MediSync User Guide

MediSync is a desktop app specifically used for head nurses to manage staff and patients, optimised for use via a Command Line Interface (CLI) while still having the benefits of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Instead of tracking data of staff and patients using existing applications such as Microsoft Excel, using a CLI-centric application like MediSync will help head nurses track and handle contact management more quickly.

Quick start

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

  2. Download the latest medisync.jar from here.

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

  4. Open a command terminal, cd into the folder you put the jar file in, and use the java -jar medisync.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.
    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.

    • add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com r/patient a/Alex Yeoh : Adds a contact named John Doe to MediSync.

    • 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.

Glossary

MediSync strives to streamline the storage and identification of contacts, focusing on essential information that are critical in medical contexts.

Here are some definitions that are noteworthy when using MediSync.

Term Explanation
Role The role of a person in the contact list is either Doctor, Nurse, or Patient. When we use the word staff, we are implying both Doctors and Nurses.
Affiliation With staff members providing care to specific Patients, there is a need to establish an association between staff members and Patients. We use affiliations to denote such relationships. Such relationships can never be one-sided in MediSync, and it will not exist between staff members or between Patients.
Affiliation History Having some level of history-taking is vital in tracking medical care. The use of affiliation history is to track past staff members that had affiliations with a particular Patient, and vice-versa. MediSync allows for the deletion of these history, but existing affiliations can never be deleted from the affiliation history until the affiliation is severed.
Shift Days Shift days is an attribute unique to staff members. For simplicity, the current version of MediSync monitors the workdays of each staff member in blocks of days.
Next of Kin The Next of Kin attribute is meant for Patients. Having a method of contact with the Patients next of kin is vital in medical care.
Specialisations Exclusively for Doctors, the specialisations attribute offers added information about each doctor, enabling the appropriate doctor to be matched with patients having diverse requirements.

Features

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 [a/AFFN_NAME] can be used as n/John Doe a/Sam Young or as n/John Doe.

  • Items with …​ after them can be used multiple times including zero times.
    e.g. [a/AFFN_NAME]…​ can be used as (i.e. 0 times), a/Sam Young, a/Sam Young a/Ben Chua 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.

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

  • Command are first checked for their formatting before checking the validity of the inputs.

  • 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.

Viewing help : help

Shows a message explaining how to access the help page.

help message

Format: help

Adding a person: add

Adds a contact to the contact list.

Format: add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL r/ROLE [a/AFFN_NAME]…​

  • Role can only be listed as Nurse, Doctor, or Patient (case-insensitive).
  • Affiliations that are successfully added will update the opposing list of affiliations for the affiliated.

Tip: A person can have any number of affiliations (including 0). However, to add an affiliation, it must already exist in the contact list. In addition, the role of the affiliation must be constrasting to the person being added (i.e. affiliations can only be between Nurse and Patient OR Doctor and Patient).

Examples:

  • add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com r/patient
  • add n/Mint Ho p/97746234 e/mint@example.com r/nurse a/Bernice Yu
    result for add command

Listing all persons : list

Shows a list of all persons in the contact list.

Format: list

Editing a person : edit

Edits an existing contact in the contact list.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [a/AFFN_NAME]…​

  • 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, …​
  • At least one of the optional fields must be provided.
  • Existing values will be updated to the input values.
  • When editing affiliations, the existing affiliations of the person will be removed i.e. adding of affiliations is not cumulative.
  • You can remove all the person’s affiliations by typing a/ without specifying any affiliations after it.
  • Removing all affiliation automatically deletes the person from others' affiliation.

Examples:

  • edit 3 p/81234567 a/ edits the phone number of the 3rd person to 81234567 and removes the person’s affiliation
  • edit 1 n/Sally Wing e/sallyw@kmail.com edits the name and the email of the 1st person to Sally Wing and sallyw@kmail.com respectively.

Locating persons by attribute: find

Finds persons whose specified attribute contains any of the given keywords. Requires a prefix to choose which attribute to search for.

Format: find (n|p|e|r|a)/[KEYWORD] [MORE_KEYWORDS]...

