User Guide

Address Book Command Line Interface (ABCLI) is a desktop application tailored for real estate agents who value the speed and efficiency of managing workflows through a Command Line Interface (CLI). With the added support of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for visual clarity, ABCLI empowers agents to handle contacts, schedule meetings, and organize property details significantly faster than traditional GUI-only applications. If you are a fast-typing real estate agent, ABCLI is designed to keep up with your speed, boosting your productivity.

Tip: For any terms that you are unfamiliar with, refer to the Glossary of Terms

Table of Contents

• How to use the User Guide
  • Display Boxes
• Application Overview
• Quick Start
• Features
• General
  • Viewing help : help
  • Exiting the program : exit
  • Saving the data
  • Editing the data file
  • Switching parser modes: switch
• Buyers
  • Viewing all buyers : view
  • Adding a buyer : add
  • Editing a buyer : edit
  • Finding buyers : find
  • Deleting a buyer : delete
  • Clearing all buyers : clear
• Meet Ups
  • Viewing all meet-ups : view
  • Adding a meet-up : add
  • Editing a meet-up : edit
  • Finding meet-up : find
  • Deleting a meet-up : delete
  • Clearing all meet-ups : clear
• Properties
  • Viewing all properties : view
  • Adding a property : add
  • Editing a property : edit
  • Finding properties : find
  • Deleting a property : delete
  • Clearing all properties : clear
• FAQ
• Known issues
• Glossary of Terms
• Command summary
• Acceptable Value Ranges for Parameters

How to Use the User Guide

This User Guide is designed to help you navigate and make the most of ABCLI. It introduces the application’s features and guides you from getting started to mastering each function, all without requiring any prior knowledge. Explore each section below:

1. Table of Contents: Located at the start of the guide, this is useful whenever you want to locate a specific section or topic quickly.

2. Application Overview: Refer to this section if you are new to ABCLI or want to understand its purpose and primary capabilities. It is ideal for getting a high-level understanding of how ABCLI can support your real estate tasks.

3. Quick Start: Use this section if you are setting up ABCLI for the first time. It provides step-by-step instructions to get the app running.

4. Features: This is your go-to section as you start using ABCLI. Divided into General, Buyers, Meet Ups, and Properties, it details how to use each feature, including command formats, tips, and examples. Refer here whenever you need guidance on operating any part of the app.

5. FAQ: Consult this section if you encounter issues or have questions about ABCLI’s functionality. It provides answers to common questions and can help resolve typical challenges.

6. Known Issues: If ABCLI behaves unexpectedly, refer to this section to see if it’s a known issue. This section lists potential problems and workarounds, helping you troubleshoot effectively.

7. Glossary: If you encounter any unfamiliar terms while using ABCLI or reading the guide, refer to the Glossary. It defines key terms to ensure clarity as you navigate the app.

8. Command Summary: Ideal as a quick reference guide, this section provides an overview of all available commands. Use it when you need to check the format or options for any command without going into full detail.

9. Acceptable Ranges for Parameters: This section provides a handy reference for troubleshooting, listing the valid input ranges and constraints for each command. Use it to ensure your command inputs satisfy the required constraints.

Display Boxes

Throughout the guide, you will see display boxes with additional information:

Tip: Look out for these when you want to enhance your user experience or learn best practices.

Caution: Pay attention to these warnings to avoid potential pitfalls or issues.

Future Enhancement: These boxes highlight features that are planned for future releases, keeping you informed about upcoming capabilities.

Application Overview

ABCLI is divided into three core modes, each dedicated to a key aspect of a real estate agent workflows:

• Buyer Mode: Organize prospective buyers with details like budget, contact info, and tags for effective monitoring and follow-up.

• Meet Up Mode: Schedule and manage meet-ups with buyers, track attendees, and avoid scheduling conflicts.

• Property Mode: Store property listings, including landlord details, asking price, and property type for quick and easy references.

These modes allow real estate agents to handle buyers, meet-ups, and property listings at a rapid pace, ensuring an efficient, convenient and integrated workflow.

Quick Start

1. Install Java 17 or above: Ensure that Java 17 or a later version is installed on your computer. You can download it here.
   Tip: MacOS users can refer to this set of instructions for easier installation.

