HireMe User Guide

Welcome to HireMe!

Thank you for choosing HireMe to simplify your internship journey. With so many positions to apply for, managing applications becomes a real challenge, on top of classes, projects, and exams. HireMe is here to keep you organised and focused on landing your dream internship. Let's dive in and make your internship search a little easier!

Use HireMe to get hired now!

Overview of User Guide

HireMe is a free desktop application that helps you manage your extensive list of internship applications.

• Easy to use
  • Type simple commands: If you can type fast, HireMe can get your internship tracking tasks done faster than traditional apps.
• User friendly interface
  • Simple design: View all your internship applications and statuses at a glance.
• Streamlining management
  • Core features: Add, delete and find entries.
  • Advanced features: Update status, sort, filter by status and view chart.
• Detailed insights
  • Tailored summary: Gain hidden insights from your list of internship applications.

Table of Contents

• Welcome to HireMe!
• Overview of User Guide
• Overview of target users
• How to use our User Guide
• Quick start
  • Part 1: Setting up and downloading HireMe
  • Part 2: Using the HireMe application
    • Mac Users
    • Windows Users
    • Using the terminal
    • Using the HireMe application
• Features
  • Viewing help : /help
  • Adding an internship application: /add
  • Listing all internship applications : /list
  • Deleting an internship application : /delete
  • Finding applications by company name: /find
  • Updating the status of an internship application: /accept, /pending, /reject
  • Filtering internship applications by status: /filter
  • Sorting internship applications: /sort
  • Clearing all entries : /clear
  • Viewing status chart: /chart
  • Exiting the program : /exit
  • Saving the data
• FAQ
• Troubleshooting
  • HireMe application setup failed
  • Getting errors when using the commands
  • Unable to see the full text on the screen
• Known Issues
• Command summary
• Glossary
• Acknowledgements

Overview of target users

If you’re a Computer Science undergraduate who doesn’t have much time, can type quickly, and wants to better manage your internship applications, HireMe is the perfect solution for you! Tracking internship applications can sometimes be troublesome and time-consuming. We understand the importance of tracking, as it allows you to follow up on your applications. That’s why we created HireMe to help you stay organized without much effort, knowing that you may be busy with coursework. Let’s get you started with HireMe.

How to use our User Guide

First time using HireMe? Don't worry! We've got you covered! This tutorial will help maximise your usage of HireMe.

• To get started, refer to the Quick Start, which will walk you through getting HireMe all set up!
• Need a quick refresher of the commands available for you? Check out our Command Summary!
• Is there a burning question you want answers for? The FAQ might have the answer.

Before continuing, here are some important information you need to know about the User Guide:

1. There are two different kinds of boxes that provide extra information.

   • Note boxes provide important information that you should take note of.

     Note: This is a Note box.

   • Warning boxes provide a warning about certain errors that might occur as a precaution for incorrect usage.

     Warning: This is a warning box.

2. Refer to Features for detailed explanations of each feature of HireMe!

Quick start

This section has two parts: complete Part 1 once, and repeat Part 2 each time you wish to use HireMe.

Part 1: Setting up and downloading HireMe

1. Ensure that you have Java 17 or above installed on your computer for the hireme application to run. If not, download the latest version of Java from their website.

2. Download hireme.jar file from our GitHub.

   

3. Create a new folder and name it any name you want (e.g. HireMe).

4. Find the downloaded hireme.jar file and drag it into the folder you created in step 3.
   

   

Part 2: Using the HireMe application

For steps 5 and 6, refer to either Mac Users or Windows Users section that matches your computer system. Continue to Using the terminal after completing steps 5 and 6.

Mac users

5. Use Mac's spotlight search (Command + Space bar) and type Terminal, click on open.

   
   

   You will see a window like this.
   

   

6. Click into the folder created in step 3. Right click on the hireme.jar file and select Get Info.
   

   
   
   On the new window that pops up, right click on Where and copy the file path.

   
   
   

Windows users

5. Use Windows' search and type Terminal, click on Open.
   

   
   
   You will see a window like this.
   

   

6. Click into the folder created in step 3. Click on the empty space of the bar located at the top and copy the file path.
   

   

   Note: File path here is highlighted in blue
   
   
   

Using the terminal

7. Type cd FILEPATH (replacing FILEPATH with the actual file path copied in step 6) and press Enter.

8. Type java -jar hireme.jar and press Enter to run the HireMe application.
   
   

   • Windows Terminal:
     

     
     
     

   • Mac Terminal:
     

     
     
     

Using the HireMe application

A GUI similar to the one below should appear in a few seconds. It is encouraged to expand the window to full screen for better viewability. Note how the app contains some sample data.

