MediLink Contacts (MLC) is a desktop application for medical administrative assistants to manage patient and doctor details within clinics.

Hereʼs an overview of how MediLink Contacts can help you streamline your clinic management processes:

  • Store and edit information about your patients and doctors.
  • Create appointments between patients and doctors upon triaging.

On top of these functionalities, we believe that efficiency in patient management is of utmost importance. Hence, MediLink Contacts is optimised for use via a Command Line Interface (CLI) while still having the benefits of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). If you type fast, MediLink Contacts can get your hospital management tasks done faster than current GUI apps in the industry.

New here? Visit our quick start guide to onboard onto MediLink Contacts smoothly!

Table of Contents

Quick start

  1. Ensure you have Java 11 or above installed on your Computer. If you don’t, install it for your relevant operating system at this link.

  2. Download the latest MediLink.jar from here.

  3. Copy the file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for your MLC.

  4. Open a command terminal, cd into the folder you put the jar file in, and use the java -jar MediLink.jar command to run the application.
    A GUI similar to the one below should appear in a few seconds. Note how the app contains some sample data.
    quickview

  5. 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:

    • list: Lists all contacts.

    • add-doctor n/John Doe ic/S9851386G g/M p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01: Adds a doctor named John Doe to MediLink Contacts.

    • delete S9851386G: Deletes the person with NRIC S9851386G.

    • clear: Deletes all contacts.

    • exit: Exits the app.

  6. Refer to the Features below for details of each command.
  7. Experiencing difficulties? Refer to the following sections for assistance:
    • Common Pitfalls: These are challenges often encountered by users due to incorrect or unsupported inputs.
    • FAQ for Miscellaneous Information: Find answers to frequently asked questions and gather miscellaneous information here.
    • Known Issues Due to App Limitations: Discover issues that are known to exist due to the app’s limitations in this section.

Parameters

The list below contains the parameters that are used in various commands as well as their various constraints. Failing to input valid parameters will lead to errors when entering commands. Users should follow these constraints for all commands unless otherwise stated.

Note: Certain commands may have special requirements for parameter inputs (eg. find) so please do follow them when necessary!

Parameter Constraints Valid Examples Invalid Examples
NRIC Starting with S or T, followed by 7 numbers, and ends with a letter. Not case-sensitive. T0123456G, s33344476i T01234567G, “”, t12367K
Doctor/Patient Name Empty strings are not allowed. Name must contain only alphanumeric characters. Cristiano Ronaldo, Tanveer Singh “”, 高橋紳助, s/o someone
Contact Number 3 digit or more integer as phone number. Empty strings are not allowed. 91234569 “”, 99
Email Must be of the format local-name@domain. local-name should only contain alphanumeric characters and these special characters, excluding the parentheses, (+_.-), and may not start or end with any special characters. domain is made up of domain labels separated by periods, and must end with a domain label at least 2 characters long. Domain labels start and end with alphanumeric characters, consist of alphanumeric characters, separated only by hyphens, if any. j@Email.com, isaac@a-b.com isaac@a+b.com, james.com
Blood Type Accepts only strings containing valid blood types, that is a combination of A/B/AB/O and +/-. Letters must be in caps. B+, O+, B-, AB+ J, K, A, O
Address Any non-empty string. Clementi, OneCare@Hougang Avenue ””
Gender Either the character “M” or “F”. Must be in caps. M, F G, girl, male, f
Emergency Contact Valid Contact number. Same constraints as the Contact Number parameter. 91234569 “”, 99
Condition Any non-empty string. Knee Injury, appendicitis ””
Patient Tag Accepts only strings containing valid priority levels, either low, medium or high. Not case-sensitive. low, MEDIUM, hiGh extreme, med
Doctor Tag Accepts only strings containing valid specialisations. Not case-sensitive. The current allowed specialisations are listed in the examples box. CARDIOLOGIST, ORTHOPEDIC, PEDIATRICIAN, DERMATOLOGIST, NEUROLOGIST, GENERAL_PRACTITIONER, PSYCHIATRIST, SURGEON Nurse, Head-Doctor
Time Accepts only strings that follow the specified format (ie. yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm), where HH:mm follows the 24hr format. 2016-10-10 18:00,
2000-01-30 23:59		 2005-10-32 18:00, 2016-11-02 27:00

Features

:information_source: Notes about the command format:

  • Words in UPPER_CASE are the parameters to be supplied by the user.
    e.g. in add n/NAME, NAME is a parameter which can be used as add n/John Doe.

  • Items in square brackets are optional.
    e.g n/NAME [t/TAG] can be used as n/John Doe t/friend or as n/John Doe.

