Welcome to CoDoc, a desktop app for students in NUS to connect with each other for the benefit of their course of study.

CoDoc is optimized for use via your Command Line Interface (CLI) while still having the benefits of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). If you can type fast, CoDoc can get your contact management tasks done faster than traditional GUI apps.

CoDoc is more than just a traditional contact management app. Save useful information such as modules taken or skills possessed by a person to greatly improve your networking experience.

Spend less time keeping track of your contacts or searching through chats, and more time making meaningful connections and accomplishing your goals!

:bulb: Tip: For first-time users, we heavily recommend going through the Quick Start to familiarize yourself with CoDoc.

Table of Contents

Before you start using CoDoc, you are recommended to read the Glossary, Quick Start and the Notes about the command format sections, which will provide the necessary information to allow you to familiarise yourself with the structure of this User Guide and help you navigate it with ease.

If you are first time users of CoDoc, we highly recommend that you read through the entire user guide in order to become familiar with CoDoc and to gain the most out of your experience.

We have provided a quick tutorial on how to download and install CoDoc, how to make sense of the interface, as well as how to properly use each command.

:information_source: Note: It is important to note that the command summary is meant for experienced users who happen to forget the commands. All first time users are recommended to read through the entire user guide.

If you are proficient with the command types and are looking for a quick summary of our commands, you may jump to our Command Summary that contains relevant examples.

If you are looking for a detailed explanation of each individual command, you may jump to the Commands Section. Each command is complete with:

  1. What the command does
  2. The format of the command
  3. Examples of the command
  4. Picture of the command in action
  5. Any additional tips or warnings

If you have questions regarding storing of information, you may proceed to our Data Management Section.

Should you have more questions, you may proceed to our FAQ. We hope it will be sufficient to clarify your doubts.

Whenever you are in doubt, forget the command formats for any feature, need help troubleshooting, or you simply want to maximise your use of this application, do remember to revisit this User Guide. Thank you for choosing CoDoc, and we hope you have a pleasant experience :+1:

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Glossary

Terminology Meaning / Purpose
Command Line Interface (CLI) A way for users to interact with a piece of software via text in the form of commands where users enter a specific command, press "Enter" and wait for a response.
Graphical User Interface (GUI) A way for users to interact with a piece of software via visual elements instead of entering commands
Index An identifier that corresponds to an option. For CoDoc, index are used when selecting courses and contacts—where the index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, ...—or navigation of tabs—where the index can be c, m, or s.
Prefix An identifier that indicates which field our input is meant for. It is denoted by a letter or symbol followed by a slash /. E.g. n/ indicates name, c/ indicates course, m+/ indicates addition of a module, s-/ indicates deletion of a skill.
Parameter An input that you as the user, will give to the command. These can be in the form of numbers or text. Some commands take in a parameter after the prefix while some don't require a prefix at all.
:information_source: Note
 To inform you of relevant information that might be useful to take note of as a user.
:bulb: Tip
 To provide you with relevant suggestions on how to use the commands as well as address potential confusions when using these commands.
:exclamation: Caution
 To inform you of some unintended or unexpected consequences that may occur when you use the commands.

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Quick Start

First time using CoDoc? Welcome aboard! Follow the steps below to familiarize yourself with CoDoc.

Download and Installation

Before you can use CoDoc, you need to download it. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Ensure you have Java 11 or above installed in your Computer.
    • If not, you can download it from here


  2. Download the latest version of codoc.jar here, where you will be redirected to our GitHub Releases page. Find the latest release and download the latest version.


    image


  3. Copy the file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for CoDoc.
    For example,
    1. Create a new folder where you want CoDoc to be (Desktop, My Documents…anywhere you wish)—this folder will then be the home folder.
    2. Place codoc.jar into the newly created folder.

