User Guide

Murphy’s List is a desktop app for managing patient contact info for institutes providing palliative care, 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, Murphy’s List can get your healthcare administrative tasks done faster than other traditional GUI apps.

Table of Contents

1. Quick Start
2. Features
   1. Viewing Help
   2. Adding a Patient Profile
   3. Adding a Remark
   4. Adding an Appointment
   5. Changing Triage Stage
   6. Editing a patient profile
   7. Listing all profiles
   8. Listing profiles by schedule
   9. Sort list of patients
   10. Locating patients by name
   11. Logging patient information
   12. Viewing patient information
   13. Deleting patient profile
   14. Clear all entries
   15. Exiting the program
   16. Appointment Popup
3. FAQ
4. Known Issues
5. Command Summary
6. Command Shortcuts

Quick start

Welcome! This short guide will help you launch the Murphy’s List application on your computer. Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with technical terms—we’ll walk you through each step in simple language.

1. Ensure you have Java 17 or above installed in your Computer.

2. Download the latest murphys_list.jar file from here.

3. Copy the file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for Murphy’s List.

4. Open a command terminal (Known as “Command Prompt” on Windows or “Terminal on Mac).

5. In the command terminal, type the following command and press Enter:

    cd path_to_your_folder
   

   • Replace path_to_your_folder with the actual path to your folder. For example:
   • Windows:

     cd C:\Users\YourName\Downloads
     

   • Mac/Linux:

     cd /Users/YourName/Downloads
     

6. A GUI similar to the below should appear in a few seconds. Note how the app contains some sample data.
   

7. 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 n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com i/S1231231A a/John Street, Block 123, #01-01 t/2 : Adds a patient profile of a patient named John Doe to Murphy’s List.

   • delete S1231231A : Deletes the patient profile of the patient with Nric S1231231A.

   • clear : Deletes all patient profiles in the database.

   • exit : Exits the app.

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

Features

Caution: Murphy’s List does not support whitespaces in tags; each tag must be a single alphanumeric word.

Viewing help : help

Displays a list of accepted commands.

Format: help

Adding a patient profile : add

Adds a patient profile to the database.

Format: add n/NAME p/PHONE_NUMBER e/EMAIL i/NRIC a/ADDRESS t/TRIAGE [tag/TAG]…​

Tip: A patient profile can have any number of tags (including 0)

Examples:

• add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com i/S1234123A a/John Street, Block 123, #01-01 t/2
• add n/Betsy Crowe p/24681357 e/betsycrowe@example.com i/T1234567D a/Clementi Ave 1, Block 230 t/1 tag/Diabetic tag/G6PD

Note: add does not support the addition of appointments and remarks. Use the appointment and remark command to do so.

Adding a remark to a patient profile : remark

Adds a remark to a specified patient profile.

Format: remark NRIC r/REMARK

Parameters: NRIC must be a valid NRIC in the database. REMARK must be a non-empty string consisting of only alphanumeric characters or spaces.

Examples:

• remark S1234567A r/allergic to dogs
• remark T1231231D r/keep away from flashing lights

Note: You can only specify one remark to add, and patients can only have one remark. If the patient already has a remark, the original remark will be overwritten.

Adding an appointment : appointment

Adds the appointment date (in format DD-MM-YYYY HH:MM) of a patient to the patient profile.

Format: appointment NRIC app/DD-MM-YYYY HH:MM

• If the patient already has an appointment, the new appointment will overwrite the existing one.
• Invalid dates and times (eg. 30th February, 24:59) will not be accepted.

Note: Patients can only have one appointment at any one time.

Changing Triage Stage : triage

Changes the existing triage stage of a patient to another stage. Triage stage refers to the severity of patient’s condition.

Stages are categorised from 1 to 5. Triaging stages follows the Phase of Illness Model:

1 - Stable

2 - Unstable

3 - Deteriorating

4 - Terminal

5 - Bereaved

Format: triage NRIC t/TRIAGE

Example:

• triage S1234567A t/1
• triage T1231231D t/3

Editing a patient profile : edit

Edits the details of the patient identified by their NRIC. Existing information will be overwritten by the input values.

Format: edit NRIC [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [i/NRIC] [a/ADDRESS] [t/TRIAGE] [app/APPOINTMENT] [tag/TAG]…​

• Edits the patient profile with the specified NRIC.
• At least one of the optional fields must be provided.
• Apart from NRIC, all other fields can be in any order.
• Existing values will be updated to the input values.
• When editing tags, the existing tags of the patient will be removed i.e. adding of tags is not cumulative.
• You can remove all the patient’s tags by typing tag/ without specifying any tags after it.

