User Guide

What is Dook?

An elegant, minimalistic and intuitive desktop application made especially for NUS Computing students to easily manage their academic consultations and contacts all-in-one place.

Dook blends the power of a nimble Command Line Interface (CLI) together with the intuitive accessibility of a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Designed for the dynamic needs of the NUS School of Computing (SoC) community, Dook centralizes faculty information in an innovative manner, allowing one to easily find their professors by taking advantage of the basic CLI familiarity of SoC students.

For the quick typist, Dook elevates your ability to swiftly organize your academic consultations with professors and teaching assistants, outpacing conventional GUI-based applications, making management of consultations a breeze.

We hope that you will find this guide helpful in maximising your Dook experience! :)

Using the Guide

We hope that this guide will familiarise you with the CLI commands and GUI and interface. If you are unfamiliar with some jargon here, do have a quick look at our glossary below! :)

• For first-time users, please take a look at our Quick Start section to start an end-to-end tutorial for Dook.
• For seasoned users who know command line and/or have used Dook before, do take a look at our Command Summary for a refresher!

Throughout this guide, we also use coloured boxes to provide any important or extra pointers that we hope you would find useful.

Table of Contents

• What is Dook?
• Using the Guide
• Table of Contents
• Quick start
  • Let’s add some sample data
• Understanding the Interface
  • Contact Card
  • Booking Card
  • Result Box
  • Help Window
• Features
  • Contact Management
    • Adding a contact: add
    • Adding a Professor prof
    • Listing all contacts : list
    • Editing a contact : edit
    • Locating contacts by name: find
    • Deleting a contact : delete
  • Booking Management
    • Adding a booking : book
    • Updating bookings: update
    • Cancelling a booking : cancel
    • Clearing all bookings entries : cancel -a
    • Searching for a booking : search
    • Viewing all bookings : view
  • Other features
    • Changing themes in Dook : theme
    • Adding aliases in Dook : alias
    • Exiting the program : exit
    • Saving the data
    • Editing the data file
• FAQ
• Known issues
• Command Summary
  • Address Book Command summary
  • Booking List Command summary
• Glossary

Quick start

1. Ensure you have Java 11 or above installed in your Computer. If you have never downloaded it before, download from here.

2. Download the latest version of Dook jar in your computer.

3. Copy the file into an empty folder you want to use as the home folder for Dook.

4. Depending on your operating system, either open “Terminal” on macOS or “Command Prompt” in Windows, and type java -jar Dook.jar to run the application.
   

You should see a GUI similar to the one shown below pop up in a few seconds.

Let’s add some sample data

1. First, go to the command box on the main window, where it says

   “Enter Command here…“
   

2. Now, type help to open another window that lists out all the commands native to Dook.
3. Next, paste this command in the command box to add a new contact named Bob Smith to the Dook address book. add -n Bob Smith -p 98765432 -e bsmith@example.com -a Bedok 693021
4. Now, let’s add some sample consultations. Paste this in your command box to add a consultation named CS2103T Consultation.
   book -n CS2103T Consultation -s 2024-04-21 14:00 -e 2024-04-21 16:00
5. Repeat steps 3 - 4 to add some more sample data, however this time change the details after each flag. (for example, add -n Celine -p 98564383 ...)
6. Now, let’s find a consultation by typing search CS2103T Consultation into the command box
7. Voila! You did it. You finally added some sample data to Dook and tried some native features as well.
8. Now, let’s exit the app using exit command.

Many thanks for joining us in this tutorial. For additional commands, please refer to the Features section below for details of every available command.

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Understanding the Interface

The main interface is divided into two main panels (Booking and Contact) and 4 smaller elements (shown below). There’s a menu bar at the top with two buttons File and Help, and at the bottom there’s a status bar displaying the location of the addressbook.json file.

Here’s your guide of the different panels:

1. Contact List: Displays all contacts in the Dook address book.
2. Booking List: Shows all the bookings the user currently has.
3. Result Box: Displays the output after each command is executed.
4. Command Box: Allows users to enter commands.

Contact Card

Each Contact card Includes the following information:

1. Prof Damith Rajapakse - Contact Name
2. 65164359 - Phone Number
3. COM2-02-57 - Address
4. damithch@comp.nus.edu.sg - Email
5. Professor - Tag

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Booking Card

Each Booking card Includes the following information:

1. CS2103T Consult - Consultation Title
2. 2024-03-21 12:00 - Start Date and Time
3. 2024-03-21 14:00 - End Date and Time
4. Attend as early as possible... - Notes or Descriptions for the consultation

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Result Box

Displays two kinds of information/indication based on the command executed.