  • Supports prefixes n/ for NAME, p/ for PHONE, e/ for EMAIL, r/ for ROLE, and a/ for AFFILIATION
  • Exactly 1 prefix is supported, indicated by the | (OR) indicator in the format. Using two or more prefixes in one search will lead to an invalid command.
  • 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
  • Keywords only require a partial match, e.g. find n/chard will return Richard Gramson, or find e/max will return persons with email such as himax@test.com
  • 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 p/976 returns any person in the contact list that has 976 in its phone number.
  • find n/eve irfan returns Irfan Ibrahim, Evelyn Ng
    result for 'find alex david'

Add affiliations of a staff/patient: addaffn

Add affiliations to staff/patients indicated by the given INDEX without deleting existing affiliation.

Format: addaffn INDEX a/AFFN_NAME [a/AFFN_NAME]…

  • Add affiliations 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, …​
  • If person at index is staff, affiliations specified must be a patient.
  • If person at index is patient, affiliations specified must be a staff.
  • Adding patient A to affiliation of staff B, will result in adding staff B to affiliation of Patient A.
  • Multiple affiliations can be added.
  • At least one affiliation field must be provided.
  • AFFN_NAME is specified as full name of a person in the contact list.

Examples:

  • addaffn 1 a/John adds John to affiliation of 1st person in the contact list.
  • addaffn 3 a/John a/Mary adds John and Mary to affiliation of 3rd person in the contact list.

Returning affiliations of a staff/patient: affn

Finds staff/patients who are affiliated with the patient/staff indicated by the given index.

Format: affn INDEX

  • Finds affiliations 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, …​

Examples:

  • list followed by affn 2 lists the people affiliated to the 2nd person in the contact list.
  • Subsequently, affn 1 will list the people affiliated with the 1st person displayed after the previous affn command.
    result for 'info 1'

Listing affiliation history of a person: affnh

Finds the staff/patients that used to be affiliated or are currently affiliated with the patient/staff indicated by the given index.

Format: affnh INDEX

  • Finds affiliation history 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, …​
  • Adding/Editing a person's affiliation automatically updates the affiliation history for the person.

Examples:

  • affnh 2 lists the people who used to be affiliated or are currently affiliated to the 2nd person in the contact list.

Remove affiliation history of a person: removeah

Removes all affiliation history of patient/staff indicated by the given INDEX, except for affiliations that are currently affiliated.

Format: removeah INDEX

  • Removes all affiliation history 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, …​
  • Does not remove the person they are currently affiliated to from affiliation history.
  • Also removes patient/staff indicated by the given INDEX from the affiliation history of others.

Examples:

  • removeah 2 removes affiliation history of the 2nd person in the contact list.

Modifying specialisations of a doctor: spec

Finds the doctor indicated by the given index and modifies the specialisations of the doctor.

Format: spec INDEX [SPECIALIZATION1, SPECIALIZATION2, ...]

  • Finds the doctor at the specified INDEX.
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list, and it must refer to a doctor.
  • The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
  • A specialisation must only contain alphanumeric characters and specialisations must be separated by a comma. Duplicate specialisations will be ignored.
  • To remove all specialisations, type spec INDEX without specifying any specialisations after it.

Examples:

  • spec 5 heart, brain, brain modifies the specialisations of the 5th person(a Doctor) in the contact list to heart and brain.
  • spec 5 removes all specialisations of the 5th person(a Doctor) in the contact list.

Deleting a person : delete

Deletes the contact in the contact list. If the other contacts have affiliations/affiliation history with this contact, the affiliations will be deleted automatically.

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, …​
  • Deleting a person automatically deletes the person from others' affiliation and affiliation history.

Examples:

  • list followed by delete 3 deletes the 3rd person in the contact list.
  • find n/Betsy followed by delete 1 deletes the 1st person in the results of the find command.

WARNING: Deleting a person is irreversible. Any associations will be erased. Please make sure it is intended before proceeding.

Add next of kin to a patient: nok

Update next of kin of a patient identified at INDEX in the contact list.

Format: nok INDEX [n/NAME p/PHONE rs/RELATIONSHIP]

  • Updates next of kin 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, …​
  • If no optional field provided, next of kin of the person identified at index will be removed.
  • RELATIONSHIP can be specified in any alphanumeric characters and spaces.

