HRConnect is a desktop app designed to streamline the allocation of human resources to projects within a company.

It is optimized for rapid use by project managers and office professionals who are skilled at typing, while still providing the benefits of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). If you prefer typing, HRConnect allows you to perform human resource management tasks much faster than other mouse-reliant apps.

:information_source: Note on copying commands from PDF version of User Guide:

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.

:information_source: Notes on User Guide formatting:

The user guide contains formatting to highlight important info. The standards used are as follows:

  • code typeface: Commands or command formats
  • Bold: Essential information
  • RED COLOR: Caution, take note
  • Hyperlink: Links to another section of the user guide, or a relevant page.
  • Italics + Hyperlink: Technical terms available in glossary

Table of Contents

Quick Start

Start here if you are new to HRConnect.

  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 HRConnect. This folder will be used to store saved data and preferences.

  4. Double-click the .jar file in the folder you placed.

    • (If this does not work: Open a command terminal, use the command cd [folder path] to navigate into the folder you put the .jar file in, and use the command java -jar HRConnect.jar to run the application.)

A GUI similar to the screenshot below should appear in a few seconds. Note how the app contains some sample data.

ui example

HRConnect keeps track of Employees, Projects and the assignments between them. HRConnect commands are tailored for managing these three items easily.

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 commands to get started

  • listemployees : Lists all employees.

  • add id/6 n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01 : Adds a contact named John Doe to the Address Book.

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

  • clear : Deletes all contacts.

  • listprojects: Lists all projects.

  • addproject pid/3 pn/Project Charlie s/Backend: Adds a project named Project Charlie with skill Backend.

  • deleteproject 3: Deletes the 3rd project in the displayed project list.

  • clearproject : Deletes all projects.

  • assign aid/1 pid/3 id/1 : Assigns Bernice Yu to Project Charlie.

  • listassignments : Lists all assignments.

  • unassign aid/1 : Undoes the assignment with Assignment ID 1.

  • exit : Exits the app.

Refer to the Features below for details of each command.

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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 n/NAME, NAME is a parameter which can be used as add 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 left out (i.e. used 0 times), used as t/friend, t/friend t/family etc.

  • Items can be in any order.
    e.g. n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER and p/PHONE_NUMBER n/NAME are the same.

  • Unnecessary parameters (i.e. not mentioned in command format) will be ignored.

  • Command words and prefixes are case-sensitive.
    e.g. EDIT 1 n/John and edit 1 N/John will raise an error.

Viewing help : help

Shows a message explaining how to access the help page.

help message

Format: help

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Employee commands

Adding an employee : add

Adds an employee to the address book.

Format: add id/EMPLOYEE_ID n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS [t/TAG]… [s/SKILL]…​

  • Employee Id must be: Numeric, no spaces, unique amongst employees
    • Employee IDs uniquely identify each employee.
    • Employee IDs are compared numerically. 0001 is treated the same as 1.
  • Name must be: Alphanumeric, spaces allowed
    • Names which require special characters should be spelt out in full. e.g. Nagaratnam s/o Suppiah should be spelt out as Nagaratnam son of Suppiah
  • Phone Number must be: Numeric, no spaces, at least 3 digits long
  • Email must be: of the format local-part@domain and follow these constraints:
    • The local-part should only contain alphanumeric characters and the special characters +_.-
    • The local-part may not start or end with special characters.
    • This is followed by a ‘@’ and then a domain name. The domain name is made up of domain labels separated by periods (e.g. u.nus.edu).
  • Address must be: Any characters are valid (except for /)
  • Skills and tags must be: Alphanumeric, no spaces, each should be 50 characters or fewer

:information_source: Note employee details:

Since each employee is uniquely identified by their employee ID, users can add employees who share the same name, or who have a common department-wide phone number, email, or address.

:bulb: Tip: An employee can have any number of tags (including 0) and any number of skills (including 0)

Examples:

  • add id/1 n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01
  • add id/2 n/Betsy Crowe t/friend e/betsycrowe@example.com a/Newgate Prison p/1234567 t/criminal s/lockpicking

Expected output:

  • System message noting success and details of employee edited

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Listing all employees : listemployees

Shows a list of all employees in the address book.

