ClientEase User Guide

ClientEase is a lightweight customer contact manager designed for home-based business owners who manage a small to medium customer base, perform frequent daily updates to customer contact information, and prefer fast, command-line-style text input.

Instead of clicking through multiple menus, ClientEase lets you type short commands to add customers, search by fields, track products and deadlines, and retrieve information instantly, keeping your records organised without the overhead of full-scale business management systems.

Scenario: You run a home bakery and receive orders through chat and email. Throughout the day you need to update phone numbers, delivery locations, and due dates quickly while keeping a clear view of open orders. ClientEase lets you do those updates in seconds with short commands, without switching between multiple windows.

• If you are new to ClientEase, start with the Quick Start section.
• If you are looking for a specific command, jump to the Command Summary.
• If you are a developer, refer to the Developer Guide.

Table of Contents

• Who Is This Guide For?
• Quick Start
  • Installation
  • Overview of the Interface
  • Your First Commands
• General Usage Notes
  • Notes on Command Format
  • Data Normalisation
  • The “Unique Name” Rule
  • Parameter Reference
• Features
  • Viewing Help : help
  • Adding a Customer : add
  • Listing All Customers : list
  • Managing Products : product
  • Editing a Customer : edit
  • Finding Customers : find
  • Deleting a Customer : delete
  • Clearing All Customers : clear
  • Exiting the App : exit
• Saving the Data
• Editing the Data File
• FAQ
• Known Issues
• Command Summary
• Glossary

Who Is This Guide For?

ClientEase is built for home-based online business owners who:

• Manage a small to medium customer base (typically under a few hundred contacts)
• Perform frequent daily updates to customer information, such as new orders, contact changes, or delivery deadlines

This guide assumes you are comfortable with:

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Quick Start

Installation

1. Ensure you have Java 17 or above installed. Verify by opening a terminal and running:

   java -version
   

   If Java is not installed or the version is below 17, follow the instructions for your operating system below:

🪟 Windows

Download and install Java 17 for Windows from Oracle. After installing, open Command Prompt (Win + R, type cmd, press Enter) and verify with:

   java -version

🍎 macOS

Ensure you have the precise JDK version prescribed here.

🐧 Linux

Install Java 17 using your package manager. For example, on Ubuntu or Debian:

   sudo apt update && sudo apt install openjdk-17-jdk

Then verify with java -version.

1. Download the latest ClientEase.jar file from the releases page here.

2. Move the file to a folder you want to use as your home folder (e.g., ~/ClientEase/).

3. Open a terminal and navigate to that folder:

🪟 Windows

Open Command Prompt and run (replace the path with your actual folder location):

   cd C:\Users\YourName\ClientEase

🍎 macOS / 🐧 Linux

Open Terminal and run:

   cd ~/ClientEase

1. Run the application:

   java -jar ClientEase.jar
   

   ClientEase will launch with a set of sample customer data so you can explore right away.

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Overview of the Interface

The screenshot above shows the main ClientEase window. The table below describes each numbered area:

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Your First Commands

Here is a short walkthrough to get familiar with ClientEase. Try each command by typing it into the command box and pressing Enter.

Step 1 - See what’s already in the app:

list

Expected output: All sample customers are shown in the Customer List Panel.

Step 2 - Add your first real customer:

add name/Jane Tan
    contact/91234567;jane@mybusiness.com
    products/Chocolate Cake:2, Muffin:5
    location/Tampines
    deadline/2025-12-31

Enter the full command as a single line in the application. The text may wrap visually in this guide, but do not press Enter until the full command has been typed. Expected output: Added Customer: Jane Tan

Step 3 - Find a customer by name:

find name/Jane

Expected output: Only customers whose name matches “Jane” are shown.

Step 4 - Update a customer’s contact details:

edit 1 contact/99887766

Expected output: The first customer’s contact details are updated.

Step 5 - Delete a customer:

delete 1

Expected output: The 1st customer in the list is deleted.

