SpamEZ 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). For fast typists, SpamEZ can complete contact management tasks faster than traditional GUI apps.

Contents

Quick start

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

  2. Download the latest spamez.jar from here.

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

  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.
    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.
    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 m/email : Adds a contact named John Doe to the contacts list.

    • delete3 : Deletes the 3rd contact shown in the current list.

    • clear : Deletes all contacts.

    • blist 2 : Blacklists the 2nd contact shown in the current list.

    • 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 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 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.

  • If a parameter is expected only once in the command but you specified it multiple times, only the last occurrence of the parameter will be taken.
    e.g. if you specify p/12341234 p/56785678, only p/56785678 will be taken.

  • Extraneous parameters for commands that do not take in parameters (such as help, list, exit, dark, light and clear) will be ignored.
    e.g. if the command specifies help 123, it will be interpreted as help.

  • Commands will only handle INDEX values from 1 to 2147483647 (inclusive). This number represents the largest possible number of contacts that can be stored using the current implementation of SpamEZ. Values out of this valid integer range will be treated as invalid inputs.

:information_source: Notes about the app limitations:

  • Names can only include alphanumeric characters.

  • Phone numbers can only contain numbers.

  • Uniqueness of each contact is decided by their email. As such, no 2 contacts can share the same email.

  • Tags cannot contain spaces.

  • The following images represent email, phone and address respectively, which are the only 3 modes of contact supported.

email phone address

Viewing help : help

Shows a message explaining how to access the help page.

help message

Format: help

Adding a person : add

Adds a person to the contacts list.

Format: add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS m/MODE_OF_CONTACT [t/TAG]…​

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

Examples:

  • add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01 m/email
  • add n/Betsy Crowe t/friend e/betsycrowe@example.com a/Newgate Prison p/1234567 m/phone t/criminal

Listing all persons : list

Shows a list of all contacts.

Format: list

Editing a person : edit

Edits an existing person in the contacts list.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [m/MODE_OF_CONTACT] [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 valid 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 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 clears all existing tags.

Adding a remark : remark

Adds an optional remark to a person in the address book. If the person already has a remark, the existing remark will be replaced.

Format: remark INDEX r/REMARK

  • Adds or replaces the remark 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 valid positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
  • By default, all newly added contacts will be displayed as having ‘No remark’.
  • You can remove a person’s remark by typing r/ without specifying any remark after it. This will cause the person to be displayed as having ‘No remark’ again.

Example:

  • remark 3 r/Currently on Stay Home Notice

Blacklisting or un-blacklisting a contact : blist

Blocks specific contacts, to specify that they do not want to be contacted. If the contact is already blacklisted, they will be un-blacklisted. Blacklisted contacts are displayed with a black background, as shown below.

blacklisted contact

Format: blist INDEX

  • Changes the blacklist status 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 valid positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
  • By default, all newly added contacts will be displayed as un-blacklisted.

Example:

  • blist 1

Blacklisting or un-blacklisting multiple contacts : massblist

Blacklist or un-blacklist all contacts within the specified index range (inclusive).

Format: massblist START-END b/BLACKLIST_OR_UNBLACKLIST

  • Changes the blacklist status of all contacts whose INDEX lies between the specified index range to either ‘blacklist’ or ‘unblacklist’ depending on the input parameter.
  • The keyword (blacklist and unblacklist) must be in lower case.
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list. Both the start index and end index must be valid positive integers 1, 2, 3, …​
  • Start index must be strictly smaller than the end index and the end index cannot be larger than the number of contacts currently displayed in the list.
  • The index range must be specified before the keyword.
    e.g. massblist b/blacklist 4-5 is treated as an invalid input.

Example:

  • Suppose you start with the following contact list: massBlacklist1 Executing massblist 1-3 b/blacklist will blacklist the first three contacts. Since the second contact is already blacklisted, it remains the same.
    massBlacklist2

Deleting a contact : delete

Deletes the specified person from the contacts list.

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 valid positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

  • list followed by delete 2 deletes the 2nd person in the contacts list.
  • find Betsy followed by delete 1 deletes the 1st person in the results of the find command.

Deleting multiple contacts : massdelete

Deletes all contacts within the specified index range (inclusive).

Format: massdelete START-END

  • Deletes all contacts whose INDEX lies between the specified index range.
  • The index refers to the number shown in the displayed person list. Both the start index and end index must be valid positive integers 1, 2, 3, …​
  • Start index must be strictly smaller than the end index and the end index cannot be larger than the number of contacts currently displayed in the list.

Example:

  • massdelete 5-12

Clearing all entries : clear

Clears all entries from the contacts list.

