AddressBook (Level 1)
- This is a CLI (Command Line Interface) Address Book application written in procedural fashion.
- It is a Java sample application intended for students learning Software Engineering while using Java as the main programming language.
- It provides a reasonably well-written code example that is significantly bigger than what students usually write in data structure modules.
- It can be used to achieve a number of beginner-level learning outcomes without running into the complications of OOP or GUI programmings.
Table of Contents
- User Guide
- Developer Guide
- Learning Outcomes
- Set up a project in an IDE [
LO-IdeSetup
] - Navigate code efficiently [
LO-CodeNavigation
] - Use a debugger [
LO-Debugging
] - Automate CLI testing [
LO-AutomatedCliTesting
] - Use Collections [
LO-Collections
] - Use Enums [
LO-Enums
] - Use Varargs [
LO-Varargs
] - Follow a coding standard [
LO-CodingStandard
] - Apply coding best practices [
LO-CodingBestPractices
] - Refactor code [
LO-Refactor
] - Abstract methods well [
LO-MethodAbstraction
] - Follow SLAP [
LO-SLAP
] - Work in a 1kLoC code base [
LO-1KLoC
]
- Set up a project in an IDE [
- Contributors
- Contact Us
User Guide
This product is not meant for end-users and therefore there is no user-friendly installer. Please refer to the Setting up section to learn how to set up the project.
Starting the program
Using IntelliJ
- Find the project in the
Project Explorer
(usually located at the left side)- If the
Project Explorer
is not visible, press ALT+1 for Windows/Linux, CMD+1 for macOS to open theProject Explorer
tab
- If the
- Go to the
src
folder and locate theAddressBook
file - Right click the file and select
Run AddressBook.main()
- The program now should run on the
Console
(usually located at the bottom side) - Now you can interact with the program through the
Console
Using Command Line
- 'Build' the project using IntelliJ (
Build
->Build Project
) - Open the
Terminal
/Command Prompt
. Note: You can open a terminal inside Intellij too (View
->Tool Windows
->Terminal
) cd
into the project'sout\production\addressbook-level1
directory. Note: That is the where Intellij puts its compiled class files.- Type
java seedu.addressbook.AddressBook
, then Enter to execute - Now you can interact with the program through the CLI
List of commands
help
Viewing help: Format: help
Help is also shown if you enter an incorrect command e.g.
abcd
add
Adding a person: Adds a person to the address book
Format: add NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL
Words in
UPPER_CASE
are the parameters
Phone number and email can be in any order but the name must come first.
Examples:
add John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@gmail.com
add Betsy Crowe e/bencrowe@gmail.com p/1234567
list
Listing all persons: Shows a list of persons, as an indexed list, in the order they were added to the address book, oldest first.
Format: list
find
Finding a person by keyword Finds persons that match given keywords
Format: find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]
The search is case insensitive, the order of the keywords does not matter, only the name is searched, and persons matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e.
OR
search).
Examples:
-
find John
Returns
John Doe
but notjohn
-
find Betsy Tim John
Returns Any person having names
Betsy
,Tim
, orJohn
delete
Deleting a person: Format: delete INDEX
Deletes the person at the specified
INDEX
. The index refers to the index numbers shown in the most recent listing.
Examples:
-
list
delete 2
Deletes the 2nd person in the address book.
-
find Betsy
delete 1
Deletes the 1st person in the results of the
find
command.
clear
Clearing all entries: Clears all entries from the address book.
Format:clear
exit
Exiting the program: Format: exit
Saving the data
Address book data are saved in the hard disk automatically after any command that changes the data. There is no need to save manually.
Changing the save location
Address book data are saved in a file called addressbook.txt
in the project root folder.
You can change the location by specifying the file path as a program argument.
Example:
java seedu.addressbook.AddressBook mydata.txt
java seedu.addressbook.AddressBook myFolder/mydata.txt
The file path must contain a valid file name and a valid parent directory.
File name is valid if it has an extension and no reserved characters (OS-dependent).
Parent directory is valid if it exists.
Note for non-Windows users: if the file already exists, it must be a 'regular' file.
When running the program inside IntelliJ, there is a way to set command line parameters before running the program.
Developer Guide
Setting up
Prerequisites
- JDK 8 or later
- IntelliJ IDE
Importing the project into IntelliJ
- Open IntelliJ (if you are not in the welcome screen, click
File
>Close Project
to close the existing project dialog first) - Set up the correct JDK version
- Click
Configure
>Project Defaults
>Project Structure
- If JDK 8 is listed in the drop down, select it. If it is not, click
New...
and select the directory where you installed JDK 8. - Click
OK
.
