Project: AddressBook - Level 4

AddressBook - Level 4 is a desktop address book application used for teaching Software Engineering principles. The user interacts with it using a CLI, and it has a GUI created with JavaFX. It is written in Java, and has about 6 kLoC.

Code contributed: [Functional code] [Test code] {give links to collated code files}

Enhancements Added: Sorting Contacts by Name, Finding Contacts by Tag, Email Command, In-built Calendar

External behavior

Listing all persons : (l)list

You want to view all your contacts in your contact list.
Format: (l)list

This will list out all of your contacts in alphabetical order.

Example:

  • list

Contacts will be sorted by their names (increment).

Locating persons by their tag : (ft)findtag

Finds persons whose corresponding tags contain any of the given keywords and lists them out.
Format: (ft)findtag KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]…​

  • The search is not case insensitive. e.g friends will match Friends

  • Only full word matching will be returned. e.g. friend will not match friends

Examples:

  • findtag family
    Returns any person that contains a family tag

  • findtag family colleagues
    Returns any person that contains the tags family and colleagues

Emailing a person : (em)email

Emails a person (identified by the index number used in the last listing) to email that person.
Format: (em)email INDEX

  • Emails the person by opening your default mail app with the "To: " field filled up with the person’s email.

  • The index refers to the index number shown in the most recent listing.

  • The index must be a positive integer like 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

  • list
    email 2
    Emails the 2nd person in the address book.

Directions to a person’s address : (gm)gmap

Opens Google Maps in default browser with a person’s (identified by the index number used in the last listing) address in the Destination.
Format: (gm)gmap INDEX

  • The index refers to the index number shown in the most recent listing.

  • The index must be a positive integer like 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

  • list
    gmap 2
    The address of the 2nd person in the address book will be in the Destination field in Google Maps.

Finding a contact on Facebook : (fb)facebook

Searches for a person’s (identified by the index number used in the last listing) name on Facebook.
Format: (fb)facebook INDEX

  • The index refers to the index number shown in the most recent listing.

  • The index must be a positive integer like 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

  • list
    facebook 2
    The name of the 2nd person in the address book will be searched on Facebook.

Justification

Listing all persons:
There is a need to have the contacts sorted by default as this would allow users to be able to look through a more organized contact list by default, rather than one without order.

Locating persons by their tag:
This is necessary for better organization as it will reduce the time users need to spend scrolling through the entire list to look for contacts from a particular social group. This adds on to the convenient factor of the application.

Emailing a person:
This command allows users to be able to email their contacts hassle-free as they do not need to open their email, compose a new email and copy their contact’s email inside. Instead, after typing in the command line, the default mail app will appear with the email of the contact already inside.

Google Map directions to a person’s address:
This provides a shortcut to Google Maps using the default browser with the Destination filled up with a contact’s address. This will allow users to easily get directions to their contact’s house for when users are visiting their friends or family. This saves users the of mundane task of having to manually open Google Maps and typing in their contact’s address into the Destination field.

Searching for a contact on Facebook:
Users can easily search for their contacts on Facebook. As most people use social media as a way to keep up with their friends' or family’s lives, they often want to add them of platforms such as Facebook. This feature offers a convenient way for users to search for any of their contacts on Facebook to add them.

Calendar
This allows users to be able to easily check their events with a monthly view to see what day of the week it is and be able to clearly see in how many weeks time is the event happening. Also, users can use it to look at the calendar conveniently without having to open any external applications. A calendar is often used when doing scheduling or planning and is thus useful when placed with the events.

Implementation

Emailing mechanism

The automatic opening of email on the user’s desktop is facilitated mainly by the Desktop class which allows the Java application to launch the default mail application registered inside the user’s native desktop to handle the email URI.

Calendar mechanism

An in-built calendar is added to the panel beside the list of events. This calendar shows a monthly view of the current month.

Calendar

Figure 4.10.1 : Calendar for month of November 2017

This is useful for users to be able to compare their list of events in the calendar. It can help users to check what day of the week their event is happening on. This is especially useful for NUS students as there is a fixed daily schedule and it would be easy to check what day it falls on to ensure their availability for the event. Other usages include having to see what dates lie on a particular day for students to plan weekly events. All in all, it provides a convenient way for students to have access to a calendar without having to open any external applications.

Design Considerations

Aspect: How to display the individual dates.
Alternative 1 (current choice): Use a GridPane to design the table in XML. Include a class to calculate dates to be shown, before populating individual cells in GridPane using data from class.
Pros: This method makes use of JavaFX, possibly allowing us to improve the aesthetic design in the future. It also allows individual objects to be created for individual cells. This could allow us to write more functionality such as showing number of events per day to dynamic colour changes in the future. The monthDateBuilder method provides an accurate graphical representation of the days in a monthly calendar.
Cons: The 42 cell design is fairly cumbersome, requiring the initialization of at least 42 cells. The class is limited in a way that it must have 42 cells, thus sometimes many cells are left unused, and there is a wastage of memory.
Alternative 2: Use JTable to display individual dates.
Pros: A ready to use API that can allow easy building of table showing dates. It is also a powerful tool with many functions.
Cons: JTable is a UI element from a different UI design model, and cannot make use of advantages brought about by the new advantages from JavaFX, such as the node capability of JavaFX and certain aesthetic modifications. Many of the JTable functions might not be used.

Implementation Outline

  1. Create a EventCalendar class that contains the month that will be shown, containing all the necessary information required for a monthly calendar (i.e. dates, name of month).

  2. Create a monthDateBuilder class that will be used to set the current month and year of the calendar. It will also be arranging the dates in a way that will correspond to which day of the week it belongs to.

  3. Use Calendar class to set the current year and month and store in an array (i.e.monthYearArray) in monthDateBuilder. Also, use Calendar class to set the number of days in the current month and the day that the first date of the month falls on (i.e. set using setMonthAnchors method). These details are required to build the monthly view.

  4. There are a maximum of 42 cells to fill up in every month. Create a method (i.e. buildMonthArray method) to store the position of the dates in. Use an algorithm to store all the dates before the first date of the month as a blank, fill up the subsequent dates using the value of the first day of the month and their cell number, and the leftover dates will continue to be blanks until the 42nd cell.

EventCalendarClassDiagram

Figure 4.10.1.1 : Class Diagram for `EventCalendar`

MonthDateBuilderClassDiagram

Figure 4.10.1.2 : Class Diagram for `MonthDateBuilder`

Enhancement Proposed: Add Subject and more emails via command line, More Interactive Calendar

Email
This will make it more convenient to email multiple people at once.

Calendar
Future plans include highlighting today’s date, having weekly or even yearly views, being able to view any month instead of just the current month. Future enhancements also include integrating the list of events into the calendar.