Format: listemployees

Expected output:

  • System message noting success
  • All employees shown in the displayed employee list
  • Result for listemployees with sample data: result for `listemployees`

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Editing an employee : edit

Edits an existing employee in the address book.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [t/TAG]… [s/SKILL]…​

  • Edits the employee at the specified INDEX. The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed employee 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 employee will be removed i.e. adding of tags is not cumulative.
  • When editing skills, the existing skills of the employee will be removed i.e. adding of skills is not cumulative.
  • You can remove all the employee’s tags by typing t/ without specifying any tags after it.
  • You can remove all the employee’s skills by typing s/ without specifying any skills after it.
  • You cannot edit an employee’s employee id. More specifically, you are not allowed to specify id/EMPLOYEEID in the edit command.

Examples:

  • edit 1 p/91234567 e/johndoe@example.com Edits the phone number and email address of the 1st employee to be 91234567 and johndoe@example.com respectively.
  • edit 2 n/Betsy Crower t/ Edits the name of the 2nd employee to be Betsy Crower and clears all existing tags.

Expected output:

  • System message noting success and details of employee edited

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Filtering employees by skills : filter

Finds employees who have at least one skill or tag matching at least one of the search items.

Format: filter [s/SKILL]... [t/TAG]...

  • The search is case-insensitive. e.g. s/webdev will match s/WebDev.
  • The order of the search items does not matter. e.g. s/frontend s/backend t/swe t/devops will also match contacts with t/swe s/frontend t/devops s/backend.
  • Only the skills and tags are searched.
  • Only full words will be matched. e.g. s/database will not match the skill databases.
  • All employees who have at least one skill or tag matching any one search item will be returned.

Examples:

  • filter s/frontend returns all employees with the skill frontend.
  • filter s/frontend t/swe returns all employees who have either the skill frontend, the tag swe, or both.

Expected output:

  • System message noting success
  • Employees with skills above shown in the displayed employee list
  • Result for filter t/colleagues: result for 'filter t/colleagues'

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Locating employees by name : find

Finds employees 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 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
  • Employees 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

Expected output:

  • System message noting success
  • Employees matching criteria above shown in the displayed employee list
  • Result for find alex david with sample data: result for 'find alex david'

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Deleting an employee : delete

Deletes the specified employee and all its assignments from the address book.

Format: delete INDEX

  • Deletes the employee at the specified INDEX.
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed employee list.
  • The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

  • listemployees followed by delete 2 deletes the 2nd employee in the address book.
  • find Betsy followed by delete 1 deletes the 1st employee in the results of the find command.

Expected output:

  • System message noting success
  • Deleted employee vanishes from displayed employee list

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Clearing all employee entries : clear

Clears all employee entries from the address book.

:exclamation: Caution: This deletes all employee data AND their assignments!

Format: clear

Expected output:

  • System message noting success
  • Displayed employee list becomes empty

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Project commands

Adding a project : addproject

Adds a new project to HRConnect.

Format: addproject pid/PROJECT_ID pn/PROJECT_NAME [s/SKILL]...

  • Project Id must be: Numeric, no spaces, unique amongst projects
    • Project IDs uniquely identify each project.
    • Project IDs are compared numerically. 0001 is treated the same as 1.
  • Project Name must be: Alphanumeric, spaces allowed
  • Skills must be: Alphanumeric, no spaces, each should be 50 characters or fewer

Examples:

  • addproject pid/1 pn/Project Alpha
  • addproject pid/2 pn/Website UI Overhaul s/Frontend s/React

Expected output:

  • System message noting success and id + name of project added

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Listing all projects : listprojects

Shows a list of all stored projects.

Format: listprojects

Expected output:

  • System message noting success, including number of projects listed
  • All projects shown in the displayed project list
  • Result of listprojects with sample data: result for `listprojects`

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Listing all members of a project : listprojectmembers

Shows a list of all project members of the specified project.

:bulb: Tip: Users can use the listemployees and listassignments commands to reset the display to show all employees and assignments again.

Format: listprojectmembers pn/PROJECT_NAME

  • PROJECT_NAME is case-sensitive. e.g. Project will not match project
  • Only the full project name will be matched. e.g. Project or Alpha will not match Project Alpha

Expected output:

  • System message noting success, including number of members listed
  • All members shown in the displayed member list

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Editing a project : editproject

Edits an existing project in the address book.

