Welcome to CLInkedIn User Guide!

Welcome to the CLInkedIn User Guide!

CLInkedIn is a desktop address book application made for Recruiting and Hiring Managers to keep track of candidates and their job applications.

The application is 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, CLInkedIn can get your recruitment tasks done faster than traditional GUI apps.

If you are a recruiter who is using CLInkedIn, or someone who is curious to find out more about CLInkedIn and its features, here is a table summarising what we offer!

The photo above is a screenshot of what you will see when you launch CLInkedIn.

In this user guide, you will find instructions on how to install CLInkedIn and a guide on how to use CLInkedIn’s numerous features.

Table of Contents

• Using this Guide
• Useful Notations and Glossary
• Quick start
• Features
  • Viewing help help
  • Adding/Deleting candidates in CLInkedIn
    • Adding a candidate add
    • Deleting a candidate delete
  • Adding/Editing/Deleting Tag Types in CLInkedIn
    • Creating a custom tag type createTagType
    • Editing tag type name editTagType
    • Deleting an existing tag type deleteTagType
  • Modifying entries in CLInkedIn
    • Editing a candidate edit
    • Adding an optional tag addTag
    • Deleting an optional tag deleteTag
    • Adding optional information addNote
    • Deleting optional information deleteNote
    • Adding optional rating addRate
    • Deleting optional rating deleteRate
    • Adding optional links addLink
    • Deleting optional links deleteLink
    • Adding multiple attributes to candidates at once addTo
  • Modifying contacts view in CLInkedIn
    • Viewing the details of a person view
    • Listing all persons list
    • Sorting candidates based on rating sort
    • Finding personal information and tags find
    • Clearing all contacts clear
    • Undoing previous command undo
    • Redoing previous command redo
    • Viewing statistics stats
    • Exporting the data in CLInkedIn export
    • Importing data into CLInkedIn import
    • Exiting CLInkedIn exit
  • Miscellaneous Features/Commands
    • Saving the data
    • Editing the data file
• FAQ
• Command Summary

Using this guide

• If you are just setting up, please take a look at Quick start.
• If you are unsure of how to use CLInkedIn, the Command Summary table is a good place to start.
• If you are a developer and want to help out, please take a look at the CLInkedIn Developer Guide.

Useful Notations and Glossary

While exploring CLInkedIn’s features with this user guide, do take note of these symbols used in the user guide and what information they represent.

Symbol	Meaning
	Important information
	Warning or caution
	Additional information such as tips or notes
	Help with common technical issues

The following glossary table provides clarification of the terms commonly used in CLInkedIn:

Quick start

1. Ensure you have Java 11 or above installed in your Computer.

2. Download the latest CLInkedIn.jar from here.

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

4. Double-click the file to start the app. The 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 open the help window.
   Some example commands you can try:

   • list : Lists all contacts.

   • addn/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01 s/Application Received : Adds a contact named John Doe to the Address Book.

   • delete3 : 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

You can use this command to view a message explaining how to access the help page, as well as a list of commands and their descriptions. Alternatively, you can obtain help on a specific command by typing help followed by the command name.

Above is a screenshot of the help pop up window when the help command is input.

Format:

• help will open the help window in a separate window containing a list of commands and their usages.
• help COMMAND will display the command usage for COMMAND in the result display.

Warning: help will automatically parse any inputs given after the command word help as a command name. If the command name is invalid, an error message will be displayed in the result display.

Examples:

• help will open the help window.
• help add will display the usage of the add command.
• help 123 will display an error message as 123 is not a valid command name.

Adding/Deleting candidates in CLInkedIn

You can add or delete candidates from your address book in CLInkedIn.

Adding a candidate: add

Adds a candidate to the address book.

Format: add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS s/STATUS [note/NOTE] [st/SKILL_TAG] [dt/DEGREE_TAG] [jtt/JOB_TYPE_TAG] [<alias>/TAG]…​ [rate/RATING] [l/LINK]…​

• By default, you can add 3 types of tags - SKILL_TAG, DEGREE_TAG, JOB_TYPE_TAG.

• Alternatively, you can create your own custom tag type and alias for it. See createTagType command.

Examples:

• add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01 s/OA in Progress st/Java dt/Bachelors jt/Internship rate/4 adds a candidate of name John Doe, phone number 98765432, email johnd@example.com, address John street, block 123, #01-01, status OA, skill tag Java, degree tag Bachelors, job tag of Internship and rating of 4.
• add n/Betsy Crowe st/java e/betsycrowe@example.com a/Newgate Prison p/1234567 s/Rejected adds a candidate of name Betsy Crowe, skill tag of java, email of betsycrowe@example.com, address of Newgate Prison and status of Rejected.

Tip: You can have any number and any kind of tags (including 0).

