SocialBook User Guide

SocialBook is a desktop app specifically designed to ease the administrative process for social workers.

By providing a comprehensive way to store the personal details of those they are helping, as well as functionalities to make the information managing process efficient, SocialBook streamlines the process for social workers.

SocialBook is 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, SocialBook can get your contact management tasks done faster than traditional GUI apps.

Quick start

Ensure you have Java 17 or above installed in your Computer.
- How To Install Java (Windows | MacOS | Linux)
Download the latest .jar file from here.
- Under the Assets of the latest version of SocialBook, you should find the latest downloadable socialbook.jar file
Copy this file into the folder you want to use for SocialBook.
- Ensure that this folder is empty.
Open a command terminal, cd into the folder you put the .jar file in. After which enter java -jar socialbook.jar in the command terminal to run the application.
- How To Open Command Terminal (Windows | MacOS | Linux)
- How To Change Directory (cd) To Folder (Windows | MacOS | Linux)

If done correctly, a GUI similar to the image below should appear in a few seconds. Note that the app will contain some sample data for you to get started and familiarise with.

Type the command where "Enter command here..." is seen in the command box and press the enter / return key on your computer to execute it. e.g. typing help and pressing enter / return will open the help window.

Some example commands you can try:
- list : Lists all current (i.e. not archived) contacts.
- add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/311, Clementi Ave 2 #02-25 dob/1999-03-09 : Adds a contact named John Doe to SocialBook with these specified details.
- 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

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/friend 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/friend, t/friend t/family 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 listappt, statistics, exit and clear) will be ignored.
e.g. if the command specifies statistics 123, it will be interpreted as statistics.
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.
e.g. if you copy add n/John Doe p/98765432 and p/98765432 is on a new line in the PDF, when copied over into the command box, it may be copied as add n/John Doep/98765432 instead which is an invalid command format.

Viewing help: `help`

Shows a message explaining how to access the help page as well as all the available commands. If the [COMMAND] is specified, the help message for that command will be displayed.

Format: help [COMMAND]

Examples:

help
help add
help edit

Adding a person: `add`

Adds a person to SocialBook.

Format: add n/NAME p/PHONE e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS dob/DATE_OF_BIRTH [pri/PRIORITY = LOW] [income/INCOME = 0] [famsize/FAMILY_SIZE = 1] [r/REMARK] [t/TAG]...

Names are case-insensitive. E.g., JOHN DOE is the same as john doe.
Extra whitespaces between names are trimmed. E.g., John Doe is the same as John Doe.
Adding duplicate persons with the same name is not allowed.
Phone numbers should contain at least 3 digits.
For optional parameters like PRIORITY, INCOME, FAMILY SIZE, if not specified, their values will be defaulted to LOW, 0, 1 respectively.

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

Examples:

add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/311, Clementi Ave 2, #02-25 dob/1999-03-09 famsize/3 income/5000
add n/Betsy Crowe t/friend e/betsycrowe@example.com a/Newgate Prison p/1234567 dob/2002-12-25 pri/MEDIUM t/criminal

Listing all persons: `list`

Shows a list of persons in the address book, sorted according to the latest sorting order specified by the sort command. If no sorting order has been specified, the list will be sorted by priority from HIGH to LOW.

Format: list [archive/] [all/]

list: Shows a list of people who are current contacts (i.e. not archived)
list archive/: Shows a list of people who are archived
list all/: Shows a list of all people

Caution:

Should not be used with both archive/ and all/ concurrently, e.g. list archive/ all/ ❌, list archive/ ✅
archive/ and all/ should not have parameter values, e.g. list archive/bob ❌, list archive/ ✅

Editing a person: `edit`

Edits an existing person's details in SocialBook.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [dob/DATE_OF_BIRTH] [pri/PRIORITY] [income/INCOME] [famsize/FAMILY_SIZE] [r/REMARK] [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 not exceeding the largest index number e.g. 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, all existing tags of the person will be removed and replaced with updated values i.e editing of tags does not cumulatively add them to current tags.
You can remove all the person’s tags or remarks by typing edit INDEX t/ or edit INDEX r/ where INDEX is the person's index.