2. Download the latest ABCLI application: Get the latest ABCLI.jar file from the release page.

3. Choose a storage folder: Move the ABCLI.jar file to the folder where you want to store and run the application.

4. Open the command terminal:

   • For Windows users, in the folder containing ABCLI.jar, right-click the empty space and select “Open in Terminal”.

     

   • For MacOS users, right-click the home folder, hover over “Services,” and select “New Terminal at Folder”.

     

5. Run the application: Enter the command java -jar ABCLI.jar to start ABCLI.

6. Verify the GUI: If you are successful in opening the application, a GUI similar to the below should appear in a few seconds.

   

   Tip: Before you start, ABCLI comes pre-populated with example data. We encourage you to practice the commands on this sample data to get familiar with the app. Once you are comfortable, you can use the clear command in each mode to reset the data in the respective modes.

7. Here is a quick guide to the GUI.

   

8. Enter commands: Type a command in the command box and press Enter to execute it. For example, typing help and pressing Enter will open the help window.

   Some example commands you can try:

   • view : Lists all buyers.

   • add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com b/120000 : Adds a buyer contact named John Doe to the Buyer list.

   • delete 3 : Deletes the 3rd buyer shown in the current list.

   • clear : Deletes all buyers.

   • exit : Exits the app.

9. Explore available features: Refer to the Features section below for details on each command.

Features

General

Viewing help : help

Shows a message explaining how to access the help page.

Format: help

Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Saving the data

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

All data is saved automatically as a JSON file within the storage folder. Advanced users are welcome to update data directly by editing that data file.

Note: By default, the storage folder is set to a folder named data in the home folder.

Caution: If your changes to the data file makes one of the fields invalid, the data files 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.
If any of the data files, e.g. buyerlist.json is deleted, it will create a new data file with pre-populated data, e.g. it will create a new buyerlist.json with prepopulated data.
Furthermore, certain edits can cause the JSON files 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.

Switching parser modes : switch

Switches the parser mode to the specified parser mode.

Format: switch PARSER_MODE

• Switches the parser mode to the specified PARSER_MODE.
• The parser mode takes 3 types:
• b for buyers
• m for meet-ups
• p for properties
• The default parser mode is set to b.

Examples:

• Upon entering the application, the parser mode is set to b.
• switch followed by m switches the parser mode to meet-ups.

Buyers

Buyers represent your clients interested in purchasing properties. The buyer list allows you to keep track of each buyer’s essential details such as name, phone number, email, and budget. Additionally, you can organize and personalize each buyer’s profile by assigning multiple tags. For instance, if a client, Bernice Yu, expresses interest in relocating, you could add the tag relocating to her contact.

Viewing all buyers : view

Shows a list of all buyers in the buyer list.

Format: view

Adding a buyer: add

Adds a buyer to the buyer list.

Format: add n/NAME p/PHONE e/EMAIL b/BUDGET [t/TAG]…​

• New buyers must have unique names and must not be duplicate names of existing buyers.

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

Caution: Buyer’s budget cannot exceed 9223372036854775807. Refer to known issues for more information.

Examples:

• add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com b/100,000
• add n/Betsy Crowe t/urgent e/betsycrowe@example.com b/7,000,000 p/91234567 t/referred

Editing a buyer : edit

Edits an existing buyer in the buyer list.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [b/BUDGET] [t/TAG]…​

• Edits the buyer at the specified INDEX. The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed buyer list.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed buyer list.
• The index must be a positive integer: 1, 2, 3, …. ​If the index is not a positive integer, the error message shown will be invalid command format.
• 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 buyer will be removed i.e adding of tags is not cumulative.
• You can remove all the buyer’s tags by typing t/ without specifying any tags after it.

Tip: The index you use in the edit command is the one you see on your screen! E.g if 1. Alex Yeoh is shown in the current filtered view, but 2. Alex Yeoh was shown after any previous commands, use the one that you can see right now!

Examples:

• edit 1 p/81234567 e/johndoe@example.com Edits the phone number and email budget of the 1st buyer to be 81234567 and johndoe@example.com respectively.
• edit 2 n/Betsy Crower t/ Edits the name of the 2nd buyer to be Betsy Crower and clears all existing tags.