Deleting a candidate : delete

Deletes the candidate of that index from the address book.

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

Adding/Editing/Deleting Tag Types in CLInkedIn

You can create, edit and delete tag types in CLInkedIn.

Creating a custom tag type: createTagType

Creates a custom tag type apart from the existing Skill, Degree, and Job Type tag types.

Format: createTagType TAG_TYPE TAG_ALIAS

• Creates a new TAG_TYPE tag type.
• TAG_ALIAS can be used to add tags to this custom tag type.

Example:

• createTagType GPA gpat creates a tag type GPA with gpat as its tag alias.

Tip: You can use existing tag types: Skill st/ , or Degree dt/, or Job Type jtt/.

Editing tag type name: editTagType

Edits the name and alias of an existing tag type to NEW_TAG_TYPE and NEW_TAG_ALIAS

Format: editTagType OLD_TAG_TYPE-NEW_TAG_TYPE OLD_TAG_ALIAS-NEW_TAG_ALIAS

Example: editTagType GPA-Grade gpat-grdt edits name of the GPA tag type to Grade and its tag alias from gpat to grdt

Deleting an existing tag type: deleteTagType

Deletes an existing tag type and its corresponding tag alias.

Format: deleteTagType TAG_TYPE

Example: deleteTagType GPA deletes the GPA tag type.

Modifying entries in CLInkedIn

You can modify the information about the candidates saved in CLInkedIn using the following functions.

Editing a candidate : edit

Edits an existing candidate in the address book.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NEW_NAME] [p/NEW_PHONE] [e/NEW_EMAIL] [a/NEW_ADDRESS] [s/NEW_STATUS] [st/OLD_SKILL_TAG-NEW_SKILL_TAG] [dt/OLD_DEGREE_TAG-NEW_DEGREE_TAG] [jtt/OLD_JOB_TYPE_TAG-NEW_JOB_TYPE_TAG] [<custom_tag_prefix>/OLD_TAG-NEW_TAG] [note/NEW_NOTE] [rate/NEW_RATING] [l/NEW_LINK]…​

• 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.

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 dt/Bachelors-Masters edits the Degree tag Bachelors of the 2nd person to be Masters.
• edit 3 n/PersonA n/PersonB edits the name of the 3rd person first to PersonA and then to PersonB. Hence the final name of 3rd person is set to PersonB.
• edit 2 l/https://github.com/JohnDoe l/https://instagram.com/JohnDoe edits by replacing all existing links with the provided links.

Note:> * While editing the Skill tags, you can rename the existing OLD_SKILL of the person to NEW_SKILL provided the Skill Tag Type has not been deleted (Same for Degree, JobType and Custom tags).
* While editing the Notes of a person, their existing notes will be overwritten by the new input. Therefore, it is not possible to edit individual notes (i.e. if you input edit 1 note/Good at Java and the person already has a note Good at Python, the person’s note(s) will be changed to Good at Java).
* While editing the Links of a person, their existing links will be overwritten by the new input. Therefore, it is not possible to edit individual links (i.e. if you input edit 1 l/https://github.com/JohnDoe and the person already has a link https://instagram.com/JohnDoe, the person’s link(s) will be changed to https://github.com/JohnDoe). The l/ prefix can be used multiple times in the command to add multiple links.

Adding a tag to an existing candidate : addTag

Adds a tag to an existing person in the address book.

Format: addTag INDEX [st/SKILL_TAG] [dt/DEGREE_TAG] [jtt/JOB_TYPE_TAG] [<alias>/TAG]…​

• Adds a tag to 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.

Examples:

• addTag 3 st/Java Adds a Skill tag Java to the 3rd candidate.
• addTag 2 dt/Bachelors Adds a Degree tag Bachelors to the 2nd candidate.

Tip: To add multiple attributes to a candidate at once, you may use the addTo command. The addTo command parameters for adding tags are the same as the addTag command.

Deleting a tag of an existing candidate : deleteTag

Deletes a tag of an existing person in the address book.

Format: deleteTag INDEX [st/SKILL_TAG] [dt/DEGREE_TAG] [jtt/JOB_TYPE_TAG] [<alias>/TAG]…​

• Deletes an existing tag of 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.

Examples:

• deleteTag 3 st/Java Deletes the Skill tag Java of the 3rd candidate.
• deleteTag 2 dt/Bachelors Deletes the Degree tag Bachelors of the 2nd candidate.

Adding optional information: addNote

Adds additional optional information (notes) to a person

Format: addNote INDEX note/NOTE

• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
• The note’s content will be taken as the input after the note/ prefix.
• Adding multiple notes to a person at once is possible by including multiple note/ prefixes in the command. Eg. addNote 1 note/Good at Java note/Good at Python will add boths notes Good at Java and Good at Python to the 1st person in the list.

