MediContacts is a desktop app for managing contacts of patients and doctors, as well as keeping track of their appointments. Hence our app is targeted at and built for receptionists working in small clinics, who need to manage thousands of patients, doctors, and appointments.

It is optimised for use via a Command Line Interface (CLI) while still having the benefits of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). If you can type fast, MediContacts can not only get your contact management tasks done faster than traditional systems adopted by clinics, but also efficiently keep track of appointments between registered doctors and patients.

Command summary

Action Format (with examples)
Help help
Add Doctor add-doctor n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS s/SPECIALTY [t/TAG]…​

e.g. add-doctor n/Jane Doe p/91234567 e/janedoe@example.com a/456 Clementi Ave 3 s/Cardiology t/colleague
Add Patient add-patient n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS d/DATE_OF_BIRTH g/GENDER [t/TAG]…​

e.g. add-patient n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johndoe@example.com a/123 Sengkang Drive 4 d/23-04-1950 g/M t/elderly
Add Appointment add-appt pn/PATIENT_NAME dn/DOCTOR_NAME d/DATE t/TIME

e.g. add-appt pn/John Doe dn/Jane Doe d/23-04-2024 t/1100
Delete Appointment delete-appt UNIQUE_ID

e.g. delete-appt 1231
List list
List Doctors list-doctor
List Patients list-patient
Find find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

e.g. find Jane Doe
Find Doctor find-doctor KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

e.g. find-doctor Jane Doe
Find Patient find-patient KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

e.g. find-patient John Doe
Delete delete INDEX

e.g. delete 3
Clear clear
Exit exit

Quick start

  1. Ensure you have Java 17 or above installed in your Computer.

  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 MediContacts App.

  4. Open a command terminal, cd into the folder you put the jar file in, and use the java -jar MediContacts.jar command to run the application. You may refer to the following video tutorials on how to run JAR files:

    A GUI similar to that below should appear in a few seconds. Note how the app will initially contain 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.
    Here are some example commands you can try out:

    • list: Lists all contacts.

    • list-doctor: Lists all doctors.

    • list-patient: Lists all patients.

    • add-doctor n/Jane Doe p/98765432 e/janedoe@example.com a/123 Clementi Ave 3 s/Orthopedics: Adds a doctor named Jane Doe to the address book.

    • add-patient n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johndoe@example.com a/123 Clementi Ave 3 d/23-04-1987 g/M: Adds a patient named John Doe to the address book.

    • add-appt pn/John Doe dn/Jane Doe d/23-12-2024 t/1100: Adds an appointment between a patient named John Doe and a doctor named Jane Doe on 23rd December 2024 (1100hrs).

    • delete-appt 1231996014: Deletes the appointment with the unique ID 1231996014. Refer to the UI screenshot above to know where to identify appointment IDs.

    • find John: Finds contacts whose names contain the keyword John.

    • find-doctor Jane: Finds doctors whose names contain the keyword Jane.

    • find-patient John: Finds patients whose names contain the keyword John.

    • delete 3: Deletes the 3rd contact currently displayed in the list.

    • clear: Deletes all contacts.

    • exit: Exits the app.

  6. Refer to the Features below for details of each command.

Features

:information_source: Notes about the command format:

  • Words in UPPER_CASE are the parameters to be supplied by the user.
    e.g. in add-patient n/NAME, NAME is a parameter which can be supplied as add-patient n/John Doe.

  • Items in square brackets are optional.
    e.g. n/NAME [t/TAG] can be used as n/John Doe t/friend or as n/John Doe.

  • Items with …​ after them can be used multiple times including zero times.
    e.g. [t/TAG]…​ can be used as   (i.e. 0 times), t/friend, t/friend t/family etc.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • If you are using a PDF version of this document, be careful when copying and pasting commands that span multiple lines as space characters surrounding line-breaks may be omitted when copied over to the application.

Viewing help: help

Shows a message explaining how to access the help page.

help message

Format: help

Adding a doctor: add-doctor

Adds a doctor to the address book.

Format: add-doctor n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS s/SPECIALTY [t/TAG]…​

  • Doctors are uniquely identified by their names hence their names must be unique in order for them to be added.
  • The check for uniqueness is case-sensitive. e.g. Jane Doe is considered different from jane doe
:exclamation: Caution: The parameter NAME only accepts alphabetic characters and spaces. The app will reject the input if it contains any other character or is blank.
Hence for common abbreviations with special characters such as s/o or d/o, use s o, son of, d o, or daughter of instead.

Examples:

  • add-doctor n/Jane Doe p/98765432 e/janedoe@example.com a/123 Clementi Ave 3 s/Orthopedics
  • add-doctor n/Mark Tong p/91234567 e/mt@example.com a/456 Clementi Ave 3 s/Cardiology t/colleague

Adding a patient: add-patient

Adds a patient to the address book.

Format: add-patient n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS d/DATE_OF_BIRTH g/GENDER [t/TAG]…​

  • Patients are uniquely identified by their names hence their names must be unique in order for them to be added.
  • The check for uniqueness is case-sensitive. e.g. John Doe is considered different from john doe
:exclamation: Caution: The parameter NAME only accepts alphabetic characters and spaces. The app will reject the input if it contains any other character or is blank.
Hence for common abbreviations with special characters such as s/o or d/o, use s o, son of, d o, or daughter of instead.
:exclamation: Caution: The parameter DATE only accepts a valid date which is less than 32. For months with less than 31 days, entering a date that is too large but below 32 will be automatically corrected. (e.g. 30-02-2024 will return 29-02-2024)

Examples:

  • add-patient n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johndoe@example.com a/123 Clementi Ave 3 d/23-04-1987 g/M
  • add-patient n/Kennedy Koh p/91234567 e/kk@example.com a/456 Clementi Ave 3 d/01-05-1950 g/M t/elderly

Adding an appointment: add-appt

Adds an appointment between a doctor and patient, at a specified date and time, to the address book.