Format: editproject INDEX [pn/NAME] [s/SKILL]…​

  • Edits the project at the specified INDEX. The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed project 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 skills, the existing skills of the project will be removed i.e. adding of skills is not cumulative.
  • You can remove all the project’s skills by typing s/ without specifying any skills after it.
  • You cannot edit a project’s id. More specifically, you are not allowed to specify pid/PROJECTID in the edit command.

Examples:

  • editproject 1 pn/ALPHA Edits the project name of the 1st project to be ALPHA.
  • editproject 2 s/Cybersecurity Edits the skill of the 2nd project to be Cybersecurity.

Expected output:

  • System message success and details of project edited

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Finding projects by name : findproject

Finds projects whose names contain any of the given keywords.

Format: findproject KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

  • The search is case-insensitive. e.g. Project will match project
  • The order of the keywords does not matter. e.g. Project Alpha will match Alpha Project
  • Only the project name is searched.
  • Only full words will be matched. e.g. Proj does not match Project
  • Any project matching at least one keyword will be returned. e.g. Project will return Project Alpha and Project Beta, etc

Examples:

  • findproject project
  • findproject Alpha Beta

Expected output:

  • System message noting success
  • Projects matching criteria above shown in the displayed project list

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Deleting a project : deleteproject

Deletes the specified project and all its assignments from HRConnect.

Format: deleteproject INDEX

  • Deletes the project at the specified INDEX
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed project list.
  • The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

  • listprojects followed by deleteproject 2 deletes the 2nd project shown.
  • findproject Alpha followed by deleteproject 1 deletes the 1st project in the results of the findproject command.

Expected output:

  • System message noting success
  • Deleted project vanishes from displayed project list

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Clear all project entries : clearproject

Clears all project entries from HRConnect.

:exclamation: Caution: This will delete all project records AND their assignments!

Format: clearproject

Expected output:

  • System message noting success
  • Displayed project list becomes empty

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Assignment commands

Create assignment : assign

Creates an assignment between an Employee and a Project.

Format: assign aid/ASSIGNMENT_ID pid/PROJECT_ID id/EMPLOYEE_ID

  • Assignment Id must be: Numeric, no spaces, unique amongst assignments
    • Assignment IDs uniquely identify each assignment.
    • Assignment IDs are compared numerically. 0001 is treated the same as 1.
  • The PROJECT_ID must belong to an existing project.
  • The EMPLOYEE_ID must belong to an existing employee.
  • There must not be an existing assignment with the same PROJECT_ID and EMPLOYEE_ID.

Examples:

  • assign aid/1 pid/1 id/1

Expected output:

  • System message noting success and information about assignment added

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List assignments : listassignments

Shows a list of all stored assignments.

Format: listassignments

Expected output:

  • System message noting success
  • All assignments shown in the assignment display list
  • Result of listassignments with sample data: result of `listassignments`

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Delete assignment : unassign

Deletes an assignment between an Employee and a Project.
This does not delete the Employee nor the Project.

Format: unassign aid/ASSIGNMENT_ID

  • The ASSIGNMENT_ID must belong to an existing assignment.

Examples:

  • unassign aid/1

Expected output:

  • System message noting the ASSIGNMENT_ID of the assignment removed.

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Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

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Traversing command history

HRConnect keeps a log of past commands entered, up to a maximum of the 50 latest commands. To access past commands, make sure that your cursor is in the command box (indicated within the red box below), then press the up (↑) and down (↓) arrow keys.

cursorInCommandBox.png

  • Press the up arrow key (↑) to navigate to the previous command.
  • Press the down arrow key (↓) to navigate to the next command.

Previously entered commands are saved to disk (up to a maximum of 50 commands). Users can navigate to previous commands from earlier sessions as commands are saved across exit(s) of the application.

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Saving the data

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

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Editing the data file

rootFileStructure.png

HRConnect data is saved automatically as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/hrconnect.json.
Advanced users are welcome to update data directly by editing this data file.

:exclamation: Caution: If your changes to the data file makes its format invalid, HRConnect will discard all data and start with an empty data file at the next run. Hence, it is recommended to backup the file before editing it.
Furthermore, certain edits can cause HRConnect 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.
If you decide to edit employee and project IDs directly in the data file, take extra caution and make sure that relevant assignments are edited to reflect the updated IDs.

