CareBook User Guide

Welcome to CareBook! Your classroom, organized.

Designed with daycare teachers in mind, CareBook simplifies daily roster management and parent communication so you can focus on what matters the most - caring for children.

ℹ️ Notes about daycare teachers:

  • We assume that the daycare teachers managing daily rosters of 30 to 40 children
  • We assume that the daycare teachers using this product are tech-savvy and fast typers

With CareBook, you can:

  • Instantly access students’ information
  • Streamline daily attendance tracking with simple commands
  • Easily maintain student records for smooth communication

This user guide will walk you through:

  • Setting up your CareBook application
  • Navigating the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and Command Line Interface (CLI)
  • Learning essential commands to help you manage contacts and attendance

By the end of this guide, you’ll be a CareBook pro, managing your daycare with ease and precision.

Table of Contents

  1. Quick start
  2. Features
  3. Known Issues
  4. FAQ
  5. Command Summary

Quick Start

Installing CareBook

  1. Ensure you have Java 17 or above installed in your computer.
    Mac Users: Ensure you have the precise JDK version prescribed here.

    How to check your java version

  2. Download your carebook.jar file with the latest release here. Scroll down all the way until you see Assets and click on carebook.jar to install.

  3. Move the .jar file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for your CareBook.

  4. Open a command terminal, cd into the folder you placed your .jar file and type java -jar carebook.jar and press enter to run CareBook application. Here are detailed information as to how to change directory in Windows and MacOS.

    Changing directory

Introducing GUI

After successfully running CareBook application, a GUI similar to below should be displayed.

💡 Tip: CareBook provides sample data in the first run.

CLI Tutorial

  1. Type Command: Enter your command into the command box, highlighted with a yellow circle in the image below.

  2. Execute Command: Press Enter to run your command.

  3. View Results: After executing the command, you should see the student you just added as well as sample data in the image below.

Try These Example Commands

  • help: Opens the help window.
  • delete A00F: Deletes the student you just added in step 1 of type command.
  • markall: Marks all the students (including the sample data) as present.

For more details, see the features section.

 

Features

❗Warning: Please be careful when copying commands from a PDF version of this user guide. If a command is split across lines, spaces could be lost, which might cause errors when you paste it into the application.
❗Warning: Only edit the saved data file, carebook.json, if you are very sure what you are doing is correct and it will not cause errors (due to invalid names, dates, email id etc). Any error detected when reading data from the file will imply that the file has been corrupted, and all of its contents will be overwritten PERMANENTLY. You will NOT be able to recover lost data if your saved file is corrupted.
ℹ Information: StudentId used in all features is case-insensitive (e.g. "a10a" will match "A10A"). Both Phone and Email refer to the parent's.

Adding a student

You can add a student to CareBook.

Command Format: add <sn/StudentName> <id/StudentId> <pn/ParentName> <p/Phone> <e/Email> <a/Address>
Remarks:
  • Parameters can be added in any order, but all are compulsory.
  • For StudentName and ParentName, instead of "S/O" and "D/O" please use SO or DO.
  • Name should not have @
  • No restrictions to Address.
  • StudentId must be unique
  • StudentId is case-insensitive
  • StudentId should be 4 characters beginning with A followed by 2 digits and ending with an alphabet.
  • Phone is restricted to Singapore numbers so they must be exactly 8 digits and begin with 6, 8 or 9.
  • Email should have an @ domain.
Examples:
  • add sn/Tom Hank id/A10A pn/Thomas Hank p/98122012 e/thomashank@hotmail.com a/Bukit View 9
  • add pn/John Cena p/91029322 e/janeCena@hotmail.com a/Canberra Drive 9 sn/Jane Cena id/A99Z

Input:

Expected Output:

 

Clearing CareBook

You can clear all student records in CareBook.

❗Warning: You cannot retrieve any cleared data. This action is IRREVERSIBLE.
ℹ Information: This command ignores any additional parameters received.
Command Format: clear

Input:

Expected Output:

 

Deleting a student

You can delete a student from CareBook.

❗Warning: You cannot retrieve any deleted student data. This action is IRREVERSIBLE.
Command Format: delete <StudentId>
Remarks:
  • Student ID should be one that already exists in CareBook.
Examples:
  • delete A10A
  • delete A09B

Input:

Expected Output:

 

Editing a student

You can edit a student's details in CareBook.

Command Format: edit <StudentId> <sn/StudentName> <id/StudentId> <pn/ParentName> <p/Phone> <e/Email> <a/Address>
Remarks:
  • Parameters can be edited in any order.
  • For StudentName and ParentName, instead of "S/O" and "D/O" please use SO or DO.
  • Name should not have @
  • There are no restrictions to Address.
  • StudentId must be unique
  • StudentId is case-insensitive
  • StudentId should be 4 characters beginning with A followed by 2 digits and ending with an alphabet.
  • Edited StudentId should be a new StudentId that has not been assigned to any students.
  • Phone is restricted to Singapore numbers so they must be exactly 8 digits and begin with 6, 8 or 9.
  • Email should have an @ domain.
  • At least one field is required in addition to providing the student ID of the student you want to edit.
Examples:
  • edit A10A sn/Tom Hank p/98122012 e/thomashank@hotmail.com a/Bukit View 9
  • edit A99Z p/91029322 e/johnnyCena@gmail.com
  • edit A99Z id/A88V

Input:

Expected Output:

 

Exiting the program

You can exit the program.

