TAHub is a desktop app for managing students, optimized for use via a Command Line Interface (CLI) while still having the benefits of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). If you can type fast, TAHub can get your student management tasks done faster than traditional GUI apps.

TAHub simplifies the role of Teaching Assistants by providing a centralized hub to organize student information, and efficiently manage course-related tasks. This platform empowers TAs to focus more on enhancing student learning and less on administrative chaos.

• Quick start
• Features
  • General Commands
    • Viewing help : help
    • Clearing all entries : clear
    • Exiting the program : exit
• Students
  • Student Commands
    • Adding a student: add
    • Listing all students : liststudents
    • Editing a student : edit
    • Locating students by name and/or course: find
    • Deleting a student : delete
    • Exporting student data : export
    • Importing student data : import
• Consultations
  • Consultation Commands
    • Adding a consultation : addconsult
    • Refreshing the consultation list : listconsults
    • Adding students to a consultation : addtoconsult
    • Removing students from a consultation : removefromconsult
    • Deleting consultations : deleteconsult
    • Exporting consultation data : exportconsult
    • Importing consultation data : importconsult
• Lessons
  • Lesson Commands
    • Adding a Lesson : addlesson
    • Refreshing the lesson list : listlessons
    • Adding a student to a lesson : addtolesson
    • Removing a student from a lesson : removefromlesson
    • Marking a student’s attendance : marka
    • Marking a student’s participation : markp
    • Deleting a lesson : deletelesson
  • Storage Operations
    • Saving the data
    • Editing the data file
    • Archiving data files [coming in v2.0]
  • FAQ
  • Known issues
  • Command summary

Quick start

1. Ensure you have Java 17 or above installed in your Computer.
   To check your Computer’s Java Version, see this guide.
   If you don’t have Java, see this installation guide.
   

2. Download the latest .jar file from here.
   Scroll down until you see this part. Click on tahub.jar to download it.

3. Copy the file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for your TAHub.
   The home folder is where other files such as the data file will be created.

4. Open a command terminal and cd into the folder you put the jar file in.
   If you don’t know what that means, fret not - see here.

5. Type java -jar tahub.jar and hit enter.
   A GUI similar to the below should appear in a few seconds.
   Note how the app contains some sample data.
   

   

6. 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:

   • add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com c/CS2103T;CS2101 : Adds a student named John Doe to TAHub.

   • delete 2 : Deletes the 2nd student shown in the current student list.

   • clear : Deletes all students, consultations & lessons.

   • exit : Exits the app.

7. Refer to the Features below for details of each command.

Features

Additional Notes

Here are more detailed notes regarding certain parameters that apply to all commands unless specified otherwise.

• When specifying an index, leading zeroes are ignored, i.e. 001 is equivalent to 1.

• When specifying an index, it should be between 1 and 2147483647, inclusive. The current error message may not reflect this requirement, but changes for clarification are planned in the future.

• When targeting a student by their index, TAHub uses the indexes as currently displayed on the student list. For example, if you run a find command that only lists one student out of originally five, trying to select a student at index 2 will fail.

General Commands

Viewing help : help

Shows a message explaining how to access the help page.

Format: help

Clearing all entries : clear

Clears all entries from TAHub.

Format: clear

Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Students

The student list is shown on the left side of TAHub.
Currently, you can:

• Add, Edit and delete student
• Find Students by Name or Course
• Export & Import Student Data

In a student, courses are represented by course tags. Name, Phone Number & Email are represented as texts.

This is an example of a student. In this example, the student’s name is Fyodor Dostoevsky, studying courses CS2100, CS2101, CS2103T, HSS1000, MA2104 & MA2108, has Phone Number 98765432 and Email fyodor@gmail.com.

Student Commands

Adding a student: add

Adds a student to TAHub.