Upon Success:

Upon Failure:

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Help Window

Displays a window with Command Box Panel and Take me to UG link.

1. Command Box Panel - it consists of all the commands native to Dook.
2. Take me to UG - a link that takes you directly to the User Guide for more information on each feature.

Format: help

Instruction:

1. Type help in the Command Box to open this window,
2. Or, press Help Button on the main interface.

It will open a window similar to this:

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Features

Contact Management

Adding a contact: add

Situation: With every contact book, we need to be able to create contacts. You have just made a new friend in your tutorial and decided to save his contact for future collaboration purposes.

add -n NAME [-p PHONE_NUMBER] [-e EMAIL] [-a ADDRESS] [-t TAG…​]

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

For example:

• add -n John Doe -p 98765432 -e johnd@example.com -a John street, block 123, #01-01
• add -n Betsy Crowe -t friend -e betsycrowe@example.com -a Newgate Prison -p 1234567 -t criminal

Below shows the successful output upon executing add command:

Below shows the contact list upon successful adding of contact:

In the event that the command entered is invalid, the below error message will be shown:

In the event that there is an existing user in the contact book, the below error message will be shown:

Adding a Professor prof

Situation: You have just taken CS2040S and you now have a favorite Professor in SoC! You would like to stay in contact with them and have their updated contact details at your fingertips.

To add a specific Professor to the Dook,

prof -n NAME

Examples:

• prof -n aaron

You can also easily add all SoC staff faculty to Dook with one command:

prof -a

Warning:
The prof -a command takes a bit of time to load all the data, as we are adding over 300+ contacts into Dook. We recommend that upon running this command, you as a user should wait a few seconds and not force close the application or run other commands as it could lead to unexpected behaviors. Our team is aware of this and is looking into a more efficient solution to add all professors!

Listing all contacts : list

Situation: You decided one day to touch base with all your course-mates and friends in NUS.

This command lets you easily view all the people in your contacts!

Format: list

Below shows the successful output upon executing list:

Below shows the contact list upon executing list:

Editing a contact : edit

Situation: You just had a zoom call with an old friend and realised he changed his phone number because he had migrated overseas.

The command allows you to update an existing contact’s details.

edit INDEX [-n NAME] [-p PHONE] [-e EMAIL] [-a ADDRESS] [-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.
• Existing values will be updated to the input values.

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.

Below shows the current state of a contact information before updating:

Below would be the expected output upon executing the command edit 1 -n John Lim -p 23456789 -a 311, Rochor Ave 1, #01-01, johnl@example.com -t friend,

Below shows the updated state of the contact information after updating:

Locating contacts by name: find

Situation: You have just met a wonderful group of NUS students at a networking event, and you’ve added their details to the contact book. A few days later, you want to send a follow-up email to one of them, but their name escapes you. You remember it started with “John”.

This command allows you to quickly retrieve all names that match, ensuring you can maintain that crucial connection without a hitch.

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
  

Below shows all the current contacts in our contact list, say we have 3 contacts, John Doe, Peter Doe and Sarah Jacobs:

Say we only want contacts with “John” in our contact list, we shall execute find John to achieve this.

Below shows the expected output after running the command, there is only 1 contact with John in their name:

Below shows the expected contact list after running the command:

Deleting a contact : delete

Situation: Your contact book is starting to look cluttered, and you realise you no longer certain contacts’ details.

This command deletes the specified person from the contact book, ensuring your contacts remain relevant and up-to-date.

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 number 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

• list followed by delete 2 deletes the 2nd person in the address book.

Below shows the current state of our contact list:

Say we want to remove Sarah Jacobs from our contact list, as she migrated overseas to pursue her masters, and we lost contact. We observe that she is index number 3 in our contact list. As such, we will run delete 3 in our command box.

Below is the expected output after running delete 3:

Below is the expected contact list after running delete 3, we observe Sarah Jacobs no longer exists in our contact list.

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Booking Management

Adding a booking : book

Situation: Dook allows you to keep track of all your consultations, so you never have to worry above forgetting them! Say you booked a consultation in the next week, and you would like to keep track of it. The book command is for you!

book -n DESCRIPTION -s START_TIME -e END_TIME -note NOTE

• Duplicate bookings are not allowed! This means that across two bookings, you cannot have all four params to be the exact same.
• For now: start and end time formats must be in yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm (we are working to expand this!)

Examples:

• book -n CS2101 Consult -s 2023-12-31 19:00 -e 2023-12-31 23:00 -note DO HOMEWORK

Below shows our original dashboard before adding a booking:

Say we booked a consultation slot a week later, and we would like to add it to Dook in case we forget.