- Click
- Click
Import Project
- Locate the project directory and click
OK
- Select
Create project from existing sources
and clickNext
- Rename the project if you want. Click
Next
- Ensure that your src folder is checked. Keep clicking
Next
- Click
Finish
Design
AddressBook saves data in a plain text file, one line for each person, in the format NAME p/PHONE e/EMAIL
.
Here is an example:
John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@gmail.com
Jane Doe p/12346758 e/jane@gmail.com
All person data are loaded to memory at start up and written to the file after any command that mutates data.
In-memory data are held in a ArrayList<String[]>
where each String[]
object represents a person.
Testing
Windows
- Open a DOS window in the
test
folder - Run the
runtests.bat
script - If the script reports that there is no difference between
actual.txt
andexpected.txt
, the test has passed.
Mac/Unix/Linux
- Open a terminal window in the
test
folder - Run the
runtests.sh
script - If the script reports that there is no difference between
actual.txt
andexpected.txt
, the test has passed.
Troubleshooting test failures
- Problem: How do I examine the exact differences between
actual.txt
andexpected.txt
?
Solution: You can use a diff/merge tool with a GUI e.g. WinMerge (on Windows) - Problem: The two files look exactly the same, but the test script reports they are different.
Solution: This can happen because the line endings used by Windows is different from Unix-based OSes. Convert theactual.txt
to the format used by your OS using some utility. - Problem: Test fails during the very first time.
Solution: The output of the very first test run could be slightly different because the program creates a new storage file. Tests should pass from the 2nd run onwards.
Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes are the things you should be able to do after studying this code and completing the corresponding exercises.
[LO-IdeSetup]
Set up a project in an IDE
Exercise: Setup project in IntelliJ
Part A:
- Create a new project in IntelliJ and write a small HelloWorld program.
Part B:
- Download the source code for this project: Click on the
clone or download
link above and either,- download as a zip file and unzip content.
- clone the repo (if you know how to use Git) to your Computer.
- Set up the project in IntelliJ.
- Run the program from within IntelliJ, and try the features described in the User guide section.
[LO-CodeNavigation]
Navigate code efficiently The AddressBook.java
code is rather long, which makes it cumbersome to navigate by scrolling alone.
Navigating code using IDE shortcuts is a more efficient option.
For example, CTRL+B will navigate to the definition of the method/field at the cursor.
Learn basic IntelliJ code navigation features.
Exercise: Learn to navigate code using shortcuts
- Use Intellij basic code navigation features to navigate code of this project.
[LO-Debugging]
Use a debugger Learn basic IntelliJ debugging features.
Exercise: Learn to step through code using the debugger
Prerequisite: [LO-IdeSetup]
Demonstrate your debugging skills using the AddressBook code.
Here are some things you can do in your demonstration:
- Set a 'break point'
- Run the program in debug mode
- 'Step through' a few lines of code while examining variable values
- 'Step into', and 'step out of', methods as you step through the code
- ...
[LO-AutomatedCliTesting]
Automate CLI testing Learn how to automate testing of CLIs.
Exercise: Practice automated CLI testing
- Run the tests as explained in the Testing section.
- Examine the test script to understand how the script works.
- Add a few more tests to the
input.txt
. Run the tests. It should fail.
Modifyexpected.txt
to make the tests pass again. - Edit the
AddressBook.java
to modify the behavior slightly and modify tests to match.
[LO-Collections]
Use Collections Note how the AddressBook
class uses ArrayList<>
class (from the Java Collections
library) to store a list of String
or String[]
objects.
Learn how to use some Java Collections
classes, such as ArrayList
and HashMap
HashMap
Exercise: Use Currently, a person's details are stored as a String[]
. Modify the code to use a HashMap<String, String>
instead.
A sample code snippet is given below.
private static final String PERSON_PROPERTY_NAME = "name";
private static final String PERSON_PROPERTY_EMAIL = "email";
...
HashMap<String,String> john = new HashMap<>();
john.put(PERSON_PROPERTY_NAME, "John Doe");
john.put(PERSON_PROPERTY_EMAIL, "john.doe@email.com");
//etc.
[LO-Enums]
Use Enums HashMap
+ Enum
Exercise: Use Similar to the exercise in the LO-Collections
section, but also bring in Java enum
feature.
private enum PersonProperty {NAME, EMAIL, PHONE};
...
HashMap<PersonProperty,String> john = new HashMap<>();
john.put(PersonProperty.NAME, "John Doe");
john.put(PersonProperty.EMAIL, "john.doe@email.com");
//etc.
[LO-Varargs]
Use Varargs Note how the showToUser
method uses Java Varargs feature.
Exercise: Use Varargs
Modify the code to remove the use of the Varargs feature. Compare the code with and without the varargs feature.
