TAHub User Guide

TAHub (TAHub) is a desktop app for Teaching Assistants (TAs) to efficiently manage student-related information, optimized for use via a Command Line Interface (CLI) while still offering the benefits of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). If you can type fast, TAHub can handle your tasks faster than traditional GUI apps.

Designed to streamline the workflow of TAs, TAHub goes beyond basic contact management by including powerful features such as calculating aggregate scores, marking attendance, and tracking grades. These functionalities make it an essential tool for TAs looking to manage student records and assessments effectively. If you're new to CLI-based apps, a comprehensive Quick Start section is available to help you get up to speed quickly and confidently.

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Glossary

• CLI: Command Line Interface, where you type commands to interact with the application.
• GUI: Graphical User Interface, where you interact with the application through visual elements like buttons and windows.
• Index: The position of a person in the currently displayed list. For example, in a list of 5 contacts, the command delete 3 would remove the third contact shown in that list. The value provided should be a positive integer smaller than 2147483648.
• JSON: JavaScript Object Notation, a lightweight data format that is easy to read and write for humans and easy to parse and generate for machines. TAHub saves its data in a TAHub.json file, which contains structured information about contacts, grades, and attendance records.

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 TAHub.

4. Open a command terminal, cd into the folder you put the jar file in, and use the java -jar TAHub.jar command to run the application.
   A GUI similar to the one below should appear in a few seconds.

   

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.
   • add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com c/CS2103/T
     Adds a contact named John Doe to the TAHub.
   • 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.

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Quick Start (Detailed)

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

   • Check if Java is installed:

     1. Open your command terminal:
        • Windows:: Press Windows + R, type cmd, and hit Enter.
        • Mac: Press Command + Space, type Terminal, and hit Enter.
        • Linux: Press Ctrl + Alt + T, or search for "Terminal" in your applications menu.
     2. Once the terminal is open, type the following command and press Enter:

        java -version
        

     3. If your system has Java 17 or above, you should see something like:
        

        java version "17.0.x" 2024-xx-xx LTS
        

     4. If your Java version is lower than 17, proceed to the next step to install Java.
        
        

   • Install Java 17 if not installed:

     1. Go to Oracle's Java 17 download page.
     2. Download and install the appropriate Java Development Kit (JDK) for your operating system by following the instructions provided.
     3. After installation, repeat the java -version command to ensure Java is properly installed.
        
        

2. Download the latest .jar file from here.

   1. Visit the GitHub releases page.
   2. Download the .jar file (TAHub.jar) from the latest release.
   3. Save the .jar file to the folder where you want to store your TAHub project.
      
      

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

   1. Windows:
      • Locate the downloaded .jar file in your Downloads folder.
      • Right-click on the .jar file, select Copy.
      • Navigate to the folder where you want to store the TAHub, right-click and select Paste.
   2. Mac:
      • Open the Finder and go to your Downloads folder.
      • Right-click (or Control + Click) on the .jar file and choose Copy.
      • Go to the folder where you want to keep the file, then right-click and select Paste.
   3. Linux:
      • Open your file manager and go to your Downloads directory.
      • Right-click on the .jar file, choose Copy.
      • Go to the destination folder, right-click and select Paste.
        
        

4. Open a command terminal, cd into the folder where you saved the .jar file, and use the following command to run the application.

   1. Windows:
      • Open the folder where you saved the .jar file.
      • To get the full path of the folder:
        1. Right-click on the folder and select Properties.
        2. In the General tab, you will see the Location field. Copy the location path. (Alternatively, you can navigate to the folder, click on the address bar at the top, and copy the full folder path (e.g. C:\Users\YourName\Documents\TAHub))
      • Open the Command Prompt:
        • Press Windows + R, type cmd, and press Enter.
      • Use the cd command and paste the copied path to change to the directory where the .jar file is located. Example:

        cd C:\Users\YourName\Documents\TAHub
        

      • Run the app with:

        java -jar TAHub.jar
        
   2. Mac/Linux:
      • Open the Terminal by searching for it or using Ctrl + Alt + T.
      • To get the full path of the folder where the .jar file is located:
        • Open Finder or File Explorer.
        • Navigate to the folder where you saved the .jar file.
        • Right-click on the folder and choose Get Info (Mac) or Properties (Linux) to see the full path, or press Cmd + Option + C (Mac) to copy the path.
      • Use the cd command and paste the copied path to change to the directory where the .jar file is located. Example:

        cd /Users/YourName/Documents/TAHub
        

      • Run the app with:

        java -jar TAHub.jar
        

   After a few seconds, the GUI similar to the one below should appear:

   
   
   

5. Type commands in the command box and press Enter to execute them.
   Some example commands you can try:

   • list
     Lists all contacts.
   • add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com c/CS2103/T
     Adds a contact named John Doe to the TAHub.
   • delete 3
     Deletes the 3rd contact shown in the current list.
   • clear
     Deletes all contacts.
   • exit
     Exits the app.
     