  • Items with …​ after them can be used multiple times, including zero times.
    e.g. [t/TAG]…​ can be used as   (i.e. 0 times), t/friend, t/friend t/family etc.

  • Parameters can be in any order.
    e.g. if the command specifies n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER, p/PHONE_NUMBER n/NAME is also acceptable.

  • Extraneous parameters for commands that do not take in parameters (such as help, list, exit, clear, undo and redo) will be ignored.
    e.g. if the command specifies help 123, it will be interpreted as help.

  • Extraneous parameters behind any valid parameters will be deemed as the input for that parameter.
    e.g. if the command specifies add-doctor a/ADRESS c/some condition ...., c/some condition will be interpreted as part of the address.

  • If you are using a PDF version of this document, be careful when copying and pasting commands that span multiple lines as space characters surrounding line-breaks may be omitted when copied over to the application.

Viewing help: help

Shows a message explaining how to access the help page.

help message

Format: help

Adding a Doctor: add-doctor

Adds a Doctor to MediLink Contacts.

Format: add-doctor n/NAME ic/NRIC g/GENDER p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS [t/TAG]…​

:bulb: Tip: A doctor can have any number of tags (including 0). Duplicate tags, however, are NOT allowed.

:information_source: Take Note:

  • A doctor MUST have all fields non-empty except TAG. Failure to include these details may result in an error.
  • The order is not important (i.e. NRIC can come before NAME). What matters is that all the mandatory fields are declared, and the format for each field is adhered to.
  • A person can either be a doctor or a patient, but not both. Hence, if the doctor’s NRIC is already in the app as a patient, it may result in an error.

Examples:

  • add-doctor n/John Doe ic/S9851386G g/M p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01 t/Pediatrician
  • add-doctor n/Betsy Crowe ic/S9851586G g/F p/98765433 e/betsycrowe@example.com a/#104-C, Wakanda St 42 t/Surgeon

Adding a Patient: add-patient

Adds a Patient to MediLink Contacts.

Format: add-patient n/NAME ic/NRIC g/GENDER p/PHONE_NUMBER ec/EMERGENCY_CONTACT e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS c/CONDITION b/BLOODTYPE [t/TAG] ​

:information_source: Take Note:

  • A patient cannot have the same NRIC as another person.
  • A person can either be a doctor or a patient, but not both. Hence, if the patient’s NRIC is already in the app as a doctor, it may result in an error.
  • EMERGENCY_CONTACT must contain a valid emergency contact number, which needs to be a valid phone number. This number can be the same as the person’s contact number.
  • A patient can only have up to one tag at any time.

Examples:

  • add-patient n/John Doe ic/S9851386G g/M p/98765432 ec/90123456 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01 c/pneumothorax b/O+ t/Low
  • add-patient n/Betsy Crowe ic/S9851586G g/F p/98765433 ec/12345678 e/betsycrowe@example.com a/#104-C, Wakanda St 42 c/AIDS b/O+ t/High

Creating an Appointment: new-appt

Creates a new appointment for patients.

Format: new-appt pic/NRIC dic/NRIC time/yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm

:information_source: Take Note:

  • All fields are Required.
  • NRIC for pic/ must contain the valid NRIC of a Patient in MediLink Contacts.
  • NRIC for dic/ must contain the valid NRIC of a Doctor in MediLink Contacts.
  • There must not be conflicting Appointments (eg. the doctor already has an appointment with another patient at the same time). However, the duration of each appointment is flexible and up to the users. As long as appointments are not at the exact same time, users can add it in.

Examples:

  • new-appt pic/T0123456H dic/S9851586G time/2023-10-30 13:00

Deleting an Appointment: delete-appt

Deletes an existing appointment.

Format: delete-appt INDEX

:information_source: Take Note:

  • Index is according to the list view in the application.
  • Use list command to find index of desired appointment.

Examples:

  • delete-appt 1

Finding an Appointment: find-appt

Finds all appointments that involve a specific patient/doctor.

Format: find-appt NRIC

:information_source: Take Note:

  • All fields are Required.
  • NRIC must contain the valid NRIC of a Patient or Doctor in MediLink Contacts and must be in caps.
  • Either Doctor NRIC or Patient NRIC can be used in the search
  • It is recommended to use list to restore the view of all data after a find command.

Examples:

  • find-appt T0001222Q

Listing all persons: list

Shows a list of all persons and appointments in the MediLink Contacts.

Format: list

Editing a person: edit

Edits an existing person in MediLink Contacts.

