NetworkUS is a desktop app for organizing contacts. It features seamless group management, allowing for quick searches of contacts with desired traits (i.e specialization) and hence project group formation. It is catered for Computer Science Students. The app is optimized for the Command Line Interface (CLI) to allow swift access for keyboard users. The app is also complemented with Graphical User Interface (GUI) to display the program.

Before you read

This user guide is for users who want to use NetworkUS for their daily use or developer who wants to find out what this app does before contributing to the project. This user guide will guide you on how to use NetworkUS to manage your contacts.

How to use the guide

If this is the first time you are using NetworkUS, please refer to the quick start section to set up and start using NetworkUS.

If you are looking for a general overview of the commands refer to the command summary section.

If you are unclear of what the command formats mean in the various explanations refer to the features section.

If you are unsure of the meaning of any terms within this user guide, please refer to the glossary.

To jump to any particular section please refer to the table of contents found at the top of this guide.

Quick start

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

  2. Download the latest networkus.jar from here.

  3. Copy the file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for your NetworkUS app.

  4. Double-click the file to start the app. The GUI 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: Lists all contacts.

    • addn/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com: Adds a contact named John Doe to the NetworkUS.

    • delete3: 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.

User Interface

User Interface

The image above shows the UI Components:

  1. Menu Bar: shows the ‘Help’ and ‘Show Alias’ option.
  2. Command Bar: location for entering commands.
  3. Result Display: shows result feedback from commands.
  4. Contact List: shows the current contacts.
  5. Footer: shows file path of the storage file and the total number of contacts.

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

  • If a parameter with prefix is expected only once in the command but you specified it multiple times, only the last occurrence of the parameter will be taken.
    e.g. if you specify p/12341234 p/56785678, only p/56785678 will be taken.

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

  • INDEXES allows multiple INDEX to be entered with each INDEX being separated with a space.
    e.g. if you specify tag 1 2 3 cs2030, it will tag first, second and third contacts in the displayed contacts list.

Viewing help: help

Provides functionality to access the help page in the browser.

help message

Format: help
Keyboard shortcut alternative: f1 then press enter

Adding a contact: add

Adds a contact to the list of contacts. You cannot add duplicate contacts in the contact book.

Format: add n/NAME [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [g/GITHUB_USERNAME] [l/LINKEDIN] [d/DETAIL] [t/TAG]…​

:bulb: Tip:
* A contact can have any number of tags (including 0)
* View the duplicate-detection section to find out what is considered as a duplicate contact.
* View the valid-field section to find out what is considered as valid field.

Examples:

  • add n/Johnny Sim p/91234567
  • add n/Betsy Crowe t/friend e/betsycrowe@example.com p/1234567 t/criminal g/lovelyprisoner

Listing all contacts: list

Shows a list of all contacts in the global contacts and the total number of contacts.

Format: list

Editing a contact: edit

Edits an existing contact in the list of contacts.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [g/GITHUB_USERNAME] [l/LINKEDIN] [d/DETAIL] [t/TAG]…​

  • Edits the contact at the specified INDEX. The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed contacts 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 contact will be replaced.
  • You can remove all the contact’s tags by typing t/ without specifying any tags after it. The same applies for description d/.
  • Edited contact should not result in duplicate contacts in the contact book.

Examples:

  • edit 1 p/91234567 e/johndoe@example.com Edits the phone number and email address of the 1st contact to be 91234567 and johndoe@example.com respectively.
  • edit 2 n/Betsy Crower t/ Edits the name of the 2nd contact to be Betsy Crower and clears all existing tags.
  • edit 2 p/ g/ Removes the phone number and github user of the 2nd contact.
:bulb: Tip:
* You can remove specified fields by typing the field’s prefix only. This applies for all fields except Name.
* View the duplicate-detection section to find out what is considered as a duplicate contact.
* View the valid-field section to find out what is considered as valid field.

Finding contacts: find

Find contacts whose names or tags contain any of the given keywords from the list of contacts.