     

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

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Features

Below is a summary of the available commands in TAHub, with links to detailed explanations:

• Viewing help
• Adding a person
• Listing all persons
• Editing a person
• Locating persons by name
• Deleting a person
• Adding or editing a grade
• Deleting a grade from a person
• Performing grade aggregation operations
• Marking attendance
• Unmarking attendance
• Filtering people who were absent
• Clearing all entries
• Exiting the program

Refer to the specific sections for a detailed guide on how to use each command.

Viewing help: help

Shows a message explaining how to access the help page.

Format: help

Expected output:

Adding a person: add

Adds a person to the TAHub.

Format: add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL c/COURSE [t/TAG]…​

• NAME, PHONE_NUMBER, and EMAIL should correspond to a valid name, phone number, and email of the person.
• COURSE refers to the course this person is taking.
• TAG refers to any additional information about the person and should only contain alphanumeric characters. A person can have any number of tags (including 0).
• There should be no person with the same email and course after adding someone.

Examples:

• add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com c/CS2103/T
• add n/Betsy Crowe t/friend e/betsycrowe@example.com c/CS1231S p/1234567 t/struggling

Expected output for add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com c/CS2103/T t/excellent:

Listing all persons: list

Shows a list of all persons in the TAHub.

Format: list

Expected output:

Editing a person: edit

Edits an existing person in the TAHub.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [c/COURSE] [t/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, …​
• There should be no person with the same email and course after editing someone.
• 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 t/ without specifying any tags after it.

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 n/Betsy Crower t/
  Edits the name of the 2nd person to be Betsy Crower and removes all tags associated with the person.

Expected output for edit 1 p/99947328 e/bcy@example.com

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 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
• 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

Expected output for find Alex David:

Deleting a person: delete

Deletes the specified person from the TAHub.

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 TAHub.
• find Alex followed by delete 1
  Deletes the 1st person in the results of the find command.

Expected output for find Alex followed by delete 1:

Adding or editing a grade: addGrade

Adds or updates a grade for a person in the TAHub. If a grade with the same test name already exists, it will be overwritten.

Format: addGrade INDEX n/TEST_NAME s/SCORE w/WEIGHTAGE

• Adds or updates a grade for 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, …​
• TEST_NAME refers to the name of the test (e.g. Midterm Exam). The test name will be automatically converted to lowercase.
• SCORE refers to the score obtained by the person, which must be between 0 and 100 inclusive.
• WEIGHTAGE refers to the weightage of the test in percentage, which must be between 0 and 100 inclusive. Weightages of 0 are allowed for tests that are formative in nature.
• If a grade with the same TEST_NAME exists, it will be updated with the new SCORE and WEIGHTAGE.

Examples:

• addGrade 2 n/Midterm s/85 w/30
  Adds or updates a grade for the 2nd person in the list with a score of 85% for a test named "Midterm" with a 30% weightage.
• find Alex followed by addGrade 1 n/midterm s/85 w/30
  Adds or updates a grade for the 1st person in the results of the find command with a score of 92% for "Final Exam" and 30% weightage.

Expected output for addGrade 1 n/midterm s/85 w/30:

Deleting a grade from a person: deleteGrade

Deletes a grade for a person in the TAHub.

Format: deleteGrade INDEX n/TEST_NAME

• Deletes the grade for the specified TEST_NAME for 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, …​
• TEST_NAME refers to the name of the test whose grade you want to delete.

Examples:

• deleteGrade 2 n/Midterm
  Deletes the grade for the "Midterm" test for the 2nd person in the list.
• find Betsy followed by deleteGrade 1 n/Final Exam
  Deletes the "Final Exam" grade for the 1st person in the results of the find command.

Expected output for deleteGrade 1 n/midterm:

Performing grade aggregation operations: aggGrade

Performs aggregation operation on the current filtered list of people.

Format: aggGrade OPERATION [n/TEST_NAME]

OPERATION can be:

• var: Taking variance
• stddev: Taking standard deviation
• mean: Taking mean
• max: Taking maximum
• min: Taking minimum
• median: Taking median

Without the [n/TEST_NAME] parameter, the command performs the selected aggregation OPERATION on the overall grade of the current filtered list. This includes persons without any grades listed, for which the overall grade is taken as 0.00.

When adding in the [n/TEST_NAME] parameter, the behaviour of the command changes to perform the selected aggregation OPERATION only on TEST_NAME tests of the current filtered list. This will only include persons who have the specified test recorded in their grade list.

Example:

• aggGrade mean
  Shows the mean of the overall grade of the current filtered list.
  Expected output:

  

  In this example, aggGrade mean calculates the mean of the overall grades of Alex Yeoh and Bernice Yu, which are 86.40 and 87.00 respectively.