Step 6 - Exit the app:

exit

Expected output: Goodbye! Exiting ClientEase. You have <N> customer(s) saved.

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General Usage Notes

Notes on Command Format

• Words in UPPER_CASE are parameters you supply. For example, in add name/NAME, replace NAME with the actual name, e.g. add name/John Doe.
• Items in [square brackets] are optional. For example, name/NAME [contact/CONTACT] can be used with or without a contact.
• Parameters can be entered in any order. For example, add name/John Doe contact/98765432 is the same as add contact/98765432 name/John Doe.
• Commands that do not take parameters, such as help, list, clear, exit, and product list, will ignore any extra text you type after them.
• Example: help please works the same as help.
• Example: product list now works the same as product list.
• If a long command wraps visually in this guide, type it as a single line in the application.
• If you are using a PDF version of this guide, be careful when copying multi-line commands — line breaks may cause spaces to be omitted.

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Data Normalisation

To keep stored data consistent and reduce accidental duplicates, ClientEase normalises some input before saving it.

Contact numbers

• Spaces in phone numbers are removed before storage.
• Example: +65 9123 4567 is stored internally as +6591234567.
• Email addresses are converted to lowercase before storage.

Search behaviour

• The find command matches against stored values.
• When searching by contact number, omit spaces in your search term.
• Example: use find c/+6591234567 instead of find c/+65 9123 4567.

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The “Unique Name” Rule

ClientEase is designed for maximum efficiency. To allow you to delete customers using only their names, instead of relying only on index numbers, the system requires every customer to have a unique name.

Why? This ensures that commands like delete John Doe are always unambiguous and fast to execute.

Handling namesakes: If one customer is John Doe and you need to distinguish a second customer with the same name, we recommend giving the second customer a distinguishing suffix, for example John Doe Jr.

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Parameter Reference

This section defines all parameters used across commands.

name/NAME

products/PRODUCTS

location/LOCATION

deadline/DEADLINE

contact/CONTACT

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Features

Viewing Help : help

Opens a help window that provides a quick overview of available commands and a link to the full User Guide.

Format: help

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Adding a Customer : add

Adds a new customer record to ClientEase.

Format:

add name/NAME
    [products/PRODUCTS]
    [location/LOCATION]
    [deadline/DEADLINE]
    [contact/CONTACT]

Parameters: See Parameter Reference — name/NAME, products/PRODUCTS, location/LOCATION, deadline/DEADLINE, contact/CONTACT.

Other constraints:

• Each prefix can appear at most once.
• Unrecognised <word>/ prefixes are rejected.
• For optional fields, if a prefix is provided with no value (e.g. products/), the field is treated as empty.
• Non-ASCII characters (e.g. Chinese) are rejected in name/ and contact/.

Products are shown as a bulleted list with quantities (e.g., - Muffin (x2)). If no products are provided, the card shows Products: None.

Examples:

Example 1: Add a customer with full details

add name/John Doe
    contact/98765432;johnd@example.com
    products/Chocolate Cake:2, Muffin:5
    location/Clementi Ave 2
    deadline/2025-12-31

Enter the full command as a single line in the application. Effect: Adds a customer named John Doe with products, location, deadline (31 Dec 2025 at 23:59), and contact details.

Example 2: Add a customer with name only

add name/Sarah Lim

Effect: Adds a customer named Sarah Lim with no other details. You can edit to fill in the rest later.

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Listing All Customers : list

Shows a list of all customers in ClientEase.

Format: list

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Managing Products : product

Manages the product catalogue used by add and edit.

Formats:

product add product/NAME   (or p/NAME)
product delete product/NAME   (or p/NAME)
product list

Examples:

• product add p/Muffin
• product delete product/Muffin
• product list

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Editing a Customer : edit

Edits an existing customer in ClientEase.

Format:

edit INDEX
    [name/NAME]
    [products/PRODUCTS]
    [location/LOCATION]
    [deadline/DATE]
    [contact/CONTACT]

Parameters: See Parameter Reference — name/NAME, products/PRODUCTS, location/LOCATION, deadline/DEADLINE, contact/CONTACT.