Format: edit NRIC [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [t/TAG]…​

:information_source: Take Note:

  • Edits the person with the specified NRIC. The NRIC provided must be a valid NRIC number and is not case-sensitive.
  • At least one of the optional fields must be provided.
  • If the provided fields are the same as the original, the command will still work.
  • You cannot change a person’s IC number. If the provided IC number is the same as the original it will work. However, if it is different, there will be an error.
  • Must edit appropriate fields based on whether the person is a patient or doctor (e.g. can’t update condition, blood type or emergency contact of a doctor).
  • Existing values will be updated to the input values.
  • When editing tags, the existing tags of the person will be removed i.e. adding of tags is not cumulative.
  • You can remove all the person’s tags by typing t/ without specifying any tags after it.
  • If extraneous parameters are provided, it may lead to an error.
  • Note: In our app, the Remark Section will be left blank by default. The Edit Command can be used to add any miscellaneous info not captured by other fields such as possible allergies, medical history, etc.

Examples:

  • edit T0123456A p/91234567 e/johndoe@example.com g/F edits the phone number and email address of the 1st person to be 91234567 and johndoe@example.com respectively.
  • edit S9876543B n/Betsy Crower t/ edits the name of the 2nd person to be Betsy Crower and clears all existing tags.

Locating persons by name: find

Finds persons that match the query.

Format: find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

:information_source: Take Note:

  • When searching names, the search is case-insensitive. e.g hans will match Hans.
  • When searching names, the order of the keywords does not matter. e.g. Hans Bo will match Bo Hans.
  • When searching names, only full words will be matched e.g. Han will not match Hans.
  • When searching names, Persons matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search). e.g. Hans Bo will return Hans Gruber, Bo Yang.
  • Note that if the name coincides with other find commands, it will be interpreted as the other find command first and extraneous paremeters will be ignored. e.g. find F Kennedy John will search for all female persons.
  • It is recommended to use list to restore the view of all data after a find command.

Examples:

  • find John returns john and John Doe.
  • find kenny pickens returns Kenny Pickett, George Pickens.
    result for 'find alex david'

Locating a person by NRIC: find

Finds person that matches the NRIC query.

Format: find NRIC

:information_source: Take Note:

  • NRIC input must be capitalised!
  • It is recommended to use list to restore the view of all data after a find command.

Examples:

  • find T1125726G returns the person with the matching NRIC. result for 'find T1125726G'

Locating people by gender: find M, find F

Finds all persons with matching gender.

Format: find M or find F

:information_source: Take Note:

  • M and F must be capitalised.
  • It is recommended to use list to restore the view of all data after a find command.

Examples:

  • find M returns all male persons. result for 'find M'

:information_source: Take Note:

  • The default find command would be by name, if the input does not match any of the other types of find commands.
  • Example: find f performs a find by name command with the keyword f instead of a find by gender command since f is not capitalised.

Deleting a person: delete

Deletes the specified person from MediLink Contacts. Note that appointments related to the person to be deleted will still remain in MediLink Contacts even after the person is deleted.

Format: delete NRIC

  • Deletes the person with the specified NRIC.

Examples:

  • delete S1234567J deletes Jonathan who has the NRIC S1234567J.

Clearing all entries: clear

Clears all entries from the MediLink Contacts.

Format: clear

Undo last action: undo

:information_source: Take Note:

  • undo does not apply to find and list commands, as they do not make any direct changes to the MediLink Contacts.
  • Upon restarting the app, you will no longer be able to undo actions previously performed before exiting the app.

Undoes the effect of the last command.

Format: undo

  • Can only do up to 5 undos at any one time.

Redo last action: redo

:information_source: Take Note:

  • Upon restarting the app, you will no longer be able to redo actions previously undone before exiting the app.

Restores the effects of actions that were previously undone using the undo command.

Format: redo

  • Can only do up to 5 redos at any one time.

Exiting the program: exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Saving the data

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

Editing the data file

MediLink Contacts 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. However, please ensure that the edits are valid, else it may cause unexpected behaviours when the invalid data is not detected by the system.

:exclamation: Caution: If your changes to the data file make its format invalid, MediLink Contacts may 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. Some changes may also be invalid, but not detected by the system. In that case, there may be many unexpected behaviours due to those undetected errors.

Recording the Date of Entry [Coming in v2.0]

For cases where patients may not visit the clinic for several years, clinics need to determine the relevance of patient details in their database. In the upcoming version, we’ll introduce a new feature that displays the date each patient record is added.