Format: find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

  • The command is not case-sensitive, find john will match John
  • Currently, only the name and their tags are searched.
  • Contacts whose names or tags match at least one keyword will be returned. find john smith will return John Fletcher and Smith George

Examples:

  • find John will return john, John Doe and Aaron john
  • find jonas aaron silva will return jonas, Aaron john and Ann Silva
  • find friends will return anyone whose names or tags have the word friends in them

Opening a field of a contact: open

Opens the LinkedIn/Github page from details of field specified of a particular contact from the NetworkUS contacts.

Format: open INDEXES FIELD

  • The index contained in indexes refers to the index number shown in the displayed contacts list.
  • The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
  • The Field must be github or linkedin

Examples:

  • list followed by open 2 3 4 github opens the Github page of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th contact of the displayed contacts list.
  • find Betsy followed by open 1 linkedin opens the LinkedIn page of the 1st contact in the results of the find command
:exclamation: Caution: This will redirect you to a web browser with the requested LinkedIn/Github page.

Deleting a contact: delete

Deletes the specified contact from the NetworkUS contacts.

Format: delete INDEX

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

Examples:

  • list followed by delete 2 deletes the 2nd contact in the displayed contacts list.
  • find Betsy followed by delete 1 deletes the 1st contact in the results of the find command.

Showing contact: show

Shows the specified contact’s full contact information in a separate window. Will show any truncated details or fields that are too long.

show window

Format: show INDEX

  • Index must be the index that is in the currently visible list.

Example:

  • show 1 will show the full details of the contact with the specified index.

Clearing all entries: clear

Clears all entries from the global contacts list.

Format: clear

:exclamation: Caution: This will clear all contacts data in NetworkUS !

Exiting the program: exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Tagging features

You can use tags to categorize your contacts as you wish. You can tag them based on their modules taken, field of specialization or personality. This would help when you want to find suitable teammate for projects, assignments, or hackathons. For instance, you can tag certain contacts with OS to indicate that the person has a specialization in operating systems. You can then find all contacts that have a specialization in OS by using the command find OS. The following are details of the tagging-related commands.

Tagging contacts: tag

Tags the specified contacts from the NetworkUS contacts with the specified tag.

Format: tag INDEXES TAG

  • Tags the contacts at the specified INDEXES.
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed contacts list.
  • The indexes must be positive integers 1, 2, 3, …​
  • Tag must consist of letters and/or numbers without spaces.
  • Will not add duplicate tags to contacts.

Examples:

  • list followed by tag 1 2 programmer tags the 1st and 2nd contacts in the global contacts list with a programmer tag.
  • find John followed by tag 1 2 programmer tags the 1st and 2nd contacts in the results of the find command with a programmer tag.

Tagging displayed contacts: tagall

Tags all displayed contacts in the NetworkUS contacts with the specified tag.

Format: tagall TAG

  • Tags all displayed contacts with the specified TAG.
  • Will not add duplicate tags and will run successfully even if all displayed contacts already have the tag.
  • The tag must consist of letters and/or numbers without spaces e.g. programmer, CS2103T

Examples:

  • list followed by tagall programmer tags all contacts in the global contacts list with the tag programmer.
  • find Alex followed by tagall CS2103T tags all contacts in the results of the find command with the tag CS2103T.

Untagging contacts: untag

Delete the specified tag from the specified contact from the NetworkUS contacts.

Format: untag INDEXES TAG

  • Deletes the tag from the contact at the specified INDEXES.
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed contacts list.
  • The indexes must be positive integers 1, 2, 3, …​
  • Tag must consist of letters and/or numbers without spaces.

Example:

  • list followed by untag 1 2 friend deletes friend tag from 1st and 2nd contacts in the global contacts list.
  • find John followed by untag 1 2 friend deletes friend tag from the 1st and 2nd contacts in the results of the find command.

Untagging displayed contacts: untagall

Deletes the specified tag from all displayed contacts in NetworkUS.

Format: untagall TAG

  • Deletes specified TAG from all displayed contacts.
  • Tag must consist of letters and/or numbers without spaces.

Example:

  • list followed by untagall CS2040 deletes CS2040 tag from all global contacts.