• Edits the customer at the specified INDEX. The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed customer 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.
• products/ replaces the customer’s entire current product list. Quantity 0 is not accepted.
• To remove one product while keeping others, re-enter the full list of products you want to keep.
• To remove all products from a customer, use an empty products field: edit INDEX products/.

Examples:

Example 1: Edit a contact

edit 1 contact/91234567

Effect: Updates the contact of the 1st customer to 91234567.

Example 2: Edit multiple fields

edit 2 name/Betsy Crower
    products/Muffin
    location/Newgate Prison

Effect: Updates the name, products, and location of the 2nd customer.

Example 3: Remove one product but keep another

edit 1 products/Muffin:2

Effect: Replaces the customer’s entire product list so that only Muffin:2 remains.

Example 4: Remove all products

edit 1 products/

Effect: Clears the customer’s product list completely.

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Finding Customers : find

Finds customers whose details match the given keywords.

Format:

find [name/NAME]...
    [contact/CONTACT]...
    [location/LOCATION]...
    [product/PRODUCT]...

Parameters: See Parameter Reference — contact/CONTACT, location/LOCATION.

Short prefixes are supported: n/ for name/, c/ for contact/, l/ for location/, and p/ for product/.

• NAME and PRODUCT are single words; CONTACT and LOCATION are strings. Each field can repeat multiple times.
• At least one field prefix must be provided. Empty values are ignored; if all provided fields are empty (e.g. find n/), no customers will be matched.
• The search is case-insensitive. e.g. hans will match Hans.
• The name, contact, location, and product list of each customer will be searched.
• For name and products, only full words will be matched. e.g. Han will not match Hans.
• For location and contact, any substring will be matched. e.g. 123 will match 1234@mail.com.
• Searching multiple personal details (name, contact, or location) or multiple products will match any of those items; however, searching across both categories will only show results that match at least one from each.

Examples:

• find name/John returns john and John Doe
• find name/alex name/david returns Alex Yeoh, David Li
• find name/alex name/david product/cake returns David Li, where Alex Yeoh has Muffin and David Li has Chocolate Cake

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Deleting a Customer : delete

Deletes a customer from ClientEase using either their displayed index or exact name.

Format:

delete INDEX

• Deletes the customer at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed customer list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …

Examples:

Example 1: Delete by index

delete 2

Effect: Deletes the 2nd customer in the currently displayed list.

Example 2: Delete after filtering

find name/Betsy
delete 1

Effect: Deletes the 1st customer in the filtered results.

delete NAME

• Deletes the customer with the given NAME.
• Matching is case-insensitive and ignores extra spaces.

Examples:

delete John Doe

Effect: Deletes the customer named John Doe (case-insensitive, extra spaces ignored).

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Clearing All Customers : clear

Clears all entries from ClientEase.

Format: clear

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Exiting the App : exit

Exits the program after displaying a farewell message with the current customer count.

Format: exit

• A farewell message will be displayed: Goodbye! Exiting ClientEase. You have customer(s) saved.
• The app will close automatically after a short delay.

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Saving the Data

ClientEase automatically saves your data to disk after every command that changes data. There is no Save button and no need to save manually.

Your data is stored at:

[home folder]/data/ClientEase.json

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Editing the Data File

Advanced users may edit the data file directly using any text editor.

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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 ClientEase home folder.

Q: Can I have two customers with the same name?

A: No. ClientEase treats names as unique identifiers (case-insensitive, extra spaces ignored). If two customers share a name, consider differentiating them, e.g. Dr John Doe and John Doe Jr.

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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. Workaround: delete the preferences.json file created by the application before running the application again.

2. If you minimise 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 minimised, and no new Help Window will appear. Workaround: manually restore the minimised Help Window.

3. In certain window dimensions, the layout priority settings may cause names to truncate despite available horizontal space. Workaround: Increase the application window width until the text fully expands.

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Command Summary

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Glossary

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