Note: A person can have any number of notes (including 0). This command will add a new note to the person, and the note will be appended to the end of the list of notes.

Warning: You may not edit individual notes to a person. You can only add a new note to a person. Please refer to the edit command for more information.

Examples:

• addNote 4 note/Strong in Java adds a note Strong in Java to the 4th person in the address book.
• Executing addNote 4 note/Has a dog sequentially appends a note Has a dog to the 4th person in the address book. The person now has two notes.

Tip: To add multiple attributes to a candidate at once, you may use the addTo command. The addTo command parameters for adding notes are the same as the addNote command.

Deleting optional information: deleteNote

Deletes optional information (notes) of a person.

Format: deleteNote INDEX

• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Example:

• deleteNote 4 deletes all notes of the 4th person in the address book.

Note: This command will delete all the notes of the person. CLInkedIn does not support deleting individual notes. Calling this command will delete all the notes of the person. If you wish to edit the existing notes of the person, please refer to the edit command for more information.

Adding optional rating: addRate

Adds rating, a numerical representation of candidates, to make quick comparisons between candidates.

Format: addRate INDEX rate/<RATING>

• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
• The rating must be an integer between 1 and 10 inclusive.

Example:

• addRate 2 rate/5 adds a rating of 5 to the 2nd person in the address book.

Warning: rate/0 is not a valid rating. If you input addRate 1 rate/0, there will be no rating shown. If you input edit 1 rate/0, you will remove the current rating of the candidate.

Tip: To add multiple attributes to a candidate at once, you may use the addTo command. The addTo command parameters for adding a rating are the same as the addRate command.

Deleting optional rating: deleteRate

Deletes rating of candidates.

Format: deleteRate INDEX

• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Example:

• deleteRate 4 deletes the rating of the 4th candidate in the address book.

Adding optional links: addLink

Add links to candidate’s online profiles/websites. Once added you can simply click on the icon and you will be redirected to the webpage.

Format: addLink INDEX l/<LINK>

• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
• The link must be a valid link with a protocol.

Example:

• addLink 2 l/https://www.instagram.com l/https://github.com adds links to the instagram and github page ` to the 2nd candidate in the address book.

Note: If the link is not a platform recognised by CLInkedIn (LinkedIn, GitHub, Instagram, Telegram, Twitter, Snapchat, Discord, Facebook) then a general icon for links is displayed.

Tip: To add multiple attributes to a candidate at once, you may use the addTo command. The addTo command parameters for adding links are the same as the addLink command.

Deleting optional links: deleteLink

Deletes all links of a candidate.

Format: deleteLink 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:

• deleteLink 4 deletes all links of the 4th candidate in the address book.

Adding multiple attributes to candidates at once: addTo

Adds multiple attributes to a candidate at once. This incorporates the addTag, addNote, addRate and addLink commands. This command is useful when you want to add multiple attributes to a candidate at once, using the prefixes of the aforementioned commands.

Format: addTo INDEX [<alias>/TAG]…​ [note/NOTE] [rate/RATING] [l/LINK]…​

• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
• The prefixes are optional, but at least one of them must be provided.
• The prefixes of the attributes to be added must be used.
• The attributes to be added must be valid.

Examples:

• addTo 1 st/Java st/Python adds the skill tags Java and Python to the 1st candidate.
• addTo 2 note/Strong in Java adds a note Strong in Java to the 2nd candidate.
• addTo 3 rate/5 adds a rating of 5 to the 3rd candidate.
• addTo 4 l/https://www.instagram.com l/https://github.com adds links to instagram (https://www.instagram.com) and github (https://github.com) pages to the 4th candidate.
• addTo 5 st/Java rate/5 note/Strong in Java adds the skill tag Java, a rating of 5 and a note Strong in Java to the 5th candidate.

Note: The addTo command requires all parameters to follow the correct format as specified in the addTag, addNote, addRate and addLink commands.

Modifying contacts view in CLInkedIn

You can use the following commands to modify how the contacts are displayed.

Viewing the details of a person : view

Show details of a candidate in CLInkedIn.

Format: view 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:

• view 2 views the details of the 2nd person in CLInkedIn.
• Clicking on the 2nd person’s card in the person list will also show the details of the 2nd person.

Tip: Alternatively to view the information of a specific person, you can also click on the person’s card in the person list.

Listing all persons : list

Shows a list of all persons in CLInkedIn.

Format: list

Sorting candidates based on Rating: sort

Sorts candidates in CLInkedIn according to their rating given. Candidates will be sorted according to their ratings in descending order (highest rating to lowest).

Format: sort

Example:

• sort will return a list of the candidates, sorted in order of descending rating.