  4. Launch CoDoc.

    • For users familiar with command terminal:
      1. cd into the folder you put the jar file in (home folder).
      2. java -jar codoc.jar to launch the application.
      3. CoDoc should launch in a few seconds.
    • For Windows users who prefer clicking in folder to launch:
      1. Create a .bat file in the folder you put the jar file in (home folder).
      2. Write java -jar codoc.jar into the .bat file.
      3. Click on the .bat file and CoDoc should launch in a few seconds.

    For a more detailed guide with examples, refer to How to Open CoDoc For Windows or How to Open CoDoc For Mac

If you have managed to complete all steps, congratulations! You should be seeing CoDoc application launched in its factory state as shown below.

Ui-minimised

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If it’s your first time using this program, the starting screen could seem a little overwhelming. Not to worry, let’s familiarize ourselves with the different parts of the CoDoc interface together. We recommend maximizing the program window to have a clearer view. This way you can see more content as well.

Below is the breakdown of the CoDoc screen:

navigation

  • Menu Bar: if you ever feel stuck, you can always click on the Help button here or enter help in the command box.
  • Command Box: this is where you can type in commands.
  • Result Display: shows the result of a command that you have executed.
  • Person List Panel: here are your contacts in CoDoc.
  • Course List Panel: you can refer to this list when adding a person.
  • Info Panel: displays information about a selected person, such as their contact details, modules, and skills, which are presented as tabs.

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CoDoc Tutorial: Your first steps

Now that you know how to navigate CoDoc, we recommend you try the following steps to familiarize with available features of CoDoc.

1. Adding a person

You probably notice a list of contacts already into the database. How can I add one on my own?

Let’s say you got to know Bob in school and want to add him to CoDoc. You find out that Bob, is a year 2 student, taking Computer Science and his email address is e0823741@u.nus.edu. Here is how you can use CoDoc’s Add command to do so:

In the command box, enter the command add n/Bob y/2 c/6 e/e0823741@u.nus.edu and press the enter key. This will add a new person named Bob to our contact list.

adding-bob

After executing the command, we see that Bob has been added below the list.

Understanding the Command: As you can see, we first specified the add command, followed by the prefix n/ and the name that we want to add i.e. Bob. The same goes for the year, course and email. This n/ and Bob pair, is the prefix and parameter pair that occurs frequently in other commands too. Refer to Glossary for more info.

:exclamation: Caution: You must specify minimally, the person's name, email, year and course when adding a person.

You may have noticed we entered c/6 and wonder why the parameter for course was 6 instead of Computer Science.

To save time typing out the full course and also standardize formatting, we have coded the command so that you just have to type its index as the parameter, which you can refer to the Course List Panel to identify.

If you want to, you can add additional details of the person such as GitHub username, LinkedIn profile URL, modules and skills.

Related: Adding a person: add

:information_source: Note: Profile pictures shown here might not be identical to yours as they are randomised.


2. Viewing a person

Now that you have added Bob into CoDoc, you can view his details by using the View command. This will load Bob’s details into the Info Panel.

To do so, let’s first identify Bob’s index. From the Person List Panel, we can tell that Bob is numbered 8 in this example. This is his index. Now enter view 8 into the command box. His contact details will then be shown in the Info Panel.

viewing-bob

You may try loading another person’s details by using different index (e.g. view 2).

:bulb: Tip: CoDoc also supports GUI, so you can just click the person in the list to view his details.

Remember that we said CoDoc offers more than just a traditional contact management app? So far, you have only viewed the detailed contacts tab, showing basic contact details.

Now let’s try viewing other tabs in Info Panel. To do so, enter view m in the command box. This will show Bob’s modules taken under detailed modules tab.

viewing-bobs-modules

Note that you do not see anything of value, and that is because we have not added any modules Bob has taken so far (don’t worry, we will show how you can add onto this list below).

You can enter view s as well to view Bob’s skills to see a similar empty list, or enter view c to go back to Bob’s contact information.

:bulb: Tips: CoDoc also supports GUI, so you can click on the name of different tabs to switch between tabs.