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 2 n/Betsy Crower t/ Edits the name of the 2nd person to be Betsy Crower and clears all existing tags.

Finding persons: `find`

Finds persons that match the specified filters.

Format: find [n/START_OF_NAME]... [a/PART_OF_ADDRESS]... [pri/PRIORITY]... [income/INCOME]...

The search is case-insensitive. e.g n/alice will match Alice.
At least one filter must be specified (i.e. no empty find command).
For names, only those that start with the given filter will be matched e.g. find n/A returns all persons whose first name starts with A only.
For addresses, those that contain the part of the address given are returned e.g. find a/clementi returns all persons who stay at clementi only.
For priorities, exact priorities must be specified to filter accurately e.g. find pri/high returns all persons with high priority only.
For income, those with income less than or equal to the specified float value are listed e.g. find income/2000 returns all persons with income less than or equal to 2000.00 only.
To specify multiple filters of the same type, use the corresponding prefix for every new filter e.g. find n/alex n/david n/bobby
Per type of prefix, all persons matching any of the filters given will be returned (i.e. ORsearch) but when combined, only those who also pass the filters of other types are are returned (i.e. AND search) e.g. find n/A n/B pri/HIGH returns all persons whose name starts with either A or B but have high priority.

Examples:

find pri/high returns Alice Tan and David Wong (from sample data)
find n/a n/b n/c pri/high pri/medium returns Alice Tan and Benny Lim

Sorting persons: `sort`

Sorts persons in the order of the specified parameter.

Format: sort PARAMETER

The only valid parameters are: name, address, priority, income, updated.
Only one parameter can be specified at any time.
The parameter is case-insensitive. e.g sort name works the same as sort NAME.
Whenever SocialBook is launched, persons are automatically sorted in order of their priority from HIGH to LOW.
- Therefore, if the sorting order is changed, SocialBook should be kept open for as long as the new sorting order is required, as closing it and relaunching will mean that the persons are sorted once again in the above stated priority order.
For name, the sorting is in alphabetical order.
For address, the sorting is in lexicographical order (similar to alphabetical order but also takes the special characters and numerical digits into account).
- Because numbers are considered "smaller" than letters in this ordering, sorting by address is perhaps best used after filtering the contact list by a region e.g. find a/clementi sort address will sort the contact list of those staying in Clementi in order of their address.
For priority, the sorting is in order from HIGH to LOW.
For income, the sorting order is in increasing order from the lowest to highest.
For updated, the sorting order is from the person updated least recently to the one updated most recently.

Examples:

sort name
sort updated

Deleting people: `delete`

Deletes the specified people from SocialBook.

Format: delete INDEXES

Deletes the people at the specified INDEXES.
The indexes refer to the index numbers shown in the displayed person list.
The indexes must be positive integers not exceeding the largest index number e.g. 1, 2, 3, …
The indexes can be in any order so long as all the indexes fall within the size of the current list.
Duplicated valid index inputs would be treated as unique index inputs.

Examples:

list followed by delete 2,3 or delete 3,2 deletes the 2nd and 3rd person in SocialBook.
find Betsy followed by delete 1 deletes the 1st person in the results of the find command.
list followed by delete 1,1,2 deletes the 1st and 2nd person from current SocialBook.

Getting the parameters of these people: `get`

Gets the specified parameters of each individual person in current person list.

Format: get PARAMETERS

The only valid parameters are: name, phone, email, address.
Parameters are not case sensitive, which means get PHONE name will return phone number and name details too.
All inputted parameters must be valid for the details to be displayed.
The details will be displayed in the order of the inputted parameters.
Executing the same parameter multiple times in the same command will still only return one set of that detail.

Examples:

list followed by get phone EMAIL gets the phone numbers followed by the emails of the people in SocialBook.
list followed by get pHone phone gets only one set of the phone numbers of the people in SocialBook.
find pri/HIGH followed by get nAmE ADDress gets the names followed by the addresses of the high priority people.