Finding buyers: find

Finds existing buyers in existing buyer list based on keywords.

Format: find n/KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

• Only the name is searched.
• 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 full words will be matched e.g. Han will not match Hans
• Buyers matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search). e.g. Hans Bo will return Hans Gruber, Bo Yang

Future Enhancement: Planned update will allow searches using other attributes, such as: b/BUDGET, p/PHONE, e/EMAIL, and t/TAG.

Examples:

• find n/John returns john and John Doe
• find n/alex david returns Alex Yeoh, David Li
  

Deleting a buyer : delete

Deletes the specified buyer from the buyer list.

Format: delete INDEX

• Deletes the buyer at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed buyer list.
• The index must be a positive integer: 1, 2, 3, …​​. If the index is not a positive integer, the error message shown will be invalid command format.
• The index cannot exceed the displayed list’s range.

Tip: The error message shown for a non-positive integer is different than the error message shown for an integer out of range! Check your input carefully!

Examples:

• view followed by delete 2 deletes the 2nd buyer in the displayed buyer list.
• find n/David followed by delete 1 deletes the 1st buyer in the displayed results of the find command.

Clearing all buyers : clear

Clears all entries from the buyer list.

Format: clear

Caution: Using the clear command will delete all the buyers from the list of buyers, and there is no way to undo this, you may lose your data permanently.

Meet Ups

Meet-up represents any scheduled appointment with your clients, allowing you to record essential details, including the subject of the meeting, additional info, its start and end date-times (From and To), and the buyers involved. Additionally, ABCLI will highlight any overlapping meet-ups to help you avoid scheduling conflicts.

Viewing all meet-ups : view

Shows a list of all meet-ups in the meet-up list.

Format: view

Adding a meet-up: add

Adds a meet-up to the meet-up list.

Format: add s/MEETUP_SUBJECT i/MEETUP_INFO f/MEETUP_FROM t/MEETUP_TO n/BUYER_NAME [n/MORE_BUYER_NAMES]…​

• New meet-ups must have at least one unique non-duplicate aspect from these three fields: MEETUP_SUBJECT, MEETUP_FROM, MEETUP_TO. Else, it will be marked as a duplicate meet-up.

• MEETUP_FROM and MEETUP_TO fields should follow the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm.

• MEETUP_TO must be a date-time that is later than MEETUP_FROM.

Caution: When adding the MEETUP_FROM or MEETUP_TO, the DD parameter will take in any 2-digit number from 01 to 31. However, in some cases, such as February or April, the date 31 doesn’t exist, in this case, instead of rejecting the input, the meet-up will be added but the date will be changed to the closest valid date in the same month. e.g. 2024-02-31 23:59 will create 2024-02-29 23:59, 2024-04-31 12:00 will create 2024-04-30 12:00, but 2024-04-32 12:00 will give an error since 32 is not a valid DD input.

• There must be at least one BUYER_NAME added.

• Buyers that exist in buyer list will be marked as purple, while those that do not will be marked as red, for more details see here.

Examples:

• add s/Discuss work plans i/Meet with Alex and David to discuss the March Project f/2024-02-03 14:00 t/2024-02-03 15:30 n/Alex Yeoh n/David Li

Editing a meet-up : edit

Edits an existing meet-up in the meet-up list.

Format: edit INDEX [s/MEETUP_SUBJECT] [i/MEETUP_INFO] [f/MEETUP_FROM] [t/MEETUP_TO] [n/BUYER_NAME]…​

• Edits the meet-up at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed meet-up list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​. If the index is not a positive integer, the error message shown will be invalid command format.
• At least one of the optional fields must be provided.
• Existing values will be updated to the input values.
• When editing buyers associated to the meet-up, the existing buyers will be removed i.e adding of buyers is not cumulative.

Examples:

• edit 1 i/Meet with Johnny to show him houses. f/2024-10-28 10:00 t/2024-10-28 12:00 edits the info, meet-up start time, and meet-up end time of the 1st meet-up to be Meet with Johnny to show him houses., 2024-10-28 10:00 and 2024-10-28 12:00 respectively.
• edit 1 n/John edits the buyers associated to the first meet-up to be only John.

