User Guide

EduConnect is a desktop application that helps tutors manage contact information for students and parents, 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
• Features
  • Viewing help : help
  • Adding a person: add
  • Listing all persons : list
  • Editing a person : edit
  • Locating persons by name, role or tag: find
  • Deleting a person : delete
  • Leaving a remark : remark
  • Viewing details of an entry: view
  • Adding a session: addsession
  • Deleting a session: deletesession
  • Viewing sessions in a day: viewsession
  • Editing a session : editsession
  • Clearing all entries : clear
  • Exiting the program : exit
  • Saving the data
  • Editing the data file
• 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 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.
   

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 a/John street, block 123, #01-01 r/student : Adds a student contact named John Doe to EduConnect.

   • 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 person: add

Adds a person to EduConnect.

Format: add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER a/ADDRESS r/ROLE [par/PARENT_NAME] [t/TAG]…

• A person’s phone number has to be a Singapore number.
• A person can have any number of tags (including 0).
• A person can have one of the two roles: student or parent, case-insensitive.
• A person that has the student role can have [TAGS].
• A person that has the parent role cannot have [TAGS].
• You may specify a parent for a student using the par/ prefix.
  • Parents must be specified using their full name only.
  • The specified parent must already exist in EduConnect.
  • Only students can have a par/ field — parents cannot have one.
  • par/ field is not case-sensitive.
  • The parent field can be updated to another Parent via the edit person command, but cannot be cleared/reset.
• You cannot add a duplicate person into EduConnect.
  • Definition of Duplicate Person: Person with same name and same role.

Examples:

• add n/John Doe p/98765432 a/902 East Coast Parkway, #01-26, Singapore r/parent
• add n/Betsy Crowe p/87654321 a/742 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5 12-30, Singapore r/student t/math
• add n/Lorem Ipsum p/97531864 a/6001 Beach Road 02-37 Golden Mile Tower, Singapore r/student
• add n/Onion Lee p/99274628 a/1 HarbourFront Walk, Singapore 098585 r/student par/Keith

Listing all persons : list

Shows a list of all persons in EduConnect.

Format: list

Editing a person : edit

Edits an existing person in EduConnect.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [a/ADDRESS] [par/PARENT] [t/TAG]…

• 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.
• Role and Remark CANNOT be updated using this command.
• Existing values will be updated to the input values.
• When editing tags, the existing tags of the student will be removed i.e adding of tags is not cumulative.
  • You can remove all the student’s tags by typing t/ without specifying any tags after it.
  • Only students can have tags; specifying t/ for a parent will result in an error.
• You may specify or change a student’s parent using the par/ prefix.
  • Parents must be specified using their full name only.
  • The specified parent must already exist in EduConnect.
  • Only students can have a parent; specifying par/ for a parent will result in an error.
  • par/ field is not case-sensitive.
• A parent’s children (Student) cannot be edited directly. Relationships are updated automatically when their corresponding student entries are modified.

Examples:

• edit 1 p/91234567 Edits the phone number of the 1st person to be 91234567.
• edit 2 n/Betsy Crower t/ Edits the name of the 2nd person to be Betsy Crower and clears all existing tags.
• edit 3 n/Alex Yeo par/Keith Edits the name and parent of the 3rd person to be Alex Yeo and their parent to be Keith. (Assuming Keith is a Parent that already exists in EduConnect)

Locating persons by name, role or tag: find

Finds persons whose information matches/contains given criteria.

Format: find [n/NAME] [r/ROLE] [t/TAG]

• The search is case-insensitive. e.g. n/hans will match Hans
• At least one of the parameters must be provided.
• The order of the keywords does not matter. e.g. n/Hans Bo will match Bo Hans
• Only the name, role and tag can be searched.
• Only full words will be matched e.g. n/Han will not match Hans, r/stu will not match student, t/mat will not match math.
• Persons matching all given parameters will be returned e.g. find n/Alex r/student will return all student named Alex
• For each parameter, persons matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search). e.g. n/Hans Bo will return Hans Gruber, Bo Yang
• find Alex or find whatever will not work and system will return the message 0 person listed.
• find r/student t/math physics returns all persons with role of student whose tags include either math or physics
  • This applies to n/ and r/ as well.

Examples:

• find n/John returns john and John Doe
• find n/alex david returns Alex Yeoh, David Li
  
• find r/student returns all persons with role of student

Deleting a person : delete

Deletes the specified person from EduConnect.