Below shows the expected output after executing the command book -n CS2101 Consult -s 2023-12-31 19:00 -e 2023-12-31 23:00 -note DO HOMEWORK.

Below shows the expected success message upon executing the above command.

Updating bookings: update

Situation: The Professor took a rain-check and decided to reschedule your consult. Now we need to update our booking details!

update INDEX -n {DESCRIPTION} -s {START_TIME} -e {END_TIME} -note {NOTE}

• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed booking list.
• Other params are optional and entered only if you want to update current data.

Examples:

• update -1 -s 2024-01-02 19:00 -e 2024-01-02 23:00 -note DO HOMEWORK

Below shows our current booking that we scheduled for next week.

The Professor decides to postpone the consult to two days later, we shall execute the command update 1 -s 2024-01-02 19:00 -e 2024-01-02 23:00 -note DO HOMEWORK.

Below shows the updated booking upon executing the command.

Below shows the success message upon executing the command.

Cancelling a booking : cancel

Situation: You realised that you are not available on the current booking date, and you have apologised to the Professor to cancel the booking altogether. We shall use the cancel command to remove a booking from Dook.

cancel INDEX

• Deletes the booking at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed booking list.

Examples:

• cancel 1 cancels the 1st booking shown in the booking list.

Below shows our current bookings in Dook.

We decide to cancel the CS2101 Consult altogether. We notice that the index of the booking is 1. We shall use cancel 1 to remove this booking from Dook.

Below shows our current bookings after executing cancel 1.

Below shows the success message upon executing the command.

Clearing all bookings entries : cancel -a

Situation: Want a fresh start from our busy schedule? You can quickly clear all your bookings with:

 cancel -a

After executing the command above, your GUI will look similar to the below.

Searching for a booking : search

Situation: You have multiple consultations lined up and decide to search for your CS2103 consult. We shall use the search command to find our CS2103 consultation details!

search KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

• The search is case-insensitive. e.g coNsUlT will match Consult
• The order of the keywords does not matter. e.g. consult CS2103 will match CS2103 Consult
• Bookings matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search). e.g. Consult will return CS2103 Consult, CS5300 Consult

So, let’s try to find CS2103T Consultation using the search command. Here’s the initial window that will be displayed in case you have a list of consultations.

Now, after executing the search command, if the consultation you’re trying to find exists, it will be displayed like the sample image shown below.

And, in case the booking doesn’t exist, Dook will throw you an error (such as the one below) indicating that it couldn’t find any such bookings in the JSON file.

Viewing all bookings : view

Situation: You are done searching for your CS2103 consult and decide to refresh your memory of all your consults! We shall use the view command to list all our current bookings!

view

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Other features

Changing themes in Dook : theme

Dook comes preinstalled with a light and dark theme.

Format: theme -bg THEME

• Changes the current theme to either dark, light or any other theme.
• Dark theme is the default on a new launch
• Dook remembers your preferences, it loads the most recent selected theme on launch.

Examples:

• theme -bg light

Below shows the application before executing theme -bg light:

Below shows the application after executing theme -bg light:

Below shows the error message upon executing an invalid theme:

Adding aliases in Dook : alias

For commands that you use often, Dook allows the aliasing of them to any input of your choice.

alias -al NEW_COMMAND -r COMMAND_TO_REPLACE

• For example, if you are often swapping between themes, you can replace theme -bg light with light using the command below
  alias -al light -r theme -bg light
• After that, you can swap to light theme anytime with just light

After adding the alias above, you can simply type light in the command box to change the theme. Isn’t that cool?

Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Saving the data

Dook’s address book data are saved automatically after any command that changes the data. There is no need to save it manually.

Editing the data file

Dook’s data is saved automatically as a JSON file:
[Dook JAR file location]/data/addressbook.json.

Caution: If your changes to the data file makes its format invalid, Dook 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 Dook 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.

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FAQ

Q: How do I install Java 11?
A: Follow this link for steps to download Java 11.

Q: How do I transfer my data to another Computer?
A: Go to the application’s home directory and copy the data/addressbook.json file containing your data into the empty data folder created by Dook on the other computer.

Q: Oh no! I have accidentally closed Dook without using the exit command? Do I lose all my data?
A: Not to worry! Dook automatically saves all data after every change, so no data will be lost!

Q: Do I need Internet connection to use Dook?
A: Only once when opening the User Guide using Take me to UG link in Help Window. Otherwise, Dook works fully offline!

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

Address Book Command summary

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Booking List Command summary

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Glossary

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