Finding meet-ups: find

Finds meet-ups whose meet-up names contain any of the given keywords.

Format: find s/KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

• The search is case-insensitive. e.g meet will match Meet
• Only the meet-up name is searched.
• Keyword will be matched to exact words, e.g. meet will not match meeting
• Meet-ups matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search). e.g. Sales Closing will return Sales Meeting, Closing Meeting

Future Enhancement: Planned update will allow searches using other attributes, such as: f/MEETUP_FROM, t/MEETUP_TO, and n/ADDED_BUYER.

Examples:

• find s/Meeting returns Sales Meeting and Closing Meeting
• find s/Sales returns Sales Meeting

Deleting a meet-up : delete

Deletes the specified meet-up from the meet-up list.

Format: delete INDEX

• Deletes the meet-up at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed meet-up list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​​. If the index is not a positive integer, the error message shown will be invalid command format.
• The index cannot exceed the displayed list’s range.

Examples:

• view followed by delete 2 deletes the 2nd meet-up in the meet-up list.
• find s/meeting followed by delete 1 deletes the 1st meet-up in the results of the find command.

Clearing all meet-ups : clear

Clears all entries from the meet-up list.

Format: clear

Caution: Using the clear command will delete all the meet-ups from the list of meet-ups, and there is no way to undo this, you may lose your data permanently.

Properties

Properties represent each property in your portfolio. The property list helps you keep track of each property’s details such as the landlord’s name and phone number, as well as the property’s address, type (e.g. apartment, landed house, etc) and asking price.

Viewing all properties : view

Shows a list of all properties in the property list.

Format: view

Adding a property: add

Adds a property to the property list.

Format: add n/LANDLORD_NAME p/PHONE a/ADDRESS s/ASKING_PRICE t/PROPERTY_TYPE

• New properties must have unique addresses and must not be duplicate addresses of existing properties.

Caution: Property’s asking price cannot exceed 9223372036854775807. Refer to known issues for more information.

Examples:

• add n/John p/87152433 a/Paya Lebar s/200,000 t/Condominium

Editing a property : edit

Edits an existing property in the property list.

Format: edit INDEX [n/LANDLORD_NAME] [p/PHONE] [a/ADDRESS] [s/ASKING_PRICE] [t/PROPERTY_TYPE]

• Edits the landlord at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed property list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​. ​If the index is not a positive integer, the error message shown will be invalid command format.
• At least one of the optional fields must be provided.
• Existing values will be updated to the input values.

Examples:

• edit 1 p/91234567 s/100000 Edits the first property’s landlord phone number and its asking price to be 91234567 and 100,000 respectively.
• edit 2 n/Betsy Crower Edits the name of the 2nd property’s landlord to be Betsy Crower.

Finding properties: find

Find existing properties in the property list based on either name or address keywords.

Format: find n/LANDLORD_NAME or find a/ADDRESS

• The tags used in searching should only be n/ or a/, but not both.
• 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 full words will be matched e.g. Han will not match Hans
• Properties matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search). e.g. n/Hans Bo will return property linked with Hans Gruber, Bo Yang.

Future Enhancement: Planned update will allow searches using other attributes, such as: s/ASKING_PRICE, p/PHONE, and t/PROPERTY_TYPE.

Examples:

• find n/John returns john and John Doe
• find a/Pasir Ris returns pasir ris east and Pasir Ris West

Deleting a property: delete

Deletes the specified property from the property list

Format: delete INDEX

• Deletes the property at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed property list.
• The index must be a positive integer: 1, 2, 3, …​. If the index is not a positive integer, the error message shown will be invalid command format.
• The index cannot exceed the displayed list’s range

Examples:

• view followed by delete 4 deletes the 4th property in the displayed property list.
• find n/Adam followed by delete 2 deletes the 2nd property in the displayed results of the find command.

Clearing all properties : clear

Clears all entries from the property list.

Format: clear

Caution: Using the clear command will delete all the properties from the list of properties, and there is no way to undo this, you may lose your data permanently.

FAQ

Q: Can I use ABCLI without any programming knowledge?
A: Yes, ABCLI is designed to be user-friendly and does not require any coding skills. Follow the User Guide to learn the commands and usage patterns, and you will be able to use ABCLI effectively.

