Teacher’s Address Book (TAB) is a desktop app made for teachers, teaching assistants(TA) and professors for managing contacts of each other, as well as their students, 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, TAB can get your contact management tasks done faster than traditional GUI apps.

TAs and Professors are now taking on more roles in different modules. As such, TAB allows the creation of multiple addressbooks which can be used to store the contact information of each specific module, which leads to neater organisation of contacts.

Quick start

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

  2. Download the latest TAB.jar from here.

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

  4. Double-click the file to start the app. The GUI similar to the 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 pos/Student a/John street, block 123, #01-01 t/CS2103T-T17 : Adds a contact named John Doe to TAB.

    • 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.

:bulb: Tip: For teachers who are teaching more than one module, please use one TAB for each module. Refer to relevant commands to see how you can create new TAB and swap between existing TABs.

Features

:information_source: Notes about the command format:

  • All commands are case sensitive
  • All tokenizers are case sensitive

  • 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. edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] can be used as edit 1 n/John Doe a/Jurong or as n/John Doe.

  • 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.

  • If a parameter 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.

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

Viewing help : help

Launches the user guide in a browser window.

User Guide

Format: help

:bulb: Tip: This can also be done by clicking Help or pressing F1 on the keyboard.

Adding a person: add

Adds a person to TAB.

Format: add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL pos/POSITION a/ADDRESS t/MODULE-GROUP

:bulb: Tip: A teaching assistant or professor can have more than one tag. A student can only have one tag. Format of parameters:

  • NAME: Alphanumerical
  • PHONE_NUMBER: Numerical
  • Email: local-part@domain
    • local-part: Alphanumerical and the following special characters, excluding the parentheses, (+_.-)
    • domain: The domain name must:
      • end with a domain label at least 2 characters long
      • have each domain label start and end with alphanumeric characters
      • have each domain label consist of alphanumeric characters, separated only by hyphens, if any.
  • Position: Student, TA, or Professor (case-insensitive)
  • Address: Any value, but cannot be blank
  • Tags: {Alphanumeric Module}-{Alphanumeric Tutorial group}

Adds a new contact with the provided details. Required fields include name, phone number, address, email, position, and tag. Tags represent the module and tutorial group a person is associated with and must be in the format of module-tutorial group.

Examples:

  • add n/Alex Yeoh p/87438807 e/alexyeoh@example.com pos/Student a/Blk 30 Geylang Street 29, #06-40 t/CS2103T-T17
  • add n/Betsy Crowe p/92498754 e/betsycrowe@example.com pos/TA a/Blk 30 Lorong 3 Serangoon Gardens, #07-18 t/CS2103T-T17

Listing all persons : list

Shows a list of all persons in TAB.

Format: list

Displaying the details of a person : show

Shows the detailed information of a person.

General displayed information are:

  • Name
  • Position
  • Phone
  • Email
  • Tags
  • Address
  • Remarks

There are also additional information unique to each role

Professors:

  • Roles: Coordinator, Tutor, Lecturer, Advisor or Unassigned

TA:

  • Availability: Available or Unavailable

Student

  • Attendance: represented as a fraction e.g. 9/10
  • Grade: represented as a fraction. This grade is the overall grade calculated from the list of already graded Assignments.

  • Graph containing each Assignment and their scores(only if their grade has been updated) Format: show INDEX

  • Shows the detailed information 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, …​
:bulb: Tip: If you cannot see all the added assignments in the graph, simply enlarge your tab!

Examples:

  • show 3 shows the detailed information of the 3rd person in TAB.
:bulb: Tip: This can also be done by clicking on the person.

Editing a person : edit

Edits an existing person in TAB.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL]

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.
  • Editing of Tags and Position are not allowed.

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 edits the name of the 2nd person to be Betsy Crower

Adding a remark : remark

Adds or edits a remark of an existing person in TAB.

Format: remark INDEX r/REMARK

Modifies a remark of a 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, …​

  • A person can have at most 1 remark.
  • When editing remark, the existing remark of the person will be removed i.e. adding of remarks is not cumulative.
  • You can remove the person’s remark field by typing r/ without specifying any message after it.