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 EduConnect.
• find n/Betsy followed by delete 1 deletes the 1st person in the results of the find command.

Leaving a remark : remark

Leaves a remark about the specified person from EduConnect.

Format: remark INDEX rm/REMARK

• Leaves a remark about the person at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• Using remark again for the same person overwrites previous remark.
• To delete a remark, use remark INDEX, with no rm/ field.

Examples:

• remark 1 rm/Weak at math leaves a remark on the 1st person in list.

Viewing details of an entry: view

View the detail of the specified person from EduConnect.

Format: view INDEX

• The result is displayed in the app as a list.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayer person list.

Adding a session: addsession

Adds a session of the specified person from EduConnect.

Format: addsession INDEX d/DAY ti/TIME

• Adds a session about the student at the specified INDEX.
• A student can have any number of sessions (including 0).
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
  • The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
  • The index referred to must be a Student contact.
• DAY should be one of the following options: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun, or their full forms (e.g., Monday, Friday).
• TIME should be in 12-hour format without leading zeros, e.g., 3pm-5pm or 9:30AM-11:45AM.
  • When specifying minutes, use ‘:’ and NOT ‘.’, e.g. 12:45pm is allowed, but 12.45pm is NOT.
• The start time must not be greater than the end time.
• The result is displayed in the app as a list.
• The session to be added must not overlap with another session for the same student.
• You cannot add a duplicated/overlap session to a student into EduConnect.
  • Definition of Duplicated session: A duplicated session is one that occurs on the same day with the same start and end times.
  • Definition of an Overlap session: An overlapping session is one that occurs on the same day and has a start or end time that conflicts with another session’s start or end time.
• Refer here for more information.

Examples:

• addsession 1 d/Mon ti/3pm-5pm
• addsession 1 d/Thur ti/9:30AM-11:45AM

Deleting a session: deletesession

Deletes a session of the specified person from EduConnect.

Format: deletesession INDEX d/DAY ti/TIME

• Deletes a session about 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, …​
  • The index referred to must be a Student contact.
• The start time must not be greater than the end time.
• The session aiming to delete must already exist (same start time, end time, and occurring day) for the student in order for the command to succeed.

Examples:

• deletesession 1 d/Mon ti/3pm-5pm
• deletesession 1 d/Thur ti/9:30AM-11:45AM

Viewing sessions in a day: viewsession

View the session(s) of the specified day from EduConnect.

The sessions will be returned in order, sorted by earliest start time.

If multiple sessions have the same start time, they will be further sorted by lexicographic ordering of the contact name.

Format: viewsession d/DAY, where DAY is the day of the week

Examples:

• viewsession d/Mon
• viewsession d/Monday
• viewsession d/Tue
• viewsession d/Tues
• viewsession d/Tuesday

The result is displayed in the app as a list.

Examples:

• viewsession d/Mon

Editing a session : editsession

Edits an existing session of a person in EduConnect.

Format: editsession INDEX d/DAY ti/TIME nd/DAY nti/TIME

• Edits the session of 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, …​
  • The index referred to must be a Student contact.
• Existing values will be updated to the input values specified by nd/ and nti/.
• DAY should be one of the following options: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun, or their full forms (e.g., Monday, Friday).
• TIME should be in 12-hour format without leading zeros, e.g., 3pm-5pm or 9:30AM-11:45AM.
  • When specifying minutes, use ‘:’ and NOT ‘.’, e.g. 12:45pm is allowed, but 12.45pm is NOT.
• The start time must not be greater than the end time.

Examples:

• editsession 1 d/Mon ti/3pm-5pm nd/Thur nti/9:30AM-11:45AM Edits the session’s day and time of the 1st person to be Thur and 9:30AM-11:45AM.
• editsession 2 d/Thur ti/9:30AM-11:45AM nd/Mon nti/3pm-5pm Edits the session’s day and time of the 2nd person to be Mon and 3pm-5pm.

Clearing all entries : clear

Clears all entries from EduConnect.

Format: clear

Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Saving the data

EduConnect 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

EduConnect data are 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.

Caution: If your changes to the data file makes its format invalid, EduConnect will discard all data and start with the default sample data on the next run. Hence, it is recommended to take a backup of the file before editing it.
Furthermore, certain edits can cause the 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.

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.

Command summary