Examples:

• edit S1234567A p/91234567 e/johndoe@example.com Edits the phone number and email address of the patient with NRIC: S1234567A to be 91234567 and johndoe@example.com respectively.
• edit S9876543D n/Betsy Crower tag/ Edits the name of the patient with specified NRIC: S9876543D displayed to be Betsy Crower and clears all existing tags.

Listing all patient profiles : list

Shows a list of all patient profiles in the database.

Format: list

Listing profiles by schedule : schedule

Shows a list of all patient profiles in the database, sorted by appointment date.

Format: schedule

Sort list of patients: sort

Sorts the list of patients based on the specified criteria.

Format: sort [name | appointment]

• If the list is already sorted by the specified criteria, the command will maintain the current order.
• Sorting by appointment will only consider patients with scheduled appointments. Patients without appointments will appear at the end of the list.

Examples:

• sort name sorts the list of patients in alphabetical order by their names.
• sort appointment sorts the list of patients by their upcoming appointment dates in chronological order.

Locating patients by name: find

Search for patients by their names or by tags (i.e. medical conditions).

To search by name:

Format: find KEYWORD [MORE_KEYWORDS]

• KEYWORD is a alphanumeric string.
• The search is case-insensitive. e.g. hans will match Hans
• The order of the keywords does not matter. e.g. Hans Bo will match Bo Hans
• Only the name is searched.
• Only full words will be matched e.g. Han will not match Hans
• Profiles matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search). e.g. Hans Bo will return Hans Gruber, Bo Yang

Examples:

• find John returns john and John Doe

• find alex david returns Alex Yeoh, David Li
  

  

To search by tags:

Format: find tag/TAG [MORE_TAGS]

• TAG is an alphanumeric string.
• Tags are case-insensitive e.g tag/diabetic will match tag/Diabetic
• Only full words will be matched e.g tag/g6 will not match tag/g6pd
• If you specify tag/ at the start of your search, the command interprets the input as a tag search.
• If no tag/ prefix is provided, it defaults to a name search.

Examples:

• find tag/diabetic finds all people with the “diabetic” tag.
• find tag/diabetic hypertensive finds all people with either the “diabetic” or “hypertensive” tags.

Note: find will only search for either names or tags but not both at the same time.

Logging patient information : log

Logs information to a patient’s profile for tracking patient activity and condition.

Format: log NRIC DD-MM-YYYY HH:MM INFO

• Logs the information to the patient with the specified NRIC.
• Date and time inputs refer to log date and time.
• Invalid dates and times (eg. 30th February, 24:59) will not be accepted.
• Logged information must be non-empty.
• Note that when the View Window is opened when adding log entries, the window will not display the new log entries until the view command is executed by the user again.

Examples:

• log S1234567A 25-12-2024 14:30 Patient has been discharged logs the information Patient has been discharged to the patient with NRIC S1234567A at 25-12-2024 14:30.

Viewing patient information : view

• Views full information of the patient with the specified NRIC not displayed on the Main Window (e.g., Patient logs).

Format: view NRIC

Note: The view window will not automatically update after editing the patient’s information unless you close the window and call the view command again. Additionally, it will not close automatically if you delete the patient.

Deleting a patient profile : delete

Deletes the specified patient profile from the database.

Format: delete NRIC

• Deletes the patient with the specified NRIC.

Examples:

• delete S1234567A deletes the patient profile of the patient with NRIC S1234567A.

Clearing all entries : clear

Clears all entries from the database.

Format: clear

Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Command Shortcuts

For quick access, here is a table of command shortcuts summarizing the command formats.

Appointment Popup on Start-Up

On application start-up, if a patient has an appointment scheduled for the current day, a popup window will appear to notify you of the upcoming appointment(s).

This popup will only display once at start-up and will not reappear unless the application is restarted with a patient having an appointment on the current day.

Saving the data

Murphy’s List 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

Murphy’s List data are saved automatically as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/murphyslist.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, Murphy’s List 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 Murphy’s List to behave in unexpected ways (e.g., if a value entered is outside 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: 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 Murphy’s List home folder. Q: What should I do if the application does not start?
A: Ensure you have Java 17 or above installed in your Computer. If the problem persists, contact the developers. You can check your Java version by running java -version in the command terminal. Q: How do I recover data if I accidentally delete a patient profile? A: Unfortunately, there is no built-in undo feature for deleted data. It is recommended to back up your data by making a copy of the data file periodically.

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.

Command summary

Command Shortcuts Table

Note: Shortcuts for logand schedule are not included but will be available in a future update.