Q: What operating systems are compatible with ABCLI?
A: ABCLI can be run on any system that supports Java 17 or above, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. Refer to quick start for the step-by-step installation guide.

Q: How can I check if Java 17 is installed and set as the default version?
A: Open your command terminal and type:java -version. If Java 17 is installed, the output should start with: java version "17.0.x".If not, download Java 17 from here.

Q: How can I troubleshoot if the GUI doesn’t display properly on my screen?
A: If using multiple screens, ensure the app window is on your main display, as secondary screens may cause display issues. If the issue persists, delete the preferences.json file to reset GUI settings.

Q: How do I transfer my data to another Computer?
A: Install the app in the other computer and overwrite the empty data files (buyerlist.json, meetuplist.json, and propertylist.json) it creates with the respective files that contain your previous data (which should be in the old buyerlist.json, meetuplist.json, and propertylist.json).

Q: Where can I find my local data files?
A: In the same folder that contains your app ABCLI.jar, there should be a folder called data which contains buyerlist.json, meetuplist.json, and propertylist.json.

Q: How do I add Meet-Ups or Properties? I can only add Buyers
A: You are likely in the Buyer Mode indicated by the Viewing: Buyers shown at the top bar, to switch to MeetUp Mode, use switch m, and to switch to Property Mode, use switch p. For more details, see switching parser modes.

Q: How are duplicates determined when adding meet-ups?
A: Meet-ups are considered duplicates if they share the same SUBJECT, MEETUP_FROM date-time, and MEETUP_TO date-time. Ensure at least one of these fields is unique to avoid duplication errors.

Q: Can I view all buyers, meet-ups, and properties together on a single screen?
A: No, ABCLI organizes these entries by mode. Use the switch command to move between modes for buyers, meet-ups, or properties.

Q: Why is my meet-up entry showing certain buyers in red?
A: Buyers shown in red are not listed in the Buyer mode’s current entries. Ensure that the buyer’s name matches exactly in both the buyer list and the meet-up entry for it to be displayed in purple. If the buyer assigned to a particular meet-up has been deleted from the buyer list, it will be shown as red.

Q: Why are some date-time entries in meet-ups highlighted in red?
A: Date-time entries in red indicate scheduling conflicts. These meet-ups overlap with another meet-up in the schedule, helping you identify potential double-bookings or timing issues that require attention.

Q: Is there a way to search for buyers based on phone number or budget?
A: Currently, the search function for buyers only supports keywords within the NAME field. A future enhancement is planned to allow for more advanced searches based on other fields like PHONE, TAG, EMAIL and BUDGET.

Q: Is there a separate save command/button, are all my changes auto-saved?
A: Any successfully inputted command will save the changes into the data files, thus there is no need to worry about manually saving your changes.

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.

2. 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.

3. If you input a budget or asking price that exceeds 9223372036854775807, the command will silently fail, and no error message will be shown. This is due to exceeding the maximum value for a 64-bit integer. A planned enhancement will add a validation check to prevent input beyond a maximum realistic range.

4. When inputting a name, if the name is too long, the interface is unable to display the full name, and it will be truncated, with ellipses (…) representing the truncated part of the name.

5. Editing/Deleting buyers that are included in Meet-Ups, editing/deleting a buyer in the BuyerList that is also part of a meet-up in the MeetUpList will not update the buyer shown in the MeetUpList. For example, meet-up Sales Meeting has buyer Alex Yeoh in the MeetUpList and Alex Yeoh is a buyer in the BuyerList, thus Sales Meeting shows Alex Yeoh in purple (the buyer exists). If you go to Buyer mode and edit Alex Yeoh to be something different such as Alex yeoh,alex yeoh,alex, etc, Sales Meeting will still show Alex Yeoh but in red now (buyer does not exist anymore). Deleting Alex Yeoh in the BuyerList will cause the same effect. The name matching between buyers in meet-ups and buyers in the BuyerList is done with exact case-sensitive matching, Alex Yeoh will only be purple in the Sales Meeting if the BuyerList has a buyer with the exact name Alex Yeoh.

Glossary of Terms

Command summary

Acceptable Value Ranges for Parameters