Format: add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL [c/COURSE]…

Tip: A student can have any number of courses (including 0)

• NAME must only contain alphabetical characters, commas, and spaces.
• NAME must be unique, i.e. no two students can have the same name.
  • However, names are case-sensitive, i.e. John Doe is considered different from john doe.
• PHONE_NUMBER should only contain numbers, and should be at least 3 numbers long.
• EMAIL should conform to the format local-part@domain and:
  • local-part should only contain alphanumeric characters and these special characters: + _ . -.
  • local-part must start and end with alphanumeric characters.
  • domain must end with a domain label at least 2 characters long.
  • domain must have each domain label start and end with alphanumeric characters.
  • domain must have each domain label consist only of alphanumeric characters separated only if hyphens (if any).
• COURSEs should begin with 2-4 letters, followed by 4 digits, followed by 0-2 letters. Example: MA1100, GEA1000N, GESS1000T etc.

Examples:

• add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com
• add n/Betsy Crowe e/betsycrowe@example.com p/1234567 c/CS2103T;CS2101
• add n/Nakahara Chuuya p/91199119 e/chuuya@gmail.com c/LAJ2201;CS2103T;CS2101

  Listing all students : liststudents

Shows a list of all students in TAHub.

Format: liststudents

Editing a student : edit

Edits an existing student in TAHub.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [c/COURSE]…​

• Edits the student at the specified INDEX. The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed student 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 courses, the existing courses of the student will be removed i.e adding of courses is not cumulative.
• You can remove all the student’s courses by typing c/ without specifying any courses after it.

Examples:

• edit 1 p/91234567 e/johndoe@example.com Edits the phone number and email of the 1st student to be 91234567 and johndoe@example.com respectively.
• edit 2 n/Betsy Crower c/ Edits the name of the 2nd student to be Betsy Crower and clears all existing courses.
• edit 3 c/CS2103T;CS2101 Edits the courses of the 3rd student to be CS2103T & CS2101.
• edit 4 p/91918181

Locating students by name and/or course: find

Finds students whose names contain any of the given keywords.

Format: find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

• The search is case-insensitive. e.g hans will match Hans, cs2103t will match CS2103T
• Can search for names and courses. Use the n/ prefix to search for names and the c/ prefix to search for courses.
• Partial searches will be matched e.g. Jam will match James and James Ho
• Each sequence of words not separated by ; or a prefix will be used as a search. This means that jam ho will not match James Ho
• If a semicolon was used to separate searches, students matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search).
• If a prefix was used to separate searches, students matching all keywords will be returned (i.e. AND search).
• If no names are provided to the find command (i.e. find n/), all students will be listed.
• Warning: find c/ will not be treated as an error and will return 0 students. Refer to the Proposed Features below for details of the proposed changes to this command.

Examples:

• find n/John returns john and John Doe
• find n/alex;david returns Alex Yeoh, David Li
  
• find n/alex n/david returns Alex David, if a student with that name exists
• find c/CS2103T c/CS2100 will return students who are taking both CS2103T and CS2100
• find n/alex c/cs2103t;cs2100 will return all students whose names contain alex and are taking at least one of CS2103T or CS2101.
• find n/ will return all students.
• find c/ will return no students.
• find n/Osamu;Chuuya
• find c/CS2103T

Deleting a student : delete

Deletes the specified student from TAHub.

Format: delete INDEX[;INDEX]…

• Deletes the student at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed student list.

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

• Can delete multiple students at once by separating indices with semicolons (;).

Examples:

• liststudents followed by delete 2 deletes the 2nd student in TAHub.
• liststudents followed by delete 2;3 deletes the 2nd and 3rd student in TAHub.
• find n/Betsy followed by delete 1 deletes the 1st student in the results of the find command.
• liststudents followed by delete 4 deletes the 4th student in TAHub.

Exporting student data : export

Exports the current list of students to a CSV file.

Format: export [-f] FILENAME

• Exports student data to ‘FILENAME.csv’ in both the data directory and user’s home directory
• The -f flag is optional and allows overwriting of existing files
• The filename must contain only alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9)
• Files are saved in both the data directory and home directory
• If the home directory copy fails, only the data directory file is created

Examples:

• export students creates students.csv containing current student list
• export -f backup overwrites backup.csv if it exists

Importing student data : import

Imports students from a CSV file into TAHub.

