B2B4U User Guide

Business to Business for You (B2B4U) is a desktop app for managing contacts, optimized for use via a Line Interface (CLI) while still having the benefits of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). If you can type fast, B2B4U can get your contact management tasks done faster than traditional GUI apps.

Quick start

Ensure you have Java 17 or above installed in your Computer.
Mac users: Ensure you have the precise JDK version prescribed here.
Download the latest .jar file from here.
Copy the file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for your B2B4U application.
Double-click the B2B4U.jar file.
Alternatively, open a command terminal, cd into the folder you put the jar file in, and use the java -jar B2B4U.jar command to run the application.
A GUI similar to the below should appear in a few seconds. Note how the app contains some sample data.
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 a/John street, block 123, #01-01 : Adds a contact named John Doe to the contact list.
- view 1 : Opens the detail panel for the 1st contact.
- close view : Closes the contact detail panel.
- delete 3 : Deletes the 3rd contact shown in the current list.
- clear : Deletes all contacts.
- exit : Exits the app.
Refer to Features for details of each command.

Features

Commands

Notes about the command format:

Words in SCREAMING_SNAKE_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, however the order may affect results in certain commands (i.e. sort).
e.g. if the command specifies n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER, p/PHONE_NUMBER n/NAME is also acceptable.
Extraneous parameters for commands that do not take in parameters (such as help, list, exit and clear) will fail to execute.
e.g. if the command specifies help 123, it will fail.
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.
If a command is not recognised, an error message will be displayed.

Adding contacts

Editing contacts

Deleting contacts

To delete a specific displayed contact, use the delete INDEX command.
To delete all contacts at once, use the clear command.

Adding notes to contacts

Filtering and sorting the context list

B2B4U allows you to filter and sort the contact list to quickly find contacts that fit specific criteria in a sea of other contacts.

To filter,
To remove contact filters, use the find command without any keywords.
To sort,
To reset the sort order, use the sort command without any keywords.

The effects of the find and sort commands will be maintained even when the other command is made, and will only be changed another iteration of its own command, with the exception of the following commands which can also change the filter/sort criteria:

A list command will display every contact in the default sort order.
A add command will reset the sort order, and may filter to display only similar contacts.

Undo and redo

B2B4U allows you to undo and redo commands to prevent data loss due to mistakes.

To undo the last command, use the undo command.
To redo the last command, use the redo command.

Setting the theme

B2B4U features a variety of color palettes(referred to as 'themes') to customise your experience.

To change to a different theme, use the theme THEME_NAME command.

Available themes: dark, light, book, sakura

Maintaining separate data files

B2B4U allows you to maintain multiple separate data files. This is useful if you want to maintain separate contact lists for different purposes (e.g. work vs personal contacts). All data files must be placed in the data folder: [JAR file location]/data/.

To view a list of all available data files, use the view files command.
To open a specific data file, use the file open/FILE_NAME command.
To delete a specific data file, use the file delete/FILE_NAME command.

Exiting B2B4U

To exit B2B4U, use the exit command.

Saving data

B2B4U data is saved to the hard disk automatically after any command that changes the data. There is no need to save manually.

Editing the data file directly

B2B4U data is saved automatically as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/addressbook.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, B2B4U will discard all data and start with an empty data file at the next run. Hence, it is recommended to make a backup of the file before editing it.
Furthermore, certain edits can cause the B2B4U application 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.

For more information, refer to the Command summary at the end of this document, or the specific pages for viewing and managing files.

FAQ & Known Issues

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 B2B4U home folder.

Known Issues

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.
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.

Command summary

Action	Format	Parameters	Examples
Help	`help`	`[COMMAND]`	`help add`
Add contact	`add`	`n/NAME [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [lc/LAST_CONTACTED] [t/TAG]…`	`add n/James Ho p/22224444 e/jamesho@example.com a/123, Clementi Rd, 1234665 t/friend t/colleague`
Edit contact	`edit`	`INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [lc/LAST_CONTACTED] [t/TAG]…`	`edit 2 n/James Lee e/jameslee@example.com`
Delete contact	`delete`	`INDEX`	`delete 3`
Clear contacts	`clear`
Note (add)	`note`	`INDEX NOTE [on/TIME]`	`note 1 To meet in February on/15 Apr`
Note (edit)	`note`	`INDEX el/NOTE_INDEX NEW_NOTE [on/TIME]`	`note 1 el/1 Updated note text.`
Note (remove specific)	`note`	`INDEX cl/NOTE_INDEX`	`note 1 cl/2`
Note (remove)	`note`	`INDEX c/LINES_TO_REMOVE`	`note 1 c/2`
Note (clear)	`note`	`INDEX ca/`	`note 1 ca/`
List contacts	`list`
Find contacts	`find`	`[KEYWORD]… [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [t/TAG]…`	`find n/James t/friends`
Find contacts(by association)	`find`	`@INDEX`	`find @1`
Remove filters	`find`
Sort contacts	`sort`	`[n/asc \| desc] [p/asc \| desc] [e/asc \| desc] [a/asc \| desc] [lu/asc \| desc] [lc/asc \| desc] [t/TAG_NAME:asc \| desc]…`	`sort n/asc t/friends:desc`
Sort by last updated	`sort`
Undo	`undo`
Redo	`redo`
View contact	`view`	`INDEX`	`view 1`
Close view	`close view`
Open file	`file open/`	`FILE_NAME`	`file open/newContactList`
Delete file	`file delete/`	`FILE_NAME`	`file delete/OldContactList`
View list of available files	`view files`
Change theme	`theme`	`THEME_NAME`	`theme sakura`