Replace tag from all contacts: replacetag

Replaces the specified tag from all displayed contacts in NetworkUS with a new tag.

Format: replacetag TAG1 TAG2

  • Replaces TAG1 with TAG2 for all contacts.
  • TAG1 is the tag to be replaced.
  • TAG2 is the new tag to replace TAG1.
  • Tags must consist of letters and/or numbers without spaces.

Example:

  • list followed by replacetag CS2040 CS2030 replaces CS2040 tag to CS2030 tag from all global contacts.

Showing tags: showtags

Shows all tags that are used in NetworkUS contacts.

Format: showtags

Alias Features

Alias helps you create more customized commands. You can shorten the existing commands, or even completely rename it with other names. Here are example use cases of alias:

  • Create tag -A as an alias for tagall command
  • Create tag -D as an alias for untag command

The following are details of the alias-related commands

Aliasing commands: alias

Creates an alias for existing NetworkUS command.

Format: alias COMMAND ALIAS

  • Creates an alias ALIAS for command COMMAND.
  • ALIAS can contain spaces, but cannot be empty.
  • COMMAND must be an existing command in NetworkUS (e.g. list, tagall, untag, etc.)
  • Aliases that you create will be saved.
  • NetworkUS only replace your input with corresponding commands if the alias matches the prefix word(s) of your input.
    • For example: the alias tag -A will match the command tag -A parameter, but tag -AD parameter will not be matched even though tag -A matches the prefix of words tag -AD.
  • NetworkUS will check the longest matching alias in your input and change it with the corresponding command.
    • For example: Suppose that you have created two aliases:
      • tag -A as command tagall
      • tag -A -D as command untagall
    • The command tag -A -D OS will be replaced as untagall OS because the longest matching alias that matches the prefix word is tag -A -D.

Example:

  • alias tagall tag -A will create an alias tag -A for the tagall command, allowing tag -A to represent tagall.
  • alias tagall tag will throw an error as tag is an existing NetworkUS command. You cannot create alias as an existing command name.
  • alias notACommand tag -A will throw an error as notACommand is not an existing NetworkUS command. You are only able to create an alias for existing commands.
  • alias tag add n/Your Name will create alias add n/Your Name for the tag command. Note that this kind of alias is not recommended. See the caution section.
:exclamation: Caution: Use it carefully. You are encouraged to create appropriate aliases. Refrain from creating alias that resembles existing command syntax, such as create alias add n/Your Name as any tag or add or any other commands. NetworkUS will not handle these cases for you.

Showing saved aliases: showalias

Shows all aliases stored in the user preferences in a new window.

show alias window

Format: showalias Keyboard Shortcut: F2

Example:

  • showalias will show the aliases in a new window.

Dealiasing commands: deletealias

Deletes an existing alias.

Format: deletealias ALIAS

  • Deletes the specified alias.
  • ALIAS must be an existing alias in NetworkUS.

Example:

  • deletealias tag -A will remove the alias tag -A.

Data Storage

Saving the data

Contact list 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

Contact data is saved as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/contactbook.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, NetworkUS will discard all data and start with an empty data file the next time its run.

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 ContactBook home folder.

Q: How do I import existing contacts to NetworkUS?
A: Unfortunately, NetworkUS does not support importing contact from external sources. You have to put in the contacts one by one.

Q: Any tips on managing my contacts?
A: You can tag your contacts with their fields of expertise, personalities, etc. You can use the find command to find contacts with desired traits.

Q: How can I work faster?
A: You can alias an existing commands with a shorter alias. Example: ta for the tagall command.

Q: Can non CS students use this application?
A: Yes. While the fields and functionalities for this release are designed for CS students, anyone can use it to store contacts as a generic contact book management software.

Q: Why is the data stored offline?
A: Ease of storage accessibility and security reasons.

Q: Can I use NetworkUS on my mobile phone?
A: NetworkUS can only be used on Java-supported mobile phones.

Q: Why are my alias preferences empty / not updating?
A: Try moving the NetworkUS app to a new empty folder and running the jar file again.

Q: How do I form a group using the app?
A: You can group contacts together under the same tag by using the tag function and specifying their indexes.