Clearing all entries: `clear`

Clears all entries from SocialBook.

Both unarchived and archived entries, including those not currently shown in the list, will be deleted.

Examples:

find n/John followed by clear will delete all persons in SocialBook and not just those with John in their names.

Format: clear

Adding an appointment: `addappt`

Adds an appointment with a person to the address book.

Format: addappt INDEX date/yyyy-MM-dd from/HH:mm to/HH:mm

Adds an appointment with a person at the specified INDEX.
- The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
- The index should be a positive integer not exceeding the last index number in the list.
date specifies the date of the appointment in the yyyy-MM-dd format, where:
- yyyy is the four-digit year (e.g., 2024)
- MM is the two-digit month (e.g., 01)
- dd is the two-digit day of the month (e.g., 08)
from and to specify the start and end times of the appointment in the HH:mm format (24-hour clock).
The start time should be before the end time, and the appointment should not conflict with any existing appointments.

For more details on the command format, refer to the notes about the command format.

Adding appointments in the past is allowed for record-keeping purposes and to store historical data, as future appointments will eventually become past appointments.

To add an appointment that spans multiple days, add separate consecutive appointments for each day to cover the entire period.

Examples:

addappt 1 date/2024-11-08 from/16:00 to/17:00
addappt 2 date/2024-11-26 from/17:00 to/18:30

Listing all appointments: `listappt`

Displays a list of all appointments in the address book.

Format: listappt

Appointments are displayed in order of date and time, with the earliest shown first.

Editing an appointment: `editappt`

Edits an existing appointment in the address book.

Format: editappt INDEX [date/yyyy-MM-dd] [from/HH:mm] [to/HH:mm]

Edits the appointment at the specified INDEX.
- The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed appointment list.
- The index should be a positive integer not exceeding the last index number in the list.
date specifies the new date of the appointment in the yyyy-MM-dd format, where:
- yyyy is the four-digit year (e.g., 2024)
- MM is the two-digit month (e.g., 01)
- dd is the two-digit day of the month (e.g., 08)
from and to specify the new start and end times of the appointment in the HH:mm format (24-hour clock).
The start time should be before the end time, and the updated appointment should not conflict with any existing appointments.
At least one of the optional fields must be provided.

For more details on the command format, refer to the notes about the command format.

Examples:

editappt 1 date/2024-11-15 from/16:00 to/18:00: Updates the first appointment to November 15, 2024, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM.
editappt 2 from/10:00 to/11:30: Updates the start and end times of the second appointment to 10:00 AM and 11:30 AM, respectively, on the same date.

Deleting an appointment: `deleteappt`

Deletes the specified appointment from the address book.

Format: deleteappt INDEX

Deletes the appointment at the specified INDEX.
- The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed appointment list.
- The index should be a positive integer not exceeding the last index number in the list.

Examples:

listappt followed by deleteappt 2 deletes the second appointment from the address book.

Displaying overall statistics: `statistics`

Displays the statistics of current person list.

Statistics include:

Number of People
Number of HIGH Priority People
Number of MEDIUM Priority People
Number of LOW Priority People
Number of Appointments Scheduled Within Next 7 Days From Current Date
Number of People Eligible for At Least One Scheme

Format: statistics

Displaying eligible schemes: `scheme`

Displays the schemes that specified people from SocialBook are eligible for.

Format: scheme INDEXES

Displays the schemes that the people at the specified INDEXES are eligible for.
The indexes refer to the index numbers shown in the displayed person list.
The indexes must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …
Only 1 index can be inputted at a time.

Examples:

scheme 1 shows scheme that the 1st person in SocialBook is eligible for.

Adding a scheme to a person: `addscheme`

Adds a scheme to the specified person in the address book.

Format: addscheme PERSON_INDEX i/SCHEME_INDEX

Adds the scheme at the specified SCHEME_INDEX to the person at the specified PERSON_INDEX.
The person index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
The scheme index refers to the index number shown in the displayed scheme list with scheme command.
The indexes must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …
Only 1 scheme index and 1 person index can be inputted at a time.