Examples:

  • nok 2 removes next of kin of the 2nd person in the contact list.
  • nok 2 n/John p/11111 rs/Brother adds next of kin with the name John, phone 11111 and relationship Brother to the 3rd person in the contact list.
    result for 'info 1'

Add shift dates for a staff: shift

Updates the shift days of the person identified with the given index number.

Format: shift INDEX [SHIFT_DAYS]

  • SHIFT_DAYS is in the form of an unbroken string of numbers, from 1 (Monday) to 7 (Sunday), typed with no spaces, e.g. 147 (Monday, Thursday, Sunday). Duplicates are allowed in the SHIFT_DAYS string, but each day will only be counted once in the actual shift schedule.
  • If SHIFT_DAYS is not provided, the shift days for the staff member at the given index will be cleared.
  • The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
  • The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

  • shift 1 126 will set the 1st person in the contact list's shift days to be Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday.
  • shift 3 1127 would also be valid input and would assign Monday, Tuesday, and Sunday as shift days for the 3rd person, ignoring the duplicate entry of Monday.
  • shift 2 with no SHIFT_DAYS specified will clear all shift days for the 2nd person in the contact list.

Returning staff that are on duty: onduty

Finds staff members(doctors/nurses) who are on duty today.

Format: onduty

Examples:

  • If today is Monday, and onduty is called, then staff members that have duty on Monday will be listed.

Displaying the information of a person : info

Displays the information of the person in the contact list.

Format: info INDEX

  • Displays the information 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 positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

  • list followed by info 3 displays the information of the 3rd person in the contact list.
  • find n/Charlotte followed by info 1 displays the information of the 1st person in the results of the find command.
    result for 'info 1'

Displaying the information of a person using mouse

Displays the information of the person in the contact list by clicking on the person in the list.

  • If clicking is unavailable, you can consider the use of info command.

Traversing the information of persons in the list

Navigate through the information of different people in the displayed list using UP and DOWN arrow keys.

  • The use of UP and DOWN arrow keys is only applicable when any of the person in the list is highlighted, indicating that the list is on focus.
  • Simply clicking on any of the person in the list OR run the info command to set the list on focus.

Clearing all entries : clear

Clears all entries from the contact list.

Format: clear

WARNING: Information cleared are irretrievable. As MediSync do not have confirmation prompts, do not, in any way, input this command if there are no intentions of using it.

Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Saving the data

MediSync 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

MediSync data are saved automatically as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/medisync.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, MediSync will discard all data and start with an empty data file at the next run. Hence, it is recommended to take a backup of the file before editing it.

Be very careful, especially when you modify attributes such as Role, as any mismatch in Affiliations will render the data as invalid e.g. Changing the Role of a Patient to Doctor resulting in this new Doctor having affiliations with another Doctor. Scenarios like these are not exhaustive.

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 MediSync home folder.

More FAQ to come

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.

Command summary

Action Format, Examples
Add add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL r/ROLE [a/AFFN_NAME]…​
e.g., add n/May Ho p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com r/nurse a/John Doe
Clear clear
Delete delete INDEX
e.g., delete 3
Edit edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [a/AFFN_NAME]…​
e.g.,edit 1 p/91234567 e/johndoe@example.com
Find find (n|p|e|r|a)/[KEYWORD] [MORE_KEYWORDS]...
e.g., find n/james
List list
List Affiliations affn INDEX
e.g., affn 1
List Affiliation History affnh INDEX
e.g., affnh 2
Add Affiliations addaffn INDEX a/AFFN_NAME [a/AFFN_NAME]
e.g., addaffn 4 a/Mike Chang a/Tom Cruise
Modify Shift Days shift INDEX [SHIFT_DAYS]
e.g., shift 2 1457
Clears Affiliation History removeah INDEX
e.g., removeah 1
Edit Next of Kin nok INDEX [n/NAME p/PHONE rs/RELATIONSHIP]
e.g., nok 3 n/John p/11111 rs/Brother
List Staff On Duty onduty
Modify Specialisation spec INDEX [SPECIALIZATION1, SPECIALIZATION2, ...]
e.g., spec 4 Cardiology, Osteology
Display Person Information info INDEX
e.g., info 2
Help help
Exit exit