Q: Why can’t I make an alias using some specific words?
A: Refer to the section on examples under the alias command to see what words are not available for use as an alias.

Miscellaneous

Duplicate detection

Checked fields: Phone, Email, Github and Linkedin

A contact is considered a duplicate in any of the below cases:

  • All of that contact’s Checked fields are empty, and there is another contact with the same name and also having all their Checked fields empty.
  • That contact has the same name as another contact, and also at least one identical non-empty Checked field.
:exclamation: Note: The equality check for the names of 2 contacts disregards capitalization and spaces in the names being compared.

Valid Fields

Below are the requirements for what constitutes as valid for the fields in NetworkUS.

Field Format, Examples
Name Only letters and/or numbers and spaces
e.g., Sam Yeo
Tag Letters and/or numbers without spaces
e.g., CS2103T , programmer
Phone Only numbers at least 3 digits long
e.g., 999 , 62353535
Email local-part + @ + domain-name
local-part contains letters, numbers and special characters excluding + - _ ., cannot start or end with special characters
domain-name consists of domain labels seperated by periods
domain labels consist of at least 2 letters and/or numbers
domain labels excluding the last domain label can have non-consecutive hyphens but cannot start or end with a hyphen
e.g., berniceyu@example.com
Github Only letters, numbers and hyphens
Cannot start or end with a hyphen or have multiple consecutive hyphens
Has a maximum length of 39 characters
e.g., Alexio
LinkedIn Any valid LinkedIn URL
e.g., https://www.linkedin.com/in/benson/
Details Anything you can type in
e.g., Quite literally anything you can type in.

Valid index

An index is valid if it is a positive integer.
Example of valid indexes: 1, 2, 3, …
Example of invalid indexes: -1, 0, *, +1, …

Glossary

Displayed contacts

All contacts displayed in NetworkUS application.

Most of the commands in NetworkUS act on the currently viewable list. Thus, whenever there are mentions of Index used in Commands it refers to the index of the currently displayed contacts list.

Here delete 3 will delete “Charlotte Oliviero”
Original

Here delete 3 will show an error message as 3 is not shown (Even though it is in the original list). filtered

:exclamation: Caution: Most NetworkUS commands will execute on displayed contacts.

Global contacts

All contacts that are stored in the NetworkUS.

Field

A field is specific information of a contact in NetworkUS’s contact list like phone number.

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)

JSON is the file format that NetworkUS uses to store the contacts.

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

A GUI is an interface that uses visual indicator to interact with the system.

Command Line Interface (CLI)

A CLI is a text-based interface that uses text input to interact with the system.

Command

A command is an instruction that you can use in NetworkUS to perform a certain task.

Prefix

Prefixes are unique identifiers in front of parameters which are used by NetworkUS to identify which fields the values belong to.

Alias

Aliases are alternative words that you can use to represent the standard commands that NetworkUS uses.

Command summary

Action Format, Examples
Add add n/NAME [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [g/GITHUB_USERNAME] [l/LINKEDIN] [d/DETAIL] [t/TAG]…​
e.g., add n/James Ho p/22224444 e/jamesho@example.com t/friend t/colleague
Alias alias COMMAND ALIAS
e.g., alias tagall tag -A
Clear clear
Delete delete INDEX
e.g., delete 3
Delete alias deletealias ALIAS
e.g., deletealias tag -A
Edit edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [g/GITHUB_USERNAME] [l/LINKEDIN] [d/DETAIL] [t/TAG]…​
e.g.,edit 2 n/James Lee e/jameslee@example.com
Find find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]
e.g., find James Jake
Help help
Open open INDEXES FIELD
e.g., open 1 linkedin
List list
Replace tag replacetag TAG1 TAG2
e.g., replacetag friend enemy
Show alias showalias
Show tags showtags
Tag tag INDEXES TAG
e.g., tag 1 2 programmer
Tag all tagall TAG
e.g., tagall programmer
Untag untag INDEXES TAG
e.g., untag 1 2 friend
Untag all untagall TAG
e.g., untagall friend