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Editing the command history save file

Similar to Editing the data file, advanced users are welcome to update their command history directly by editing [JAR file location]/data/commandtexthistory.json.

:exclamation: Caution: If your changes to this file makes its format invalid, HRConnect will discard all data and start with an empty file at the next run. Hence, it is recommended to backup the file before editing it.
Like the data file, certain edits to this file can cause HRConnect to behave in unexpected ways. Therefore, edit the command history file only if you are confident of updating it correctly.

FAQ

Q: How do I install Java?
A: Download the installer (.exe or .msi) from here. Click on the downloaded file and follow the instructions to install.

Q: Where is my data stored?
A: It is stored in hrconnect.json. This is located in the data subfolder, in the folder you put HRConnect.jar in. rootFileStructure.png

Q: How do I transfer my data to another computer?
A: Install the app in the other computer and overwrite the data file it creates with the file that contains the data of your previous HRConnect home folder.

Q: I don’t see the data files anywhere.
A: You may need to run the app for the first time and run any command (such as exit) to generate these files.

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Known issues

  1. If your computer has multiple displays, if you move the application to a secondary display, and later switch to using only the primary display, the GUI will open off-screen. The user should delete the preferences.json file created by the application (in the same folder as the HRConnect.jar file) 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. Running and using multiple instances of HRConnect at the same time will result in unpredictable behavior, including inconsistent data saving and displaying.

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Command Summary

Summary of employee commands

Action Format, Examples
Add Employee add id/EMPLOYEEID n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS [t/TAG]… [s/SKILL]…​
e.g., add id/6 n/James Ho p/22224444 e/jamesho@example.com a/123, Clementi Rd, 1234665 t/friend t/colleague s/database s/backend
Clear Employees clear
Delete Employee delete INDEX
e.g., delete 3
Edit Employee edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [t/TAG]… [s/SKILL]…​
e.g.,edit 2 n/James Lee e/jameslee@example.com
Filter Employees (by skill) filter [s/SKILL]... [t/TAG]...
e.g., filter s/frontend t/swe
Find Employees (by name) find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]
e.g., find James Jake
List Employees listemployees

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Summary of project commands

Action Format, Examples
Add Project addproject pid/PROJECT_ID pn/PROJECT_NAME [s/SKILL]...
e.g., addproject pid/1 pn/Project Alpha s/Frontend
Clear Projects clearproject
Delete Project deleteproject INDEX
e.g., deleteproject 2
Edit Project editproject INDEX [pn/NAME] [s/SKILL]…​
e.g.,editproject 1 pn/Project Alpha s/Cybersecurity
Find Projects findproject KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]
e.g., findproject Alpha Beta
List Projects listprojects
List All Members of Project listprojectmembers pn/PROJECT_NAME
e.g., listprojectmembers pn/Project Alpha

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Summary of assignment commands

Action Format, Examples
Add Assignment assign aid/ASSIGNMENT_ID pid/PROJECT_ID id/EMPLOYEE_ID
e.g., assign aid/1 pid/1 id/1
Delete Assignment unassign aid/ASSIGNMENT_ID
e.g., unassign aid/1
List Assignments listassignments

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Summary of other commands

Action Format, Examples
Help help
Exit Program exit

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Glossary

List of certain technical terms / uncommon words used in this user guide.

Alphanumeric

  • Consisting of the letters A to Z (upper/lowercase) and the digits 0 to 9.

Command word

  • Word used at the beginning of each command denoting the action performed. Examples: add, listemployees, filter.

Graphical User Interface

  • A digital interface in which a user interacts with graphical components such as icons, buttons, and menus. Example: Windows 11, most websites

Java

  • The programming language HRConnect is primarily developed with.
  • It can be downloaded from here (scroll down to get to the Java 17 downloads) and installed before attempting to run HRConnect.

JSON

  • JavaScript Object Notation, a format for storing and transferring data.
  • It can be opened in Notepad, or other text or code editors.

Numeric

  • Consisting only of the digits 0 to 9.
  • Does not include the negative sign (-), the decimal point (.), spaces, or other symbols.

Prefix

  • 1 or more characters, followed by a /.
  • Used in commands to indicate a value supplied by the user. Examples: n/, id/, pid/.

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