Sorting Options for Better Organization [Coming in v2.0]

To assist clinic staff in finding patient details according to their preferences, we’re adding a new feature to sort information based on various criteria such as date, name, and IC. Sorting by date will also help identify the oldest details, making it easier for staff to manage records efficiently.

Pharmacy Integration [Coming in v2.0]

Managing patient medications and calculating prices can be complex. In the next version, we’ll introduce a pharmacy feature allowing clinic staff to assign drugs to patients. The system will provide predefined drug data, which can be edited to match the clinic’s current drug list. To streamline the process, users can simply type “bill” to calculate the total price of assigned drugs for any patient. This enhancement aims to expedite clinic workflows.

Common Pitfalls

Invalid Command Format

All fields are mandatory except the tag field. Omission of the fields will throw an error stating that an invalid command has been given, and specify the correct format for the command.
Example: add-doctor ic/S9851586G g/F p/98765433 e/betsycrowe@example.com a/#104-C, Wakanda St 42 t/Surgeon
Error Message: Invalid command format!
add-doctor: Adds a person to MediLink Contacts. Parameters: n/NAME p/PHONE e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS g/GENDER ic/NRIC [t/TAG]...
Reason: mandatory field NAME is not specified. Note that different Invalid Commands will have slightly different Error Messages.

Invalid Field

Fields have specific formats to be followed. Failure to adhere to this format will lead to an error message that specifies the format to be used for that field. Common cases of Invalid Fields:

  1. Empty flags
    Example: new-appt pic/ dic/S9851586G time/2023-10-30 13:00
    Reason: PATIENT IC field is empty.
  2. Prefixes not associated with the command
    Adding custom prefixes will mostly cause the preceding flag to become invalid. Note that custom prefixes refer to prefixes not recognised by the specific command. Although b/ refers to BLOODTYPE and is a valid flag, it is only a valid flag in the context of Patients. It will be recognised as invalid in other commands such as add-doctor
    Exceptions:
    • Adding ‘custom’ flags after the address or condition field will, however, be accepted as addresses or conditions may involve the usage of the / character. Hence, take note to use these fields carefully.
    • However, adding the remark prefix r/ and everything attached to it will be ignored by the system.
    • Adding the ‘custom’ flag before any other field will recognise the input to be of Invalid Command Format.
      Examples:
    • add-patient n/John Doe custom/ ic/S9851386G g/M p/98765432 ec/90123456 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01 c/pneumothorax b/O+ t/Low
      Reason: custom flag custom/ causes NAME field to become invalid.
    • add-doctor ic/S9851586G g/F p/98765433 e/betsycrowe@example.com a/#104/C, Wakanda St 42 t/Surgeon
      Reason: custom flag /C taken as part of a valid address, and does not show any Error.
    • new-appt b/ dic/S9851586G time/2023-10-30 13:00
      Reason: custom flag b/ causes input to be of invalid command format.

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 MediLink Contacts home folder.

Q: How do I if I have the correct java version?
A: Open a Command Prompt, type java -version and press enter. It will then show the java version installed on your machine. If you see Java not recognised as an internal or external command, it means you likely do not have java installed. In this case you may download java11 here.

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.

Command summary

Action Format, Examples
New Doctor add-doctor n/NAME ic/NRIC g/GENDER p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS [t/TAG]…​
e.g., add-doctor n/John Doe ic/S9851386G g/M p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com a/John street, block 123, #01-01 t/Pediatrician
New Patient add-patient n/NAME ic/NRIC g/GENDER p/PHONE_NUMBER ec/EMERGENCY_CONTACT e/EMAIL a/ADDRESS [t/TAG] [d/DOCTOR] [c/CONDITION] [b/BLOODTYPE] …​
e.g., add-patient n/Betsy Crowe ic/S9851586G g/F p/98765433 ec/12345678 e/betsycrowe@example.com a/#104-C, Wakanda St 42 c/AIDS b/O+ t/High
New Appointment new-appt pic/NRIC dic/NRIC time/yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm
e.g., new-appt pic/T0123456H dic/S9851586G time/2023-10-30 13:00
Delete Appointment delete-appt INDEX
e.g., delete-appt 1
Find Appointment find-appt NRIC
e.g., find-appt T00012220
Clear clear
Undo undo
Redo redo
Delete delete NRIC
e.g., delete T0666485G
Edit edit NRIC [n/NAME] [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [a/ADDRESS] [t/TAG]…​
e.g.,edit S9760431H n/James Lee e/jameslee@example.com
Find find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]
e.g., find James Jake
find GENDER
e.g., find M, find F
find NRIC
e.g., find T0137689Y
List list
Help help
Exit exit