Format: add-appt pn/PATIENT_NAME dn/DOCTOR_NAME d/DATE t/TIME

:exclamation: Caution: The parameter PATIENT_NAME and DOCTOR_NAME are case-sensitive, and must be an exact match of respective names in the address book. The app will reject the input if it contains unknown doctors or patients.
:exclamation: Caution: The parameter DATE only accepts a valid date which is less than 32. For months with less than 31 days, entering a date that is too large but below 32 will be automatically corrected. (e.g. 30-02-2024 will return 29-02-2024)

Examples:

  • add-appt pn/John Doe dn/Jane Doe d/23-04-2024 t/1100

Deleting an appointment: delete-appt

Deletes the specified appointment from the address book.

Format: delete-appt UNIQUE_ID

  • Deletes the appointment tagged to the UNIQUE_ID.

Examples:

  • delete-appt 1231

Listing all persons: list

Shows a list of all persons in the address book.

Format: list

Listing all doctors: list-doctor

Shows a list of all doctors in the address book.

Format: list-doctor

Listing all patients: list-patient

Shows a list of all patients in the address book.

Format: list-patient

Finding persons by name: find

Finds persons whose names contain any of the given keywords.

Format: find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

  • The app will only search for persons with matching names.
  • The search is case-insensitive. e.g. hans will match Hans
  • Partial matches will be successful. e.g. Hans B will match Hans Bo
  • The order of the keywords matter. e.g. Hans Bo will not match Bo Hans
  • The search is done using all keywords together as a single input, and not using each keyword separately.
    e.g. Hans B will match both Hans Bo and Hans Bone, but H B will not match either one
  • Only persons matching the entire input will be returned (i.e. AND search).
    e.g. Hans Bo will not match Hans Gruber or Bo Yang
:exclamation: Caution: Keywords provided must only consist of alphabets. Any other character provided will result in an empty list being returned.

Examples:

  • find jane returns Jane Doe
  • find doe returns John Doe and Jane Doe
    result for 'find john jane'

Finding doctors by name: find-doctor

Finds doctors whose names contain any of the given keywords.

Format: find-doctor KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

  • The app will only search for doctors with matching names.
  • The search is case-insensitive. e.g. hans will match Hans
  • Partial matches will be successful. e.g. Hans B will match Hans Bo
  • The order of the keywords matter. e.g. Hans Bo will not match Bo Hans
  • The search is done using all keywords together as a single input, and not using each keyword separately.
    e.g. Hans B will match both Hans Bo and Hans Bone, but H B will not match either one
  • Only doctors matching the entire input will be returned (i.e. AND search).
    e.g. Hans Bo will not match Hans Gruber or Bo Yang
:exclamation: Caution: Keywords provided must only consist of alphabets. Any other character provided will give an invalid argument error.

Examples:

  • find-doctor jane returns Jane Doe.
  • find-doctor jane doe returns Jane Doe.

Finding patients by name: find-patient

Finds patients whose names contain any of the given keywords.

Format: find-patient KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

  • The app will only search for patients with matching names.
  • The search is case-insensitive. e.g. hans will match Hans
  • Partial matches will be successful. e.g. Hans B will match Hans Bo
  • The order of the keywords matter. e.g. Hans Bo will not match Bo Hans
  • The search is done using all keywords together as a single input, and not using each keyword separately.
    e.g. Hans B will match both Hans Bo and Hans Bone, but H B will not match either one
  • Only patients matching the entire input will be returned (i.e. AND search).
    e.g. Hans Bo will not match Hans Gruber or Bo Yang
:exclamation: Caution: Keywords provided must only consist of alphabets. Any other character provided will give an invalid argument error.

Examples:

  • find-patient john returns John Doe.
  • find-patient john doe returns John Doe.

Deleting a person: delete

Deletes the specified person from the address book.

Format: delete INDEX

  • Deletes the person at the specified INDEX.
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the currently displayed list.
  • The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
:exclamation: Caution: Before deleting a doctor or patient, ensure that there are no appointments associated with them. Otherwise, deleting that doctor or patient will give an error, prompting the user to delete all appointments associated with them first.

Examples:

  • list-patient followed by delete 2 deletes the 2nd patient in the address book.
  • find-doctor Jane followed by delete 1 deletes the 1st doctor in the results of the find-doctor command.

Clearing all entries: clear

Clears all entries from the address book.

Format: clear

Exiting the program: exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Saving the data

MediContacts data are saved in the hard disk automatically after any command modifies the data. There is no need for users to save manually.

:exclamation: Caution: The app can only save a maximum of 10,000 appointments. If the limit is reached, the app may react in unexpected ways. Therefore, ensure that the data file is regularly archived to prevent data loss and any unexpected behaviour.

Editing the data file

MediContacts data are saved automatically as a JSON file [WORKING DIRECTORY]/data/addressbook.json, where [WORKING DIRECTORY] is the directory the user is running the JAR file. Advanced users are welcomed to update the data directly by editing that data file.

:exclamation: Caution: If your changes to the data file makes its format invalid, MediContacts will discard all data and start with an empty data file at the next run. Hence, it is recommended to save a backup of the file before editing it.
Furthermore, certain edits can cause the app 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 will update it correctly.

Archiving data files [coming in v2.0]

Details coming soon …

Marking appointments: mark [coming in v2.0]

Details coming soon …

Unmarking appointments: unmark [coming in v2.0]

Details coming soon …

Listing appointments: list-appt [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 there. Do this with the file that contains the data of your MediContacts app in your previous computer.

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.