Format: import FILENAME

• The CSV file must have the header: Name,Phone,Email,Courses
• Files can be read from:
  • Data directory (./data/): import students.csv
  • Current directory: import ./students.csv
  • Home directory (using ~ prefix): import ~/documents/students.csv
  • Absolute paths: import /path/to/students.csv
• Students with validation errors will be logged in error.csv
• Duplicate students are skipped and logged
• Courses should be semicolon-separated in the CSV

Examples:

• import students.csv imports student data from students.csv
• import ~/documents/students.csv imports from the home directory

Consultations

The consultation list is shown in the middle of TAHub.
Currently, you can:

• Add and delete consultations
• Add and remove students from consultations
• Export and Import Consultation Data

In a consultation, students are represented by name tags.

This is an example of a consultation. In this example, Nakahara Chuuya & Osamu Dazai are in the consultation on 2024-12-05, 09:00.

Additionally, consultations that have passed (the time is before your computer’s time) will be displayed in red, as follows:

Consultation Commands

Adding a consultation : addconsult

Adds a new consultation to TAHub.

Format: addconsult d/DATE t/TIME

• The date and time should not conflict with any existing consultation.
• Date format: YYYY-MM-DD
• Time format: HH:mm

Examples:

• addconsult d/2024-11-05 t/09:00 adds a Consultation Timing that has passed.
• addconsult d/3345-01-11 t/01:00 adds a Consultation Timing.

Refreshing the consultation list : listconsults

Refreshes and displays the consultation list. Useful to fix minor UI glitches, e.g. the display not updating after adding a student.

Format: listconsults

Example:

• listconsults

Adding students to a consultation : addtoconsult

Adds students to an existing consultation, specified by its index.

Format: addtoconsult INDEX [n/NAME]… [i/INDEX]…

• INDEX specifies the consultation to add students to.
• Student names (n/NAME) and/or student indices (i/INDEX) can be used to specify students. At least one name or index must be provided.
• Students already in the consultation will not be added again, and an error message will be shown.
• Student names are case-sensitive.

Examples:

• addtoconsult 1 n/John Doe n/Harry Ng
• addtoconsult 2 i/3 i/5 adds students at indices 3 and 5 in the student list to the 2nd consultation.
• addtoconsult 3 n/Nakahara Chuuya i/3 adds students Nakahara Chuuya & Student at Index 3 to the 3rd consultation.

Removing students from a consultation : removefromconsult

Removes specified students from a consultation, identified by its index.

Format: removefromconsult INDEX n/NAME [n/NAME]…

• INDEX is the index of the consultation from which the students will be removed.
• Specify one or more students to remove by their names.
• Student names are case-sensitive.

Examples:

• removefromconsult 1 n/John Doe n/Harry Ng removes students named John Doe and Harry Ng from the 1st consultation.
• removefromconsult 3 n/Osamu Dazai removes student named Osamu Dazai from the 3rd consultation.

Deleting consultations : deleteconsult

Deletes one or more consultations from TAHub by their indices.

Format: deleteconsult INDEX[;INDEX]…

• INDEX specifies the consultation to delete. You can delete multiple consultations by separating indices with semicolons (;).

Examples:

• deleteconsult 2
• deleteconsult 1;3;5 (deletes the 1st, 3rd, and 5th consultations)

Exporting consultation data : exportconsult

Exports the current list of consultations to a CSV file.

Format: exportconsult [-f] FILENAME

• Exports consultation data to ‘FILENAME.csv’ in both the data directory and user’s home directory
• The -f flag is optional and allows overwriting of existing files
• The filename must contain only alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9)
• Files are saved in both the data directory and home directory
• If the home directory copy fails, only the data directory file is created

Examples:

• exportconsult sessions creates sessions.csv containing current consultation list
• exportconsult -f consultbackup overwrites consultbackup.csv if it exists

Importing consultation data : importconsult

Imports consultations from a CSV file into TAHub.

