desktop app for managing 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, AB3 can get your contact management tasks done faster than traditional GUI apps.

• Quick start
• Features
  • Viewing help : help
  • Adding a application: add
  • Listing all applications : list
  • Editing a application : edit
  • Locating applications: find
  • 📖 Terminology
  • ⚠️ General Behaviour
  • ⚠️ Important: Prefix-Based Filtering
    • ❗ Missing prefix at the start of the command
    • ❗ Missing prefix in the later part of the command
    • ❗ Repeated prefixes
  • Examples:
  • Viewing archived applications
  • Deleting a application : delete
  • Archiving an application : archive
  • Unarchiving an application : unarchive
  • Viewing application summary : Summary
  • Opening application notes : open
  • Clearing all entries : clear
  • Exiting the program : exit
  • Saving the data
  • Editing the data file
  • Archiving data files [coming in v2.0]
• FAQ
• Known issues
• Command summary

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 your AddressBook.

4. Open a command terminal, cd into the folder you put the jar file in, and use the java -jar addressbook.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.
   

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 : Lists all contacts.

   • add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01 : Adds a contact named John Doe to the Address Book.

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

   • clear : Deletes all contacts.

   • exit : Exits the app.

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

Features

Viewing help : help

Shows a message explaining how to access the help page.

Format: help

Adding a application: add

Adds a application to the address book.

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

Tip: A application can have any number of tags (including 0)

Examples:

• add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01
• add n/Betsy Crowe t/friend e/betsycrowe@example.com a/Newgate Prison p/1234567 t/criminal

Listing all applications : list

Shows a list of all applications in the address book.

Format: list

Editing a application : edit

Edits an existing application in the address book.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [t/TAG]…​

• Edits the application at the specified INDEX. The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed application 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 application will be removed i.e adding of tags is not cumulative.
• You can remove all the application’s tags by typing t/ without specifying any tags after it.

Examples:

• edit 1 p/91234567 e/johndoe@example.com Edits the phone number and email address of the 1st application to be 91234567 and johndoe@example.com respectively.
• edit 2 n/Betsy Crower t/ Edits the name of the 2nd application to be Betsy Crower and clears all existing tags.

Locating applications: find

Finds applications that match the specified keywords.

Format: find [n/NAME] [r/ROLE] [e/EMAIL] [w/WEBSITE] [a/ADDRESS] [d/DATE] [s/STATUS] [t/TAG]

📖 Terminology

• Field: n/NAME, r/ROLE, e/EMAIL, w/WEBSITE, a/ADDRESS, d/DATE, s/STATUS and t/TAG are called fields.
• Prefix: n/, r/, e/, w/, a/, d/, s/ and t/ are called prefixes.
• Keyword: the text after the prefix is called keyword. e.g. in n/Google, Google is the keyword.

⚠️ General Behaviour

• All fields (e.g. n/NAME, r/ROLE) are optional, but at least one field must be provided.

• The search is case-insensitive. e.g find n/google matches Google.

• Partial matching is supported for all fields using substring matching (not fuzzy matching).
  e.g. find n/Goog matches Google, but find n/Gogle will NOT match Google

• Multiple different fields are combined using AND logic. e.g. find n/Google r/Backend Developer returns applications that match both name and role.

• For tags, multiple keywords are combined using OR logic. e.g. find t/backend developer t/frontend developer returns applications that match either tag.

• For optional fields (email, website, address): Using an empty prefix (e.g. e/) matches applications with no value for that field. e.g. find e/ returns applications that have no email.

⚠️ Important: Prefix-Based Filtering

Filtering is only applied to keywords that are associated with a prefix. n/, r/, e/, w/, a/, d/, s/, and t/ are valid prefixes for filtering.

Any text without a valid prefix will NOT be used for filtering.

❗ Missing prefix at the start of the command

find Grab s/Pending

• s/Pending → used for filtering (status)
• Grab → ignored (no prefix)

This behaves the same as: find s/Pending

❗ Missing prefix in the later part of the command

find n/Google Software Engineer

• Everything after n/ is treated as the name keyword

Interpreted as: n/Google Software Engineer

This searches for a company name containing: Google Software Engineer

It will NOT treat Software Engineer as a role.

❗ Repeated prefixes

If the same prefix is provided multiple times, only the last occurrence will be used. Finding multiple applications with multiple keywords for the same field at the same time is not supported in this version.

e.g.
find n/google n/meta

This will be interpreted as:

find n/meta

The earlier keyword (google) will be ignored.

Examples:

• find n/google Returns applications with company names containing “google”

• find r/intern s/applied Returns applications with role containing “intern” and status containing “applied”

• find e/gmail Returns applications with email containing “gmail”

• find e/ Returns applications that have no email

• find t/oa t/fintech Returns applications tagged with either “oa” or “fintech”

Viewing archived applications

Displays all archived applications.

Format: find t/archived

• Shows all applications that are currently archived.
• You can use the unarchive INDEX command on this list to restore applications.

Example:

• find t/archived

Deleting a application : delete

Deletes the specified application from the address book.

Format: delete INDEX

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

Examples:

• list followed by delete 2 deletes the 2nd application in the address book.
• find Betsy followed by delete 1 deletes the 1st application in the results of the find command.

Archiving an application : archive

Archives the specified application so that it is hidden from the main list but still stored in the system.

Format: archive INDEX

• Archives the application at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the currently displayed application list.
• Archived applications will not appear in the normal list command.
• Archiving an application does not delete it. The application is tagged as archived and hidden from the main list.
• You can view archived applications using the find t/archived command.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

• archive 2 archives the 2nd application in the current list.
• find Google followed by archive 1 archives the 1st application in the search results.

Unarchiving an application : unarchive

Restores an archived application back to the main application list.

Format: unarchive INDEX

• The INDEX refers to the index number shown in the archived applications list.
• You must first view archived applications (e.g. using find t/archived) before using unarchive.
• The application will be removed from archived status and will appear in the normal list again.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

• find t/archived
• unarchive 1 restores the 1st archived application.

Viewing application summary : Summary

Displays a summary of your job application statistics in a pop-up window.

There are 2 ways to open the Application Summary:

1. Command: Type summary in the command box and press Enter.
2. Menu bar: Click Summary in the top menu bar.

Format: summary

• Shows the total number of active (non-archived) applications.
• Breaks down active applications by status: Pending, Offered, and Rejected.
• Calculates your Success Rate: the percentage of decided applications (Offered + Rejected) that resulted in an offer. Displays 0.0 if no decisions have been made yet.
• Also shows the count of Archived applications separately.

Examples:

• summary opens the Summary window showing your application statistics.
• Clicking Summary in the menu bar opens the same Summary window.

Opening application notes : open

Opens and displays the notes written during the internship application process for the specified application.

Format: open INDEX [m/CHOICE_OF_EDIT]

• Opens the notes for the application at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed application list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
• m/CHOICE_OF_EDIT is optional. It must be true or false, and defaults to false if omitted.
• If m/false or omitted, the notes are opened in view-only mode.
• If m/true, the notes are opened in edit mode, allowing you to modify them.

Examples:

• open 1 opens the notes for the 1st application in view-only mode.
• open 2 m/true opens the notes for the 2nd application in edit mode.

Clearing all entries : clear

Clears all entries from the address book.

Format: clear

Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Saving the data

AddressBook 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

HireME data are saved automatically as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/HireME.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, AddressBook 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 the AddressBook 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 AddressBook 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