ℹ Information: This command ignores any additional parameters received.
💡 Tip: Upon exiting, any data you have updated will automatically be saved.
Command Format: exit

 

Exporting attendance summary

You can export an attendance summary.

❗Warning: Student records are meant to be exported to a .csv file and viewed in that format. If you copy and paste records in that exported .csv file to other file types like Excel, there may be a slight formatting issue.
ℹ Information: The exported file will be automatically saved in .csv format, with a timestamp next to the file name to help identify when it was created. It includes student ID, student name, parent name, parent's email, parent's phone number, and students' attendance history from CareBook.
💡 Tip: You can copy the parent's email address from the exported .csv file and paste it directly into the "To" field when composing an email in Outlook
Command Format: export <FileName>
Remarks:
  • File name should only consist of alphanumeric characters and underscores.
  • Special characters including but not limited to * . / ‘ are invalid.
  • FileName should not exceed 100 characters.
Examples:
  • export attendance_sheet
  • export student_records

Input:

Expected Output:

 

Finding a student’s contact

You can find a specific student with matching Student ID.

ℹ Information: A find window will open upon executing this command. Full contact information (from top to bottom order: student name, student ID, parent name, parent's phone number, address, parent's email) of the student with a matching ID will be shown.
💡 Tip: You must close the find window by either pressing ESC or cross button before you can execute any commands in the main window
Command Format: find <StudentId>
Remarks:
  • Student ID must be one that already exists in CareBook.
Examples:
  • find A03A
  • find A99Z

Input:

Expected Output:

 

Viewing help

you can open a help window with a link to CareBook user guide website.

ℹ Information: This command ignores any additional parameters received.
💡 Tip: The help window also displays a summary of commands below the guide link.
Command Format: help

Input:

Expected Output:

A command summary will also be displayed below the guide link.

 

Listing all students

You can list all students in CareBook.

ℹ Information: This command ignores any additional parameters received.
Command Format: list

Input:

Expected Output:

 

Marking a student’s attendance

You can mark a student in CareBook as present.

Command Format: mark <StudentId>
Remarks:
  • Student ID must be one that already exists in CareBook.
Examples:
  • mark A10A
  • mark A99Z

Input:

Expected Output:

 

Marking all students’ attendance

You can mark all students in CareBook as present.

ℹ Information: This command ignores any additional parameters received.
Command Format: markall
Remarks:
  • The command only works if there is at least one recorded student in CareBook.
  • Running the command when all students are already marked will still return a success message. This is expected behaviour and not an error.

Input:

Expected Output:

 

Unmarking a student’s attendance

You can mark a student in CareBook as absent.

Command Format: unmark <StudentId>
Remarks:
  • Student ID must be one that already exists in CareBook.
Examples:
  • unmark A10A
  • unmark A99Z

Input:

Expected Output:

 

Unmarking all students’ attendance

You can mark all students in CareBook as absent.

ℹ Information: This command ignores any additional parameters received.
Command Format: unmarkall
Remarks:
  • The command only works if there is at least one recorded student in CareBook.
  • Running the command when all students are already unmarked will still return a success message. This is expected behaviour and not an error.

Input:

Expected Output:

 

Known Issues

  1. Find window cannot be resized. However, since it only displays 1 student, you will still be able to view all details needed.
  2. When help window is minimized and you run help again, the original window remains minimized. Simply restore the minimized window to view it again.

FAQ

Q: Is CareBook and Java 17 free to download?
A: Yes, they are both free to download!

Q: Do I need an internet connection to use CareBook?
A: No, CareBook works fully offline. All data is stored locally on your device.

Q: Is my data automatically saved?
A: Yes, CareBook automatically saves all changes after each command. No need to manually save!

Q: How do I start using this application if I am a novice user?
A: Execute help command to check the commands available. For more information about the command usage of each command, see the features section.

Q: Is there a way to recover deleted or cleared student records?
A: No, clear and delete <StudentId> are IRREVERSIBLE.

Command Summary

Action Command Format/Examples
Add add <sn/StudentName> <id/StudentId> <pn/ParentName> <p/Phone> <e/Email> <a/Address>
e.g. add sn/Tom Hanks id/A10A pn/Henry Hanks p/99019232 e/henry@hotmail.com a/Bukit View 9
Clear clear
Delete delete <StudentId>
e.g. delete A10A
Edit edit <StudentId> <sn/StudentName> <id/StudentId> <pn/ParentName> <p/Phone> <e/Email> <a/Address>
e.g. edit A10A p/91092222 e/henryhanks@hotmail.com
Exit exit
Export export <FileName>
e.g. export attendance_sheet
Find find <StudentId>
e.g. find A10A
Help help
List list
Mark mark <StudentId>
e.g. mark A10A
Markall markall
Unmark unmark <StudentId>
e.g. mark A10A
Unmarkall unmarkall