Related: Viewing a person/Changing tabs: view


3. Editing a person’s details

To use CoDoc to its fullest potential, you can add Bob’s modules taken or skills possessed to the database.

Let’s say you met Bob while taking CS2101 and CS2103T modules. To update this information in the database, you can use CoDoc’s Edit command.

First make sure that Bob is shown in the right panel using the View command. In this example, we can enter view 8 to do so.

Why is this step necessary?: Editing only works on the person shown in the info panel. Make sure you are viewing the correct person with the View command (or with a click) before you enter the Edit command.

After you see Bob in the Info Panel, enter edit m/ay2223s2 cs2101 m/ay2223s2 cs2103t in the command box.

editing-bobs-modules

You can now see that Bob’s list of modules taken has been updated to contain modules CS2101 and CS2103T (enter view m if you’re not on the modules tab).

:bulb: Tip: You do not have to be on modules tab to edit it as long as you are viewing the correct person (i.e. you can be viewing Bob's contacts as you add modules). However, switching to modules tab will definitely make it easy for you to edit modules taken!

If you want to save the hassle of editing modules only after adding a person, you can include them in the initial Add command to do so.

As the name suggests, Edit command is capable of editing other details of the person such as name, year, GitHub username, etc. Use this to fix your mistakes or update your database as you progress your studies!

Related: Adding a person: add, Viewing a person: view, Editing a person: edit


4. Finding a person

You have been using CoDoc for months and have expanded the database greatly. You realize that finding a person in the contacts is getting increasingly difficult and wishes there is an easier way to do so.

That is exactly what CoDoc’s Find command is for! Use this to filter people in the contacts.

Let’s try to find people that are taking/have taken CS2103T. To do so, we have to first clear existing filters if they have been applied. We can do this by entering list into the command box. This shows us all existing contacts in CoDoc.

Then enter find m/cs2103t. This will make Person List Panel show only the people who have CS2103T in their module list. On successful execution, you will see something like below.

finding-cs2103t

If you tried the examples for previous commands, Bob would be shown as well.

Our find command is pretty powerful; it works for other attributes, like year, skills, etc. and you can find by multiple attributes. To learn more, look at Finding a person: find.

Related docs: Finding a person: find, Listing all persons/Resetting filters: list

Congrats! You have completed the tutorial 🎉

The pre-existing contacts are just examples for you to mess with. When you are ready, enter clear in the command box to clear all contacts and start off with a fresh database.

:exclamation: Caution: Be careful when using the clear command, it will not ask twice before wiping your database!

If you need more info on the usage of each command, refer to the relevant sections below.

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Notes about the command format

  • Words in UPPER_CASE are the parameters to be supplied by you.
    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 [s/SKILL] can be used as n/John Doe s/Python or as n/John Doe.
  • Items with …​ after them can be used multiple times including zero times.
    e.g. [m/MODULE]…​ can be used as ` ` (i.e. 0 times), m/AY2223S2 CS2103T, m/AY2122S1 CS1101S m/AY2223S2 CS2103T etc.
  • Parameters can be in any order.
    e.g. if the command specifies n/NAME e/EMAIL, e/EMAIL 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 g/johnny g/john, only g/john 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.

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Commands

Here is a list of available commands and its details.

1. Viewing help : help

Forgotten the commands? Open the help menu!

help

:information_source: Note: Equivalent to clicking Help > Help F1 via the GUI.

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2. Adding a person : add

Met a new friend? Add their contact into your CoDoc application!

There are compulsory parameters that must be specified to create the new contact. Once the person has been created, the result display will show a confirmation message and the person can be seen at the bottom of the person list panel.

add n/NAME e/EMAIL y/YEAR c/COURSE_INDEX [OPTIONAL/PARAMETER]...