Note: Recall that rating is an optional field for a candidate. Thus, candidates with no ratings given will be displayed at the bottom, after candidates with a rating.

Below is a picture of the interface before the sort command is executed.

Below is a picture of the interface after the sort command is executed, where candidates are listed from the highest rating to the lowest rating.

Finding personal information and tags: find

Finds candidates whose personal information and tags contain any of the given keywords.

There are 2 types of find commands: general find and find by prefix.

General find:

• Any keywords after the command will be searched for in the personal information and tags of all candidates.

find by prefix:

• Prefixes are used to specify which fields to search for the keywords in.

Format: find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS] or find [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [s/STATUS] [rate/RATING] [MORE_TAGGED_KEYWORDS]...

Note - 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 - The personal information and tags will be searched. - Partial words will be matched e.g. Han will match Hans - Persons matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search). - Search can be further refined by specifying the type of tag to search for.

Examples:

• find John returns john and John Doe
• find Java returns list of candidates with Java skills
• find Hans Bo will return Hans Gruber, Bo Yang
• find alex david returns Alex Yeoh, David Li
• find n/John returns John Doe
• find n/alex n/david returns Alex Yeoh, David Li
• find s/application pending returns list of candidates with status application pending
• find n/John p/867 returns John Doe with phone number 8675309

Clearing all contacts : clear

Clears all entries from the address book.

Format: clear

Undoing previous command: undo

Reverts the address book to the state before the previous command was executed.

Format: undo

Tip: - Undo can be used multiple times to undo multiple commands. - Features that modify contacts view (sort, view) cannot be undone.

Redoing previous command: redo

Reverts the address book to the state before the previous undo command was executed.

Format: redo

Tip: - Redo can be used multiple times to redo multiple commands.

Viewing Statistics based on ratings of candidates: stats

Views rating statistics of the candidates currently saved in CLInkedIn.

Note: Only shows statistics of candidates in the current filtered list. - If the find command is used and only 5 candidates are shown, then only the statistics of these 5 candidates will be shown when stats is used.

Format: stats

Example:

• stats displays the rating statistics of the candidates in the current filtered list.

Exporting the data in CLInkedIn: export

Exports the data for the displayed list of candidates to the specified location in the specified format.

Format: export path/PATH_WITH_NAME_OF_FILE_TO_BE_EXPORTED_TO

• The path specified must be an absolute path.
• The format of the file must be JSON or CSV.
• Any directory in the path which does not exist will automatically be created.
• Only the displayed list of candidates will be exported.

Examples:

• export path//Desktop/sample/data.csv exports the displayed list of candidates to data.csv in the sample directory of the Desktop (Sample path for MACOS).
• export path/C:\Users\John\Desktop\data.json exports the displayed list of candidates to data.json in the Desktop (Sample path for WINDOWS).

Tip: Alternatively to export files using GUI, you can either go to Export -> Export in the Menu Bar or enter the command export. The following window will open on doing so:


Now you can easily export the displayed list of candidates by selecting a location and providing a name for the resultant file.

Importing data into CLInkedIn: import

Imports the data for candidates from the specified file.

Format: import path/PATH_WITH_NAME_OF_FILE_TO_BE_IMPORTED_FROM

• The path specified must be an absolute path.
• The format of the file must be JSON or CSV.
• The data being imported will be merged with the existing data in CLInkedIn.
• Candidates whose name already exists in CLInkedIn will be ignored.

Examples:

• import path//Desktop/sample/data.csv imports the list of candidates from data.csv in the sample directory of the Desktop to the address book (Sample path for MACOS).
• import path/C:\Users\John\Desktop\data.json imports the list of candidates from data.json in the Desktop to the address book (Sample path for WINDOWS).

Tip: Alternatively to import files using GUI, you can either go to Import -> Import in the Menu Bar or enter the command import. The following window will open on doing so:


Now you can easily select a file to import into the addressbook.

Exiting CLInkedIn : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

• Alternatively, you can also go to File -> Exit in the Menu Bar.

Miscellaneous Features/Commands

The following miscellaneous features are implemented in CLInkedIn and are available to users.

Saving the data

CLInkedIn 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

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

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

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 CLInkedIn home folder.

Q: What are the available commands?
A: Refer to the Command Summary for a list of available commands. Alternatively, from the main window of CLInkedIn, you can type help to view the list of available commands.

Q: How do I save my data?
A: CLInkedIn data are saved in the hard disk automatically after any command that changes the data. There is no need to save manually.

Q: How do I import data from a file?
A: Refer to the Importing data into CLInkedIn section for more details.

Q: How do I export data to a file?
A: Refer to the Exporting the data in CLInkedIn section for more details.

Q: What are the available formats for importing and exporting data?
A: CLInkedIn supports importing and exporting data in CSV and JSON formats.

Command summary