• aggGrade min
  Shows the minimum of the overall grade of the current filtered list (including persons with no grades).
  Expected output:

  

  In this example, aggGrade min calculates the minimum of the overall grades of Alex Yeoh and Bernice Yu, which are 77.50 and 92.50 respectively.

• aggGrade mean n/final
  Shows the mean for final tests of the current filtered list.
  Expected output:

  

  In this example, aggGrade mean n/final calculates the mean of the final grades of persons who have their final tests recorded in their grade list. Only Alex Yeoh and Bernice Yu have their final marks recorded, which are 87.00 and 90.00 respectively. Other persons like Charlotte Oliveiro who currently do not have a grade for 'final' are not included in the calculation.

Marking attendance: mark

Marks the attendance record for the specified date for a person in the TAHub. If the attendance record for that date already exists, it will be overwritten.

Format: mark INDEX d/DATE_TIME m/ATTENDANCE

• Adds or updates attendance for 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, …​
• DATE_TIME refers to the date and time of attendance that you want to add or edit. It must be written in the format dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm.
• ATTENDANCE refers to the attendance status, which must be either Attended or Absent. They are not case-sensitive.
• If the attendance record for DATE_TIME already exists, it will be updated with the new ATTENDANCE.

Examples:

• mark 2 d/31/01/2024 10:00 m/Attended
  Sets the attendance to 'Attended' on the 10 AM of January 31st, 2024 for the 2nd person in the list.
• find Alex followed by mark 1 d/31/01/2024 12:00 m/Absent
  Sets the attendance to 'Absent' on 12 PM of January 31st, 2024 for the 1st person in the results of the find command.

Expected output for mark 1 d/31/01/2024 12:00 m/absent:

Unmarking attendance: unmark

Deletes the attendance record for the specified date for a person in the TAHub. All the remaining attendance records for that person will be retained.

Format: unmark INDEX d/DATE_TIME

• Deletes attendance for 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, …​
• DATE_TIME refers to the date and time of attendance that you want to delete. It must be written in the format dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm.

Examples:

• unmark 2 d/31/01/2024 10:00
  Deletes the attendance on the 10 AM of January 31st, 2024 for the 2nd person in the list.
• find Alex followed by unmark 1 d/31/01/2024 12:00
  Deletes the attendance on 12 PM of January 31st, 2024 for the 1st person in the results of the find command.

Expected output for unmark 1 d/31/01/2024 12:00:

Filtering people who were absent: absentees

Finds all people who were absent on the specified date and time.

Format: absentees d/DATE_TIME

• DATE_TIME refers to the date and time for which you want to find people who were absent. It must be written in the format dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm.
• Note that people who were present at the specified date and time will not be shown.

Examples:

• absentees d/31/01/2024 10:00
  Finds all people who were absent on the 10 AM of January 31st, 2024.

Expected output for absentees d/31/01/2024 10:00:

Clearing all entries: clear

Clears all entries from the TAHub.

Format: clear

Expected output:

Exiting the program: exit

Exits the program and closes.

Format: exit

Saving the data

TAHub 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

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

Archiving data files [coming in v2.0]

Details coming soon ...

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FAQ

Q: How do I transfer my data to another computer?
A: To transfer your TAHub data to another computer, follow these steps:

1. Locate the Data File on Your Current Computer:
   • Open the folder where TAHub saves its data. By default, the data file is located at [JAR file location]/data/TAHub.json.
   • If you installed TAHub in a custom folder, look for the data folder within that location.
   • Copy the TAHub.json file to a USB drive, cloud storage, or any other method you prefer for transferring files between computers.
     
     
2. Install TAHub on the New Computer:
   • Download the latest .jar file from the TAHub releases page.
   • Place the .jar file in a folder on the new computer where you want to use TAHub.
     
     
3. Run TAHub Once on the New Computer:
   • Open a terminal, cd into the folder containing the .jar file, and run the command:

     java -jar TAHub.jar
     

   • This creates a new data folder in the same directory as the .jar file with an empty TAHub.json file.
     
     
4. Replace the Empty Data File:
   • Close the TAHub application on the new computer.
   • Go to the data folder where the new TAHub.json file was created.
   • Delete the empty TAHub.json file and replace it with the TAHub.json file you copied from the old computer.
     
     
5. Verify the Data Transfer:
   • Open TAHub on the new computer by running the .jar file again.
   • Check that all your contacts, grades, and attendance records appear correctly, verifying that the data has been successfully transferred.

By following these steps, you can easily transfer all your TAHub data to a new computer without losing any information.

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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. When using the add or edit command, if the name, tag, or course has a known prefix (e.g. having c/method e/a as the course name parameter), the application will interpret it as another parameter instead of being one whole parameter. The remedy is to avoid using any known prefixes inside parameters, or separate the letter and slash character with a space if absolutely necessary.

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Command Summary

Person Commands

Grade Commands

Attendance Commands

General Commands