Project: Jobby

Jobby is a desktop application used for tracking job applications.

Given below are my contributions to the project.

  • New Feature:

    • Command Autocompletion

      • This allows users to autocomplete their commands, just like command terminals or programming IDEs, such as by pressing TAB.

      • Like an IDE, it does a subsequence match, so typing -dsp then TAB can select --description, allowing for fast disambiguation from another similar term like --descending.

      • As a bonus, it also supports undoing with BACKSPACE. It keeps a complete undo history, so you can do multiple undos for the same command as long if you did not move your text cursor from the end point.

      • Rationale:

        • When developing Jobby, we started having too many command parameters with clashing prefixes, so it no longer make sense to offer single letter parameter names.

        • Memorizing multi-letter abbreviations for a bunch of parameter is more difficult than a full name.

        • However, a full parameter name takes much longer to type, which means it’s no longer optimized for fast typists.

        • Hence, autocompletion was implemented to resolve all of these concerns.

      • Implementation: The internal implementation is written completely from scratch. This allows it to:

        • specifically parse our custom command structure, and

        • dynamically determine what should or should not be suggested next based on a given set of rules, or available data in the app.

      • UI: The autocompletion UI is adapted from @floralvikings’s AutoCompleteTextBox.java with significant enhancements. These include:

        • overhauling the implementation in modern Java syntax and JavaFX method calls,

        • modified the implementation idea to support for our custom Stream-based autocompletion result suppliers,

        • integrating it directly within FXML,

        • improved the UI to support adding indicators for invoking the best (first-in-list) autocomplete result,

        • added support for auto-highlighting only the postfix term that is suggested for improved glancability,

        • added support for external parties to invoke autocompletion (e.g., via preferred key events or UI buttons), and

        • added support for undoing autocompleted results (and similarly for external parties to invoke undo).

  • Code contributed: RepoSense link

  • Project management:

    • To be added…

  • Enhancements to existing features:

    • Revamped the parameter syntax to use a prefix of --param.

      • This allows for improved autocompletion UX as compared to param/, since we can immediately determine if the user intends to type it based on the first character.

      • It is also much less likely to clash with an existing user input.

    • Swapped out random ID generation with an implementation to derive IDs from an input name.

      • This allows for improved UX when editing details that require an ID, combined with autocomplete integration.

      • Previously, it was implemented by another team member by generating random RFC 4122 UUIDs instead.

      • Now, random IDs are derived from the name, e.g., google-sg-a8b3fe from an input of Google SG.

  • Documentation:

    • User Guide:

      • Added a simpler command syntax introduction.

      • Improved explanation of command symbols used in the guide.

      • Added usage guides for command autocompletion.

      • Styling the website for improved overall glancability and support for fully-automated print formatting, including:

        • Styling headers with improved spacing, typography and color for increased readability.

        • Tweaking the page-break rules for different elements, such as preventing page breaks on crucial boxes or enforcing page breaks immediately after certain headers.

        • Styling custom unified UG elements for readability, like the following:

          • :trophy: How to perform a task :information_source: An info message pill
          • :warning: A warning message pill :warning: A danger message pill
          • Beginner Intermediate Expert
          • Organization Recruiter Job Application

    • Developer Guide:

      • Added a quick explanation of how “Parser classes” may obtain the properties of our custom Flags (like --name) from a command via ArgumentMultimap and ArgumentTokenizer.

      • Added a high-level end-to-end explanation of Jobby’s internal autocomplete implementation and interactions.

  • Community:

    • To be added…