Examples:

  • remark 1 r/Interested to be a TA edits the remark field of the 1st person to be Interested to be a TA.
  • remark 2 r/remark_one r/remark_two edits the remark field of the 2nd person to be remark_two and not remark_one.
  • remark 3 r/ clears the remark field of the 3rd person.

Editing the attendance of a student : attendance

Edits the attendance of an existing student in TAB.

Format: attendance INDEX attendance/ATTENDANCE

Edits the attendance of the person (whose position must be student) 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:

  • attendance 1 attendance/10/13 edits the attendance of the 1st person to be 10/13.

Adding assignments to all students : assignments

Adds assignments to all students in the TAB.

Format: assignments assignments/ ASSIGNMENT_1 w/ASSIGNMENT_1_WEIGHTAGE, ASSIGNMENT_2 w/ASSIGNMENT_2_WEIGHTAGE…​

  • The assignments are added to all students in the TAB. Students that are added to the TAB afterwards will automatically be instantiated with the assignments.
  • There must at least be one student inside TAB when running this command. The command will fail otherwise.
  • The weightage of the assignments must be integers that add up to 100%. The command will fail otherwise.
  • At most 10 assignments can be added.

Examples:

  • assignments assignments/ Assignment 1 w/15, Assignment 2 w/15, Midterms w/30, Finals w/40 adds Assignment 1: 15% weightage, Assignment 2: 15% weightage, Midterms: 30% weightage, and Finals: 40% weightage to all students in the TAB.
  • assignments assignments/ Assignment 1 w/20 Finals w/15 will fail as the weightage does not add up to 100%.

Editing the grade of a student : grade

Edits a student’s grade of an assignment of in TAB.

Format: grade INDEX assignment/INDEX grade/GRADE

Edits the grade of an assignment of the person (whose position must be student) at the specified INDEX. The first index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list. The second index refers to the index of the assignment to be edited as shown in the assignment list of the specified student. Grade must follow the format [integer]/[integer]

The indices must be positive integers 1, 2, 3, …​

  • The grade shown on the detail page of a student represent the overall grade that the student has achieved, calculated based on the grade and weightage of each assignment.

Examples:

  • grade 2 assignment/1 grade/68/80 edits the grade of the 1st assignment of the 2nd person (whose position is student) to be 68/80.
  • grade 1 assignment/1 grade/68/80 will fail if the position of the 1st person in the displayed person list is not a student.

Editing the availability of a TA : avail

Edits the availability of an existing TA in TAB. Availabilities are case-insensitive.

Format: avail INDEX avail/AVAILABILITY

Edits the availability of the person (whose position must be TA) 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:

  • avail 1 avail/Available edits the availability of the 1st person to be Available.

Editing the roles of a Professor : roles

Edits the roles of an existing professor in TAB.

Format: roles INDEX roles/ROLE

Edits the roles of the person (whose position must be professor) 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, …​ Roles are case-insensitive

  • Each professor may only have 1 role

Examples:

  • roles 1 roles/Coordinator edits the roles of the 1st person(must be a professor) to be Coordinator.

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 alex david returns Alex Yeoh, David Li
    result for 'find alex david'

Filtering persons by tag: filter

Filters persons with the specified tag.

Format: filter TAG

  • The search is case-insensitive. e.g. cs2103t-t17 will match CS2103T-T17
  • Only full word will be matched. e.g. CS2103T will not match CS2103T-T17

Examples:

  • filter CS2103T-T17 returns persons with the tag CS2103T-T17
  • filter CS2103T returns no result.

Deleting a person : delete

Deletes the specified person from the TAB.

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

Clearing all entries : clear

Clears all entries from the TAB.

Format: clear

Creating new TAB : new

Creates a new TAB and automatically swaps to the newly created data file.
There can be a maximum of 5 books. Format: new

:bulb: Tip: This can also be done by clicking File - New Book

Swapping between TABs : swap

Swaps between existing TABs.

Format: swap

:bulb: Tip: This can also be done by clicking File - Swap Book

Renaming the data file : rename

Renames the current data file.

Format: rename {NEW_NAME}

Renames the current data file as the NEW_NAME in lowercase

  • NEW_NAME only accepts alphanumeric, ‘-‘ and ‘_’ characters.