Format: importconsult FILENAME

• The CSV file must have the header: Date,Time,Students
• Files can be read from:
  • Data directory (./data/): importconsult sessions.csv
  • Current directory: importconsult ./sessions.csv
  • Home directory (using ~ prefix): importconsult ~/documents/sessions.csv
  • Absolute paths: importconsult /path/to/sessions.csv
• Date must be in YYYY-MM-DD format
• Time must be in HH:mm format (24-hour)
• Students must be semicolon-separated and exist in TAHub
• Consultations with validation errors will be logged in error.csv
• Duplicate consultations are skipped and logged

Examples:

• importconsult sessions.csv imports consultation data from sessions.csv
• importconsult ~/documents/consultations.csv imports from the home directory

Lessons

The lesson list is shown on the right side of TAHub.
Currently, you can:

• Add and delete lessons
• Add and remove students from lessons
• Mark students’ attendance and participation

In a lesson, students are represented by name tags.
Its color represents their attendance (green for present, red for absent)
The number next to a student’s name represents their participation score.

This is an example of a lesson. In this example, Jane Doe is absent, and has a participation of 0. John Doe is present with a participation of 2.

Additionally, lessons that have passed (the time is before your computer’s time) will be displayed in red, as follows:

Lesson Commands

Adding a Lesson : addlesson

Adds a lesson to TAHub. Lessons will be sorted in chronological order in the lesson list.

Format: addlesson d/DATE t/TIME

• DATE must be in the format YYYY-MM-DD, and must be a valid date.
• TIME must be in the format HH:mm, and must be a valid time.

Examples:

• addlesson d/2024-11-08 t/08:00 adds a Lesson Timing that has passed.
• addlesson d/3145-11-23 t/01:00 adds a Lesson Timing.

Refreshing the lesson list : listlessons

Refreshes and displays the lesson list. Useful to fix minor UI glitches, e.g. the display not updating after adding a student.

Format: listlessons

Example:

• listlessons

Adding a student to a lesson : addtolesson

Adds student(s) to a lesson. Students added to a lesson will be shown as name tags under that lesson inside the lesson list.

Format: addtolesson LESSON_INDEX [n/NAME]… [i/STUDENT_INDEX]…

• LESSON_INDEX is the index of the lesson as displayed in the lesson list.
• At least one of the optional arguments must be provided. There must be at least one name or index.
• NAME must be the full name of a student exactly as shown in the student list. Names are case-sensitive.
• STUDENT_INDEX is the index of a student as displayed in the student list.

Examples:

• addtolesson 1 n/John Doe adds John Doe to lesson number 1.
• addtolesson 1 n/John Doe i/3 i/5 adds John Doe and students numbered 3 and 5 to lesson number 1.
• addtolesson 3 n/Nakahara Chuuya i/3 adds students Nakahara Chuuya & Student at Index 3 to the 3rd lesson.

Removing a student from a lesson : removefromlesson

Removes student(s) from a lesson. Removing a student will also remove all data associated with them to that lesson, i.e. re-adding them defaults to no attendance and 0 participation.

Format: removefromlesson LESSON_INDEX n/NAME [n/NAME]…

• LESSON_INDEX is the index of the lesson as displayed in the lesson list.
• NAME must be the full name of a student in the lesson. Names are case-sensitive.

Examples:

• removefromlesson 1 n/John Doe n/Jane Doe removes John Doe and Jane Doe from lesson number 1.
• removefromlesson 3 n/Osamu Dazai removes student named Osamu Dazai from the 3rd lesson.

• Marking a student’s attendance : marka

Marks student(s)’ attendance in a lesson. The student’s attendance is represented by the color of their name tag under a lesson - green for present and red for absent.

Format: marka LESSON_INDEX n/NAME [n/NAME]… a/ATTENDANCE

• LESSON_INDEX is the index of the lesson as displayed in the lesson list.
• NAME must be the full name of a student in the lesson. Names are case-sensitive.
• If multiple names are provided, all their attendances will be set to the given value.
• ATTENDANCE must be one of the following: Y,yor1 for yes (student is present) and N,nor0 for no (student is absent).
• There must be exactly 1 ATTENDANCE argument, e.g. a/1 a/1 is not allowed.

Examples:

• marka 1 n/John Doe a/y marks John Doe as present for lesson number 1.
• marka 2 n/John Doe n/Jane Doe a/N marks John Doe and Jane Doe as absent for lesson number 2.
• marka 3 n/Nakahara Chuuya a/Y marks Student Nakahara Chuuya as present for lesson number 3.