9. 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/Google r/Software Engineer Intern e/google@gmail.com d/16/09/24: Adds an internship application at Google to the list of added entries.

   • /delete 1 : Deletes the first internship application shown in the displayed list.

   • /list : Lists all your internship applications.

   • /clear : Deletes all your internship applications.

   • /chart : Shows a pie chart with your applications' statistics.

   • /exit : Exits the app.

Refer to the Features below for more details of each command.
Refer to Troubleshooting if you are facing problems for setting up.

Features

Viewing help: /help

Shows a message explaining how you can access the help page.

Format: /help

Adding an internship application: /add

Adds your internship application to HireMe with required details such as company's name, internship role, email and date of application.

Format: /add n/COMPANY_NAME r/ROLE e/EMAIL d/DATE

• NAME can only contain alphanumeric or special characters like _,&,/,.,:,(, and ).
• ROLE can only contain alphanumeric or /.
• EMAIL must be a valid email address.
• The DATE must be within the year 2000 and the current year. It also cannot be a future date which means that the date used must be before today or today's date.
• It must be in the format dd/mm/yy, and each field must be double digits (e.g. 01 is valid while 1 is not)

Examples:

• /add r/Data Scientist Intern n/Facebook e/fb@example.com d/21/10/24
• /add n/Google r/Software Engineer Intern e/google@gmail.com d/01/01/24

These are the before and after images of the second example

Listing all internship applications: /list

Shows a list of all of your internship applications in HireMe.

Format: /list

Deleting an internship application: /delete

Deletes the specified internship application from HireMe.

Format: /delete INDEX

• Deletes the internship application at the specified INDEX.
• The INDEX refers to the index number shown in the displayed internship application list.
• The INDEX must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
• The INDEX must be a valid index number (e.g. 5 is not valid when there is less than five applications in the displayed list).

Examples:

• /list followed by /delete 2 deletes the second application in the list.
• /find Google followed by /delete 1 deletes the first application in the results of the /find command.
• /list followed by /delete 4 when you only have three internship applications returns an error message.

These are the before and after images of the first example

Finding applications by company name: /find

Finds all of your applications whose company names contains words that starts with the specified characters.

Format: /find KEYWORD [ADDITIONAL_KEYWORDS]

• The search is case-insensitive. e.g. goo will match Google.
• The search is only for company names.
• The search uses prefix search.
• The search allows for more than one KEYWORD
• If you search for go, then you will see a list of all the internship applications that you have applied for whose companies have words starting with go in their names.

Examples:

• /find Goo returns Google and Google 2
• /find face returns Facebook
• /find app returns Apple, but not CashApp
• /find young returns Ernest & Young
• /find amaZoN NetFlix returns Amazon and Netflix

These are the before and after images of the last example

Updating the status of an internship application: /accept, /pending, /reject

Use these commands to update the status of a specified internship application to ACCEPTED, PENDING, or REJECTED.

Format: /accept INDEX, /reject INDEX, /pending INDEX

• /accept INDEX: Changes the status of the application at index INDEX in the displayed list to ACCEPTED.
• /pending INDEX: Changes the status of the application at index INDEX in the displayed list to PENDING.
• /reject INDEX: Changes the status of the application at index INDEX in the displayed list to REJECTED.
• The INDEX refers to the position of an application in the displayed list.
• INDEX must be a positive integer (e.g., 1, 2, 3, …).
• INDEX must be a valid number for the displayed list length (e.g., /reject 5 is invalid if there are fewer than five applications in the displayed list).

Important: Commands like /accept, /pending, and /reject work on the displayed list, not the entire application database. For example, if you have ten total applications, but after using /filter ACCEPTED only five applications are shown, then /reject 5 will target the last item on this filtered list.

Examples:

1. /list followed by /accept 2: Changes the status of the second application in the displayed list to ACCEPTED.
2. /pending 3: Changes the status of the third application in the currently displayed list to PENDING.
3. /reject 1: Changes the status of the first application in the currently displayed list to REJECTED.
4. /filter PENDING followed by /accept 1: Updates the status of the first application on the filtered list (currently PENDING) to ACCEPTED, removing it from the list view as it no longer matches the PENDING filter.
5. /list followed by /accept 4 when there are only three internship applications returns an error message.