Example:

  • rename cs2103t renames the current data file as cs2103t.json

Saving the data

TAB 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

TAB data is saved as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/addressbook.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, TAB will discard all data and start with an empty data file at the next run.

Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

:bulb: Tip: This can also be done by clicking File - Exit.

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 TAB home folder.

Q: Why is editing of Position restricted?
A: TAB depicts the addressbook of a certain module at a certain period of time. Positions within TAB should be consistent in that time frame. For example, it would not make sense for a Student to become a Professor.

Q: Why is editing of Tags restricted?
A: AB depicts the addressbook of a certain module at a certain period of time. Tags represent the module and tutorial group of a students. If a student were to drop the module halfway, he should be removed from TAB instead using the delete feature.

Q: Why should there be only Persons from one module in each addressbook? This is a big limitation!
A: Not really. By only allowing Persons from one module in each addressbook, it ensures that your TAB is neat and streamlined. If you want to keep contacts across modules, please create a new TAB by using our new and swap features.

Q: I just created a new book and nothing changed?
A: The new TAB’s name appears at the bottom left corner.

FAQ_Identify_New_Book

Q: How do I properly delete a TAB once I created it?
A: To delete a created TAB here are the steps to follow:

:exclamation: Caution: If there is only one TAB, do not follow the steps below! Use the clear command instead!
  • Step 1:
    • From the data directory, delete the .json file you like to remove
  • Step 2:
    • From the preferences.json, delete the same .json file from the allAddressBookFilePath parameter.

Case By Case Basis:

  • Step 3: (Only if "addressBookFilePath" has the same name as the TAB you want to delete)
    • If the .json file is also addressBookFilePath, swap it for the first TAB under allAddressBookFilePath and set addressBookIndex to 0

:information_source: Example:

Here I would like to delete a TAB named addressbook

  • Step 1:
    Go into data folder and delete addressbook.json
      Before:
     delete_step_1a.png

     After:
     delete_step_1b.png

Step 2:

  • Open preferences.json
  • Remove , "data\\addressbook.json" from "allAddressBookFilePath"
     Before:  delete_step_2a.png

     After:  delete_step_2b.png
    Save the file and you are done!

Case By Case Basis:
Step 3: (if "addressBookFilePath" has the same name as the TAB you want to delete):

  • Remove both addressbook.json
     Before:  delete_step_3a.png

     After:  delete_step_3b.png

  • Copy the first TAB name from "allAddressBookFilePath", paste into "addressBookFilePath" and change "addressBookIndex" to 0.
     It should look something like this. (Note the changes in green)  delete_step_3c.png

    Save the file and you are done!

Command summary

Action Format, Examples
Help help
Add add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS pos/ POSITION [t/TAG]…​
e.g., add n/Alex Yeoh p/87438807 e/alexyeoh@example.com pos/Student a/Blk 30 Geylang Street 29, #06-40 t/CS2103T-T17
List list
Show show INDEX
e.g., show 2
Edit edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS]…​
e.g.,edit 2 n/James Lee e/jameslee@example.com
Remark remark INDEX r/REMARK
e.g., remark 1 r/Interested to be a TA
Attendance attendance INDEX attendance/ATTENDANCE
e.g., attendance 1 attendance/10/13
Assignments assignments assignments/ASSIGNMENT_1 w/ASSIGNMENT_1_WEIGHTAGE, ASSIGNMENT_2 w/ASSIGNMENT_2_WEIGHTAGE…​
e.g., assignments assignments/Assignment 1 w/15, Assignment 2 w/15, Midterms w/30, Finals w/40
Grade grade INDEX assignment/INDEX grade/GRADE
e.g., grade 2 assignment/1 grade/68/80
Availability avail INDEX avail/AVAILABILITY
e.g., avail 1 avail/Available
Roles roles INDEX roles/ROLE
e.g., roles 1 roles/Coordinator
Find find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]
e.g., find James Jake
Filter filter TAG
e.g., filter CS2103T-T17
Delete delete INDEX
e.g., delete 3
Clear clear
New new
Swap swap
Rename rename {NEW_NAME}
e.g., rename CS2103T
Exit exit