Format: clear

Collecting details from contacts : collect

Collects the specified details of all contacts in the displayed person list. This is for ease of copying contact details into recipient lists. The type of detail is specified by the prefix provided. Details will be separated by the given separator, or by a semicolon if unspecified. Collected details end with the separator to allow further manual addition of details.

Format: collect [n/] or [p/] or [e/] or [a/] [s/SEPARATOR]

  • Exactly one of the type of detail prefix must be provided. The corresponding fields are as follows.
    • n/: Name
    • p/: Phone
    • e/: Email
    • a/: Address
  • The separator will ignore leading and trailing spaces. As such, it is not possible to start or end the separator with a space.
  • Words following any prefix other than s/ will be ignored.
  • Unrelated prefixes will be ignored.

Examples:

  • collect e/
  • collect n/ s/,

Sorting entries by name : sort

Sorts the contacts in the entire address book by name in alphabetical order.

Format: sort ASCENDING_OR_DESCENDING

  • ascending sorts the list in ascending alphabetical order and descending sorts the list in descending alphabetical order.
  • The keyword (ascending or descending) must be in lower case.
  • Both the currently displayed list and the entire contact list will be sorted.

Examples:

  • sort ascending
  • sort descending

Finding persons by details: find

Finds persons whose attributes (except remark) contain any of the given keywords.

Format: find [n/NAME_KEYWORDS] [t/TAG_KEYWORDS] [a/ADDRESS_KEYWORDS] [e/EMAIL_KEYWORDS] [p/PHONE_NUMBERS] [b/IS_BLACKLISTED] [m/MODE_OF_CONTACT]

  • At least one of the parameters must be included as the parameters.
  • Parameters, if provided, may not be empty. In other words, commands such as find n/ or find n/abc t/ are invalid.
  • 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.
  • For name, tag and address parameters, only full words will be matched e.g. Han will not match Hans.
  • For email and phone parameters, partial matches are allowed, e.g. for phone number, 8123 will match 81234567.
  • Persons matching at least one keyword of each provided attribute will be returned. e.g. n/Hans Bo will return Hans Gruber, Bo Yang, Bo Hans, while n/Hans Bo t/friends will only return Hans Gruber and Bo Yang if only Hans Gruber and Bo Yang are tagged with friends.
  • Blacklist parameter (b/) only accepts true or false.
  • Mode of contact parameter (m/) only accepts phone, email or address.
  • Blacklist and mode of contact parameters only take in the first keyword. For example, if b/true blah blah is inputted, it will be interpreted as b/true.

Examples:

  • find n/John returns john and John Doe
  • find n/alex david returns Alex Yeoh, David Li
    result for 'find n/alex david'
  • find n/alex david t/family returns David Li
  • find n/bernice b/true returns Bernice Yu
    result for 'find n/bernice b/true

Changing view type to light mode : light

Changes the color theme to a light theme.

Format: light

Changing view type to dark mode : dark

Changes the color theme to a dark theme.

Format: dark

Undoing previous operations: undo

Undo the changes done to the list of contacts.

Format: undo

  • This command only applies to the commands that make changes to the list of contacts, e.g. add, edit, delete etc.

Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Reviewing previous commands

Users can view the commands they have inserted previously using up and down arrow keys. To re-execute the command, users simply need to press enter.

Saving the data

SpamEZ 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

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

:exclamation: Caution: If your changes to the data file makes its format invalid, SpamEZ 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 SpamEZ home folder.

Command summary

Action Format, Examples
Add add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS m/MODE_OF_CONTACT [t/TAG]…​
e.g., add n/James Ho p/22224444 e/jamesho@example.com a/123, Clementi Rd, 1234665 m/email t/friend t/colleague
Blacklist blist INDEX
e.g., blist 2
Mass Blacklist massblist START-END b/BLACKLIST_OR_UNBLACKLIST
e.g., massblist 3-10 b/blacklist
Clear clear
Collect collect [n/] or [p/] or [e/] or [a/] [s/SEPARATOR]
e.g., collect e/ s/,
Delete delete INDEX
e.g., delete 3
Mass Delete massdelete START-END
e.g., massdelete 4-12
Edit edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [t/TAG]…​
e.g.,edit 2 n/James Lee e/jameslee@example.com
Find find [n/NAME_KEYWORDS] [t/TAG_KEYWORDS] [a/ADDRESS_KEYWORDS]
e.g., find n/James Jake t/classmates a/Singapore
Help help
List list
Remark remark INDEX r/REMARK
e.g., remark 5 r/Currently on leave of absence
Sort sort ASCENDING_OR_DESCENDING
e.g., sort ascending
Light light
Dark dark
Undo undo
Exit exit