These are the before and after images of the first example

Filtering internship applications by status: /filter

Filters all of your existing internship applications with specified status.

Format: /filter STATUS

• Valid statuses are pending, accepted or rejected only.
• The status is case-insensitive. (e.g. "pending", "PenDiNg" and "PENDING" are all allowed.)

Examples:

• /filter pending displays all the internship applications that have a status of pending.
• /filter accepted displays all the internship applications that have a status of accepted.
• /filter rejected displays all the internship applications that have a status of rejected.

These are the before and after images of the second example

Sorting internship applications: /sort

Sorts your internship applications in ascending / descending order based on the date of application.

Format: /sort ORDER

• There are only two orders that are valid: earliest or latest only.
• The order is case-insensitive. (e.g. "earliest", "eaRLiEsT" and "EARLIEST" are all allowed.)
• Once you sort the list, even if you exit the application and reopen it, the list remains sorted unless you add more internship applications.
• Even if you find or filter the list, sorting it afterwards will also sort the entire main list.

Examples:

• /sort earliest displays the internship application list sorted according to the earliest applications first.
• /sort latest displays the internship application list sorted according to the latest applications first.

These are the before and after images of the first example

Clearing all entries: /clear

Clears all of your internship application entries from the HireMe application.

Format: /clear

Viewing status chart: /chart

Opens a new window that displays a pie chart with summary data of the statuses of all of your internship applications.

Format: /chart

Exiting the program: /exit

Exits the HireMe application.

Format: /exit

Saving the data

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

FAQ

Get your questions or doubts about HireMe's functionality and details answered here. If you have further questions, you can contact us through our email hireme@gmail.com.

Q1: Where is the data for the application stored?

Ans: HireMe's data is saved automatically as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/hireme.json. You can make a backup of the file if you wish to.

Q2: Can I edit the data file directly?

Ans: You are strongly encouraged to not edit the JSON data file directly. You can use the commands as mentioned above to augment any data. Should the changes made to the data file cause the format to be invalid, HireMe will discard all data and start with an empty data file. It is highly recommended to make a copy of the data file before editing it.

Users should only edit the data file only if they are confident in updating it correctly.

Q3: What is considered valid, when editing the JSON data file directly?

Ans: Data entries are valid, if they are achievable through a sequence of commands.

Examples:
Having 30/02/24 is an invalid dateString field for an application, as there is no sequence of commands that will lead to an application having the respective date.

Having REJECTED is a valid statusString field for an application, as the user can /add an internship and update the status via /reject.

Q4: Can I find followed by filter to filter out the applications with a specific keyword?

Ans: Currently, /find and /filter do not stack. These commands will find or filter based on all of your internship application entries.

Q5: After I sort my internship applications, will a new entry be added in the right order automatically?

Ans: New entries will not be inserted in the right order. They are inserted to the bottom of the list.

Q6: Will adding / deleting new entries or changing the statuses of existing entries be reflected in the pie chart?

Ans: Yes! You are not required to close the window. Any changes made will be reflected immediately in the pie chart.

Q7: What is considered a valid email address format?

Ans: If you have an existing email address account, it will be allowed by HireMe. You can check here.

Troubleshooting

If you are facing problems while setting up or using HireMe, we want to help you. This section covers some of the common problems and ways to solve them. If you need further help, you can reach out to us through our email hireme@gmail.com.

HireMe application setup failed

Check that you have the hireme.jar in the correct folder and copied the correct file path into the terminal. Check that you have Java 17 or above downloaded in your computer. Follow the correct set of instructions based on your computer system, see Part 2 of setting up.

Getting errors when using the commands

Check that you have the typed the correct command format. Check that you have included all necessary parameters. Check that you have used valid inputs (refer to each command for valid inputs).

Unable to see the full text on the screen

Try opening the window to full screen or scroll to view the full text. Avoid inputting texts that are too lengthy.

Known Issues

1. If the user opens the application on a first monitor, then moves the application window to a second monitor and closes the application, then when the user tries to open the application again, the application would not work after opening. The current work around is that the user will then have to move the application window back to the first monitor for the application to work.

Command summary

Glossary

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the following contributions:

We started with a general AB3 user guide template and adapted it to the functional requirements of HireMe. We also used MarkBind which is a third party library to generate a dynamic user guide website from Markdown text.

AI tools such as ChatGPT were also used to check for grammatical errors.