[LO-CodingStandard]
Follow a coding standard The given code follows the coding standard for the most part.
This learning outcome is covered by the exercise in [LO-Refactor]
.
[LO-CodingBestPractices]
Apply coding best practices Most of the given code follows the best practices mentioned here.
This learning outcome is covered by the exercise in [LO-Refactor]
[LO-Refactor]
Refactor code Resources:
Exercise: Refactor the code to make it better
Note: this exercise covers two other Learning Outcomes: [LO-CodingStandard]
, [LO-CodingBestPractices]
- Improve the code in the following ways,
- Fix coding standard violations.
- Fix violations of the best practices given in in this document.
- Any other change that you think will improve the quality of the code.
- Try to do the modifications as a combination of standard refactorings given in this catalog
- As far as possible, use automated refactoring features in IntelliJ.
- If you know how to use Git, commit code after each refactoring.
In the commit message, mention which refactoring you applied.
Example commit messages:Extract variable isValidPerson
,Inline method isValidPerson()
- Remember to run the test script after each refactoring to prevent regressions.
[LO-MethodAbstraction]
Abstract methods well Notice how most of the methods in AddressBook
are short and focused (does only one thing and does it well).
Case 1. Consider the following three lines in the main
method.
String userCommand = getUserInput();
echoUserCommand(userCommand);
String feedback = executeCommand(userCommand);
If we include the code of echoUserCommand(String)
method inside the getUserInput()
(resulting in the code given below), the behavior of AddressBook remains as before.
However, that is a not a good approach because now the getUserInput()
is doing two distinct things.
A well-abstracted method should do only one thing.
String userCommand = getUserInput(); //also echos the command back to the user
String feedback = executeCommand(userCommand);
Case 2. Consider the method removePrefixSign(String s, String sign)
.
While it is short, there are some problems with how it has been abstracted.
-
It contains the term
sign
which is not a term used by the AddressBook vocabulary.A method adds a new term to the vocabulary used to express the solution. Therefore, it is not good when a method name contains terms that are not strictly necessary to express the solution (e.g. there is another term already used to express the same thing) or not in tune with the solution (e.g. it does not go well with the other terms already used).
-
Its implementation is not doing exactly what is advertised by the method name and the header comment. For example, the code does not remove only prefixes; it removes
sign
from anywhere in thes
. -
The method can be more general and more independent from the rest of the code. For example, the method below can do the same job, but is more general (works for any string, not just parameters) and is more independent from the rest of the code (not specific to AddressBook)
/** * Removes prefix from the given fullString if prefix occurs at the start of the string. */ private static String removePrefix(String fullString, String prefix) { ... }
If needed, a more AddressBook-specific method that works on parameter strings only can be defined. In that case, that method can make use of the more general method suggested above.
Exercise: Improve abstraction of method
Refactor the method removePrefixSign
as suggested above.
[LO-SLAP]
Follow SLAP Notice how most of the methods in AddressBook
are written at a single
level of abstraction (cf se-edu/se-book:SLAP)
Here is an example:
public static void main(String[] args) {
showWelcomeMessage();
processProgramArgs(args);
loadDataFromStorage();
while (true) {
userCommand = getUserInput();
echoUserCommand(userCommand);
String feedback = executeCommand(userCommand);
showResultToUser(feedback);
}
}
Exercise 1: Reduce SLAP of method
In the main
method, replace the processProgramArgs(args)
call with the actual code of that method.
The main
method no longer has SLAP. Notice how mixing low level code with high level code reduces
readability.
Exercise 2: Refactor the code to make it worse!
Sometimes, going in the wrong direction can be a good learning experience too. In this exercise, we explore how low code qualities can go.
- Refactor the code to make the code as bad as possible.
i.e. How bad can you make it without breaking the functionality while still making it look like it was written by a programmer (but a very bad programmer :-)). - In particular, inlining methods can worsen the code quality fast.
[LO-1KLoC]
Work in a 1kLoC code baseExercise: Enhance the code
Enhance the AddressBook to prove that you can work in a codebase of 1KLoC.
Remember to change code in small steps, update/run tests after each change, and commit after each significant change.
Some suggested enhancements:
- Make the
find
command case insensitive e.g.find john
should matchJohn
- Add a
sort
command that can list the persons in alphabetical order - Add an
edit
command that can edit properties of a specific person - Add an additional field (like date of birth) to the person record
Contributors
The full list of contributors for se-edu can be found here.
Contact Us
- Bug reports, Suggestions: Post in our issue tracker if you noticed bugs or have suggestions on how to improve.
- Contributing: We welcome pull requests. Refer to our website here.
- If you would like to contact us, refer to our website.