Marking a student’s participation : markp

Marks student(s)’ participation in a lesson. The student’s participation is reflected in the number next to their name tag under a lesson.
Additionally, setting a student’s participation above 0 will also automatically set their attendance to true.

Format: markp LESSON_INDEX n/NAME [n/NAME]… pt/PARTICIPATION

• LESSON_INDEX is the index of the lesson as displayed in the lesson list.
• NAME must be the full name of a student in the lesson. Names are case-sensitive.
• LESSON_INDEX is the index of the lesson as displayed in the lesson list.
• NAME must be the full name of a student in the lesson.
• If multiple names are provided, all their participation points will be set to the given value.
• PARTICIPATION must be an integer between 0 and 100 inclusive.
• There must be exactly 1 PARTICIPATION argument, e.g. pt/3 pt/3 is not allowed.
• The participation score is set exactly to the given value. It does not add onto students’ existing score.
• Due to a bug in the current version, a + before the participation value will be accepted, i.e. +3 is treated as 3. This will be removed in a future release.

Examples:

• markp 1 n/John Doe pt/3 marks John Doe as having 3 participation marks for lesson number 1.
• markp 2 n/John Doe n/Jane Doe pt/5 marks John Doe and Jane Doe as having 5 participation marks for lesson number 2.
• markp 3 n/Nakahara Chuuya pt/100 marks Student Nakahara Chuuya as having 100 participation marks for lesson number 3.

Deleting a lesson : deletelesson

Deletes lesson(s) from TAHub.

Format: deletelesson LESSON_INDEX[;LESSON_INDEX]…

• LESSON_INDEX is the index of the lesson as displayed in the lesson list.

Examples:

• deletelesson 2
• deletelesson 1;2;3 deletes the lessons numbered 1,2,3 in the lesson list

Storage Operations

Saving the data

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

Editing the data file

TAHub data are 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, TAHub 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.
Furthermore, certain edits can cause the TAHub to behave in unexpected ways (e.g., if a value entered is outside of the acceptable range). Therefore, edit the data file only if you are confident that you can update it correctly.

Archiving data files [coming in v2.0]

Details coming soon …

FAQ

Q: The Command I entered does not work. What’s Wrong?
A: Check the Instructions for the Command Format in Features. Refer to the Examples provided as necessary.

Q: Can I run TAHub on a Windows, Mac or Linux Computer?
A: Yes. If your Computer has Java 17 or above installed, TAHub will work on Windows, Mac, and Linux Computers.

Q: Will editing / deleting Students in the Student List change the details of existing students in the Consultation / Lesson List?
A: Yes. Any changes made to Students will be reflected immediately in the Consultation & Lesson List.

Q: Can I Import / Export Lesson Data in TAHub?
A: No. The Feature for Importing/Exporting Lesson Data has not been implemented in the current version. Our Team has plans to implement this feature in next version.

Q: Does TAHub require Internet Connection?
A: No. After installation, TAHub does not require internet connection.

Q: Where is the data for TAHub stored?
A: TAHub data are saved automatically as a JSON file in [JAR file location]/data/addressbook.json. You can make a backup of the file if you wish to.

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 TAHub home folder.

Q: Do I need to manually save the data?
A: TAHub saves automatically after any command that modifies the data. There is no need to save manually.

Q: Can I edit the JSON Data File directly
A: You are strongly not encouraged to edit the JSON data file directly. You can use the commands as mentioned in the Features to augment any data. Should the changes made to the data file causes the format to be invalid, TAHub will discard all data and start with an empty data file. It is highly recommended to make a copy of the date file before editing it. However, Advanced users are welcome to update data directly by editing that data file.

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.
2. 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.
3. Occasionally, the consults and lessons list may not display properly, i.e. have wrong heights. Try using the relevant list command listconsults or listlessons to refresh the list. Alternatively, try scrolling the list with a mouse. This should update the display to remedy the bug.
4. Certain characters cannot be used in student names, such as / or -, which prevent legitimate parts of names such as S/O from being input. This will be addressed in a future version.

Command summary