Examples:

addscheme 1 i/1 adds the 1st scheme to the 1st person in the address book.

Viewing schemes attached to a person: `viewscheme`

Displays the schemes that the specified person in the address book is attached to.

Format: viewscheme INDEX

Displays the schemes that the person at the specified INDEX is attached to.
The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …
Only 1 index can be inputted at a time.
The index must be within the size of the current list.

Examples:

viewscheme 1 shows the schemes that the 1st person in the address book is attached to.

Delete a scheme from a person: `deletescheme`

Deletes the specified scheme from the specified person in the address book.

Format: deletescheme PERSON_INDEX i/SCHEME_INDEXS

Deletes the schemes at the specified SCHEME_INDEXES from the person at the specified PERSON_INDEX.
The person index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
The scheme index refers to the index number shown in the displayed scheme list with viewscheme command.
The indexes must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …
Multiple scheme indexes can be inputted at a time but only 1 person index can be inputted at a time.
The scheme indexes can be in any order so long as all the indexes fall within the size of the current list.
Duplicated valid scheme index inputs would be treated as unique scheme index inputs.

Examples:

deletescheme 1 i/1 deletes the 1st scheme from the 1st person in the address book.
deletescheme 1 i/1, 2 deletes the 1st and 2nd scheme from the 1st person in the address book.

Archiving a person: `archive`

Archives the specified person from the address book.

Format: archive INDEX

Archives the person at the specified INDEX.
The index refer to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
The index must be a positive integer not exceeding the last index number e.g. 1, 2, 3, …
The specified person must currently not be archived.

Examples:

list followed by archive 2 archives the 2nd person in the address book.

Info: It is still possible to make changes to archived people

Unarchiving a person: `unarchive`

Unarchives the specified person from the address book.

Format: unarchive INDEX

Unarchives the person at the specified INDEX.
The index refer to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
The index must be a positive integer not exceeding the last index number e.g. 1, 2, 3, …
The specified person must be currently archived.

Examples:

list archive/ followed by unarchive 1 unarchives the 1st person in the address book.

Undo the previous command: `undo`

Undoes the previous command from SocialBook.

Format: undo

Undo works only on commands that alter the contents of SocialBook e.g. add, edit, delete, clear, addappt, deleteappt, editappt, addscheme, deletescheme, archive, unarchive
Undo can be called multiple times till there is no longer a previous command to execute.

Examples:

delete 1,2 followed by undo will add persons at index 1 and 2 back to that index on SocialBook.
clear followed by undo will retrieve back the uncleared SocialBook.
edit 1 n/John followed by undo will change name back to what it was before.

Exiting the program: `exit`

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Saving the data

SocialBook 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

SocialBook data are saved automatically as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/socialbook.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, SocialBook 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 SocialBook to behave in unexpected ways (e.g., if a value entered is outside the acceptable range). Therefore, edit the data file only if you are confident that you can update it correctly.

Going through entered commands

Commands entered into SocialBook are automatically saved while it is running. To go through previously entered commands, use the up and down arrow keys to go to the previous command and next command respectively.

You can press the up key to go through the previous commands until the command entered earliest is reached. Once there are no more previous commands to retrieve, pressing the up key has no effect, and remains at the command entered earliest.

On the other hand, you can press the down key until the command entered most recently is reached, and then pressing the down key once more empties the command field for a new command to be entered. Subsequent presses of the down key has no effect, and leaves the command field empty.

Calendar

The calendar UI allows you to visualize your appointments throughout the day.

The right side of the calendar shows a timeline view of today's appointments. Each appointment is represented by a blue box with the person's name. For appointments lasting 30 minutes or more, the start time is also displayed. The height of the box represents the duration of the appointment.

The left side of the calendar shows a monthly calendar view along with an agenda view that lists appointments for the next 30 days, including today (e.g., November 7 to December 7). The agenda view provides detailed information for each appointment, including the person's name and the start and end times.