Compulsory parameters:

  • n/NAME (eg. n/John Doe)
    • names are case-sensitive and allow duplicates
  • e/EMAIL (eg. e/johndoe123@email.com)
    • emails are case-insensitive and does not allow duplicates
  • y/YEAR (eg. y/3)
  • c/COURSE_INDEX (eg. c/1)

Optional parameters:

  • g/GITHUB (eg.g/johnny)
    • GitHub’s usernames are case-sensitive and allow duplicates
  • l/LINKEDIN (eg. l/linkedin.com/in/john-doe)
    • LinkedIn profile URLs are case-sensitive and allow duplicates
  • m/MODULE YEAR (eg. m/AY2223S1 CS2103T, m/AY2122S2 CS2101)
    • modules are case-insensitive and allow duplicate module codes but does not allow duplicate module year
  • s/SKILL (eg. s/C++, s/Rust)
    • skills are case-sensitive and does not allow duplicates
:bulb: Tip: A person can have any number of [OPTIONAL/PARAMETER] (including 0)

Examples:

  • add n/John Doe e/johnd@example.com y/2 c/3
  • add n/Betsy Crowe e/betsycrowe@example.com y/4 c/1 g/betsy123 l/linkedin.com/in/betsy-123

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3. Viewing a person/Changing tabs : view

Want to look a contact with greater detail? Use view to see more information on the right panel!

If an integer is specified, the person displayed on the right will be the person in the person list that has the same index as the integer given.

If c is specified, the tab on the right will switch to the contact information.

If m is specified, the tab on the right will switch to the modules taken.

If s is specified, the tab on the right will switch to the skills that the person has.

view <PARAMETERS>

Acceptable parameters:

  • Any index number within the length of the person list (e.g. view 2)
  • c (e.g. view c)
  • m (e.g. view m)
  • s (e.g. view s)
:bulb: Tip: If the right panel is showing a person's module, changing the person by typing view 3 for example, will result in the right panel displaying the module tab of the person at index 3. The same applies for skills.

Examples:

  • view 2 View Example
  • view m View Example

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4. Editing a person : edit

One of your contacts is outdated information? Overwrite them with the edit command!

At least one of the optional fields must be provided.

  • You can remove a person’s GitHub by typing g/ without specifying any GitHub username after it
  • You can remove a person’s LinkedIn by typing l/ without specifying any LinkedIn URL after it
  • You can remove all the person’s modules by typing m/ without specifying any modules after it
  • You can remove all the person’s skills by typing s/ without specifying any skills after it
:exclamation: Caution: Existing values will be overwritten by the input values of m/ or s/. Use m+/ or s+/ to append information or m-/ or s-/ to delete information instead.

edit [OPTIONAL/PARAMETER]...

Acceptable Parameters

  • n/NAME (eg. edit n/John Doe)
    • names are case-sensitive and allow duplicates
  • e/EMAIL (eg. edit e/johndoe123@email.com)
    • emails are case-insensitive and does not allow duplicates
  • y/YEAR (eg. edit y/3)
  • c/COURSE_INDEX (eg. edit c/1)
  • g/GITHUB (eg. edit g/johnny)
    • GitHub usernames are case-sensitive and allow duplicates
  • l/LINKEDIN (eg. edit l/linkedin.com/in/john-doe)
    • LinkedIn profile URLs are case-sensitive and allow duplicates
  • m/MODULE YEAR (eg. edit m/AY2223S1 CS2103T)
    • m+/MODULE YEAR (eg. edit m+/AY2223S1 CS2103T m+/AY2021S2 CS1010E)
    • m-/MODULE YEAR (eg. edit m-/AY2223S1 CS2103T m-/AY2021S2 CS1010E)
    • modules are case-insensitive and allow duplicate module codes but does not allow duplicate module year
  • s/SKILL (eg. edit s/C++)
    • s+/SKILL (eg. edit s+/C++ s+/python)
    • s-/SKILL (eg. edit s-/C++ s-/python)
    • skills are case-sensitive and does not allow duplicates
:bulb: Tip: If m/ or s/ is present in the edit command, this will take precedence over s+/ s-/ m+/ m-/.

