User Guide

RecruiterPlus is a desktop app for managing contacts, 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, RecruiterPlus can get your contact management tasks done faster than traditional GUI apps.

• Quick start
• Features
  • Viewing help : help
  • Adding a person: add
  • Listing all persons : list
  • Editing a person : edit
  • Locating persons by name: find
  • Filtering persons by name: filter
  • Deleting a person : delete
  • Marking a candidate as interviewed : mark
  • Unmarking a candidate as not interviewed : unmark
  • Adding a remark to a candidate : remark
  • Clearing all entries : clear
  • Exiting the program : exit
  • Saving the data
  • Editing the data file
  • Archiving data files [coming in v2.0]
• FAQ
• Known issues
• Command summary

Quick start

1. Ensure you have Java 17 or above installed in your Computer.
   Mac users: Ensure you have the precise JDK version prescribed here.

2. Download the latest .jar file from here.

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

4. Open a command terminal, cd into the folder you put the jar file in, and use the java -jar recruiterplus.jar command to run the application.
   A GUI similar to the below should appear in a few seconds. Note how the app contains some sample data.
   

5. Type the command in the command box and press Enter to execute it. e.g. typing help and pressing Enter will display the command reference in the command output.
   Some example commands you can try:

   • list : Lists all contacts.

   • add -name John Doe -phone 98765432 -email johnd@example.com -address John street, block 123, #01-01 : Adds a contact named John Doe to the RecruiterPlus.

   • delete 3 : 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.

Features

Viewing help : help

Shows a message explaining how to access the help page.

Format: help

Adding a person: add

Adds a person to the recruiterplus.

Format: add -name NAME -phone PHONE_NUMBER -email EMAIL -address ADDRESS -tag TAG…​

• At least the -name, -phone, -email and -address fields must be provided.
• The -tag field is optional.
• The -tag field can be used multiple times to add multiple tags to a person. Eg: -tag friend -tag colleague adds the tags friend and colleague to the person.

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

Examples:

• add -name John Doe -phone 98765432 -email johnd@example.com -address John street, block 123, #01-01
• add -name Betsy Crowe -tag friend -email betsycrowe@example.com -address Newgate Prison -phone 12345678 -tag criminal
• add -name Bo Yang -phone 87654321 -email boyang@example.com -address Bo's street, block 321, #01-02 -tag colleague -tag friend to add multiple tags, use -tag [TAG] multiple times.

Listing all persons : list

Shows a list of all persons in the recruiterplus.

Format: list

Editing a person : edit

Edits an existing person in the recruiterplus.

Format: edit INDEX [-name NAME] [-phone PHONE] [-email EMAIL] [-address ADDRESS] [-tag 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.
• When editing tags, the existing tags of the person will be removed i.e adding of tags is not cumulative.
• You can remove all the person’s tags by typing -tag without specifying any tags after it.
• You can add multiple tags by using -tag [TAG] multiple times.

Examples:

• edit 1 -phone 91234567 -email johndoe@example.com Edits the phone number and email address of the 1st person to be 91234567 and johndoe@example.com respectively.
• edit 2 -name Betsy Crower -tag Edits the name of the 2nd person to be Betsy Crower and clears all existing tags.
• edit 3 -tag friend -tag colleague Edits the tags of the 3rd person to be friend and colleague.

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 search supports typos via fuzzy matching. e.g. Alicd will match Alice
• The order of the keywords does not matter. e.g. Hans Bo will match Bo Hans
• Only the name is searched.
• Partial word matching is supported e.g. Han will 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
  
• find aled returns Alex Yeoh
  

Filtering persons by name: filter

Finds persons whose names match any of the given filters.

Format: filter -interviewed y/n/1/0

• The filter will be done on all persons, not only the currently listed ones.

Examples:

• filter -interviewed y returns persons who are marked as interviewed.
• filter -interviewed 0 returns persons who are not marked as interviewed.

Deleting a person : delete

Deletes the specified person from the recruiterplus.

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

Marking a candidate as interviewed : mark

Marks the specified candidate as interviewed.

Format: mark INDEX

• Marks the candidate at the specified INDEX as interviewed.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
• A candidate that has already been marked as interviewed cannot be marked again.

Examples:

• mark 1 marks the 1st candidate in the list as interviewed.
• find John followed by mark 1 marks the 1st candidate in the results of the find command as interviewed.

Unmarking a candidate as not interviewed : unmark

Unmarks the specified candidate as interviewed.

Format: unmark INDEX

• Unmarks the candidate at the specified INDEX as not interviewed.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
• A candidate that is already marked as not interviewed cannot be unmarked again.

Examples:

• unmark 1 unmarks the 1st candidate in the list as not interviewed.
• find John followed by unmark 1 unmarks the 1st candidate in the results of the find command as not interviewed.

Adding a remark to a candidate : remark

Adds or edits a remark for the specified candidate.

Format: remark INDEX [REMARK]

• Adds or edits the remark of the candidate 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, …​
• An existing remark will be overwritten by the new remark.

Examples:

• remark 1 Strong in algorithms. adds the remark “Strong in algorithms.” to the 1st candidate.
• remark 1 clears the remark of the 1st candidate.

Clearing all entries : clear

Clears all entries from the recruiterplus.

Format: clear

Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program and closes the application.

Format: exit

Alias: bye

Saving the data

RecruiterPlus data are saved in the hard disk automatically after any command that changes the data. There is no need to save manually.

Editing the data file

RecruiterPlus data are saved automatically as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/recruiterplus.json. Advanced users are welcome to update data directly by editing that data file.

Caution: Malformed entries are quarantined into addressbook_invalid.json during startup preprocessing, while valid entries are kept in the main data file. This helps prevent silent data loss when only some records are invalid.
However, if the overall file is severely corrupted or contains values that violate model constraints, the app may still fail to load some entries. It is recommended to keep a backup before editing the data file manually.

Archiving data files [coming in v2.0]

Details coming soon …

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 RecruiterPlus home folder.

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.

Command summary