You can also navigate the calendar using these keyboard shortcuts:

Ctrl + P: Go to the previous day
Ctrl + N: Go to the next day
Ctrl + T: Go to today

The current time marker (denoted by the red line on the right side of the calendar) is updated every 10 seconds.

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

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.
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

Command	Format, Examples
help	`help [COMMAND]`
add	`add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS [t/TAG]…` e.g., `add n/James Ho p/98765432 e/jamesho@example.com a/123, Clementi Rd, 1234665 t/friend t/colleague`
list	`list [archive/] [all/]` e.g., `list`, `list archive/`, `list all/`
edit	`edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [dob/DATE_OF_BIRTH] [pri/PRIORITY] [income/INCOME] [famsize/FAMILY_SIZE] [r/REMARK] [t/TAG]…` e.g.,`edit 2 n/James Lee e/jameslee@example.com`
find	`find [n/START_OF_NAME]... [a/PART_OF_ADDRESS]... [pri/PRIORITY]... [income/INCOME]...` e.g.,`find n/A n/B a/clementi pri/High`
sort	`sort [name] [address] [priority] [income] [updated]` e.g.,`sort name`
delete	`delete INDEXES` Indexes are the index of the person in the person list e.g., `delete 2,3`
get	`get PARAMETERS` e.g.,`get email phone`
clear	`clear`
addappt	`addappt INDEX date/yyyy-MM-dd from/HH:mm to/HH:mm` e.g., `addappt 1 date/2024-11-08 from/16:00 to/17:00`
listappt	`listappt`
editappt	`editappt INDEX [date/yyyy-MM-dd] [from/HH:mm] [to/HH:mm]` e.g., `editappt 2 from/10:00 to/11:30`
deleteappt	`deleteappt INDEX`
statistics	`statistics` Shows general statistics
scheme	`scheme INDEX` e.g., `scheme 1`
addscheme	`addscheme PERSON_INDEX i/SCHEME_INDEX` e.g., `addscheme 1 i/1`
viewscheme	`viewscheme INDEX` e.g., `viewscheme 1`
deletescheme	`deletescheme PERSON_INDEX i/SCHEME_INDEX` e.g., `deletescheme 1 i/1`
archive	`archive INDEX` e.g., `archive 1`
unarchive	`unarchive INDEX` e.g., `unarchive 1`
undo	`undo`
exit	`exit`

SocialBook User Guide

Quick start

Features

Viewing help: help

Adding a person: add

Listing all persons: list

Editing a person: edit

Finding persons: find

Sorting persons: sort

Deleting people: delete

Getting the parameters of these people: get

Clearing all entries: clear

Adding an appointment: addappt

Listing all appointments: listappt

Editing an appointment: editappt

Deleting an appointment: deleteappt

Displaying overall statistics: statistics

Displaying eligible schemes: scheme

Adding a scheme to a person: addscheme

Viewing schemes attached to a person: viewscheme

Delete a scheme from a person: deletescheme

Archiving a person: archive

Unarchiving a person: unarchive

Undo the previous command: undo

Exiting the program: exit

Saving the data

Editing the data file

Going through entered commands

Calendar

FAQ

Known issues

Command summary

Viewing help: `help`

Adding a person: `add`

Listing all persons: `list`

Editing a person: `edit`

Finding persons: `find`

Sorting persons: `sort`

Deleting people: `delete`

Getting the parameters of these people: `get`

Clearing all entries: `clear`

Adding an appointment: `addappt`

Listing all appointments: `listappt`

Editing an appointment: `editappt`

Deleting an appointment: `deleteappt`

Displaying overall statistics: `statistics`

Displaying eligible schemes: `scheme`

Adding a scheme to a person: `addscheme`

Viewing schemes attached to a person: `viewscheme`

Delete a scheme from a person: `deletescheme`

Archiving a person: `archive`

Unarchiving a person: `unarchive`

Undo the previous command: `undo`

Exiting the program: `exit`