Examples:

  • edit g/johndoeee e/johndoeee@example.com: edit the GitHub username and email address of the person to be johndoeee and johndoeeee@example.com respectively.
  • edit m-/ay2223s2 cs3230: displays an error message as the module does not exist.
  • edit s/java s+/python: resets the skill list to contain only java—ignoring s+/python. View Example

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5. Finding a person : find

Want to find people with certain qualities? Use find command to find people that contain the given constraints!

  • find supports continuous search by allowing constraints to stack, (refer to example below to find out more)
  • All constraints applied are shown in Result Display
  • To remove all constraints, use list.
  • At least one of the optional fields must be provided
  • All constraints are case-insensitive

find [OPTIONAL/PARAMETER]...

Acceptable Parameters used as Constraints

  • n/NAME
    • e.g. find n/Jo: load all person whose names contain Jo including John and Joleen
  • y/YEAR
    • e.g. find y/2: load all person in year 2
  • c/COURSE
    • e.g. find c/Computer: load all person enrolled in a course with Computer in the name such as Computer Engineering and Computer Science

    • :information_source: Note: This is different from add and edit which uses c/COURSE_INDEX. To find out why, refer to our faq.
  • m/ACADEMIC_YEAR MODULES
    • e.g. find m/AY2223S1 CS2103: load all person with AY2223S1 CS2103 in their module list including AY2223S1 CS2103T and AY2223S1 CS2103R

    • :bulb: Tip: You can omit ACADEMIC_YEAR as a constraint. E.g. find m/CS2103 will load all person with CS2103,CS2103T and CS2103R regardless of ACADEMIC_YEAR in their module list
    • :bulb: Tip: You can input as many MODULES and ACADEMIC_YEAR MODULES as you want separated by a space. E.g. find m/cs1101 cs1231 AY2223S1 cs2040 AY2223S2 cs2090 cs3230 will load all persons that have taken
      > CS1101, CS1231 regardless of academic year
      > CS2040 in AY2223S1
      > CS2090, CS3230 in AY2223S2
  • s/SKILLS
    • e.g. find s/java will load all persons that contains java in their skill list such as java and javascript

    • :bulb: Tip: Similar to m/ACADEMIC_YEAR MODULES you can add as many skills as you want separated by a space.

Example:

  • Start by executing find y/2 to find all person from year 2

    UiFind_02

  • Next, execute find m/cs1101 s/java c to further narrow down the filtered list thereby stacking the constraints

    UiFind_03

  • Finally, use list to get back the unfiltered list

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6. Listing all persons/Resetting filters : list

Want to see all your contacts? Display everyone stored in Codoc with the list command!

list

:bulb: Tip: Use this command to revert back to the original list after performing the find command to shorten the list displayed.

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7. Deleting a person : delete

Want to remove a contact? Delete it at the specified INDEX with the delete command!

delete <INDEX>

Example: delete 1 will delete the current person at index 1

:information_source: Note: INDEX refers to an index currently shown in the displayed person list. You may check out our Glossary for more information.

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8. Clearing all entries : clear

Want a fresh start? Use the clear command!

clear

:exclamation: Caution: Clears all entries from CoDoc.

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9. Exiting the program : exit

Want to quit? Use exit command to exit the program!

exit

:information_source: Note: Equivalent to clicking the close button via the GUI.

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Data Management

Q: How do I save my person list?

A: CoDoc automatically saves your person list after every successful add, edit and clear.


Q: How do I transfer my data to another Computer?

A: Install CoDoc on the other computer and overwrite the empty data file it creates with the file that contains the data of your previous CoDoc home folder.


Q: Where is the data file stored?

A: CoDoc data are saved as a JSON file at [JAR file location]/data/codoc.json. Advanced users are welcome to update data directly by editing that data file.

:exclamation: Caution: If your changes to the data file make its format invalid, CoDoc will discard all data and start with an empty data file at the next run.


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FAQ

Q: I have added a person with wrong details. How do I change it?

A: Use CoDoc’s Edit command to update the details. If you have also forgotten to add certain details, you may use the same command to add them (e.g. edit m+/AY2223S2 CS2101 to add module CS2101).


Q: My edit command is not working/changes are not shown.

A: Check that you have entered the command in correct format and the command result shown in the Result Display is not showing any errors.


Q: My edit command is editing the wrong person.

A: Edit command works on the current person you are viewing. Change the viewed person with the View command and view the correct person you want to edit before entering the command.


Q: Why is it find c/COURSE and not c/COURSE_INDEX like add and edit?

A: This is done as it speeds up the adding and editing process since there is no need for you to manually keep track of how courses are inputted—CS vs Computer Science. Also, this avoids clashing acronyms such as CS which could be interpreted as Chinese Studies too.


Q: My find command is not showing the correct list of people.

A: This could be because there is an existing list of filters before you entered the Find command. Try clearing all filters with List command then re-enter the Find command.


Q: I cannot find the course I want to add in the Course List Panel.

A: We are currently working to add as many courses as possible. Meanwhile, you would have to assign any other courses to the person and remember it.

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Upcoming Features

Automated bulk edits [coming in v2.0]

Details coming soon …

Archiving data files [coming in v2.0]

Details coming soon …

Support for staff [coming in v2.0]

Details coming soon …

Automated year updates [coming in v2.0]

Details coming soon …


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Command Summary

Actions Example
Add a person add n/Bob Sim y/2 c/1 e/e0823741@nus.edu g/bobabob l/linkedin.com/in/bom-sim-086g93847 m/ay2223s2 CS2103T m/AY2223S2 cs2101 s/python s/java
View contact view 3
View tab view c, view m, view s
Edit contact in the right panel edit n/David m+/AY2223S2 CS2109S s-/python
Find by attributes find n/David c/Computer Science m/CS2109S s/java
List the full list of contacts list
Delete person at index 3 delete 3
Clear all persons clear
View user guide and command list help
Exits the application exit

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Additional Resources

How to Open CoDoc for Mac

  1. Create your home folder and place the jar file into it. In this example,
    • we create a new folder called CoDoc
    • and place our codoc.jar into it mac_open_01
    :information_source: Note: The folder CoDoc is now our home folder.
  2. Create an empty text file and leave it open for now.
    • CMD + Space > type textEdit.app > Enter (to open textEdit)
    • CMD + SHIFT + T (to toggle textEdit to plain text)
    • Your window should look like the image below mac_plain_text
  3. Right-click on your home folder and navigate to New Terminal at Folder. This will open a terminal window. mac_open_home_holder
  4. Then,
    • type pwd > Enter
    • copy the output which is yourHomeFolderPath
    • leave this window open too mac_pwd
  5. Next,
    • paste cd yourHomeFolderPath as well as java -jar codoc.jar
    • and save it as a .command file mac_command_file_save
  6. Place the newly created .command file into your home folder. mac_command_file_result

  7. Finally, on your opened terminal from step 4, type chmod 777 start.command > Enter.

    :information_source: Note: Replace start with whatever you name your .command file from step 5.

    mac_command_file_chmod

  8. You can now double-click on your .command file to open CoDoc.

    :bulb: Tip: You can now place the .command file anywhere.
    :exclamation: Caution: If you decide to change the location of home folder, repeat from step 2.


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How to Open CoDoc for Windows

Batch file method for Windows users:

  1. Right-click the empty space in the home folder and create new text file.

    open_new_file

  2. Open the text file with any text editor (notepad is fine) and write in java -jar codoc.jar. Save and close the file.

    open_save_text

  3. Rename the file to start.bat. Make sure that file extension gets changed too, if you do not know how to see the file extension, see here.

    open_rename

    :information_source: Note: You may see a warning message below. This is because you are converting a text file to a batch file. If so, in the prompt, press "Yes" to continue renaming the file.

  4. If done correctly, you should now see a file with an icon similar to below. Double-click the renamed batch file start.bat to launch CoDoc.

    open_done


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