Error message for misuse of tag is not specific enough.

[yooplo]

Expected: Tags with multiple words inputted should have a different error message shown that tells the user that only one word is allowed.

Actual: the error message is "Tag names should be alphanumeric".

To reproduce: add n/Betsy Crowe t/friend t/CCA captain e/betsycrowe@example.com a/Newgate Prison p/123456789 r/mUdder m/ceg

As shown, the invalid tag I have inputted is t/CCA captian. While I acknowledge that in the DG, it was mentioned that the tags can only be of one word, but here, my tag name is only consisting of alphanumeric characters, which is in compliance with the error message shown.

[nus-pe-bot]

Team's Response

Thank you for bringing up this issue, however, according to the English Oxford dictionary, an alphanumeric character is “a character that is either a letter or a number”. Thus, whitespace does not qualify as an alphanumeric character as it is neither a letter nor a number.

Additionally, major programming languages such as Java do not recognise space as alphanumeric.

Java's isLetterOrDigit() method returns False for a space.

Thus, from the perspective of an SoC student (our target demographic) in particular, we believe that the error message is very clear in what the acceptable inputs are. We seek your understanding on this issue and hope you can find common ground with us.

Items for the Tester to Verify

:question: Issue response

Team chose [response.Rejected]

• [x] I disagree

Reason for disagreement: I respectfully disagree with your team's rejection because the issue lies in error message clarity rather than the definition of "alphanumeric." While the team's explanation of the term "alphanumeric" is technically correct, the rejection misses the key point that the error message fails to adequately guide the user toward correcting their input.

1. Misleading Error Message: The error message "Tag names should be alphanumeric" suggests that the issue is with the inclusion of non-alphanumeric characters, but this is not the actual problem. In this case, the invalid input "CCA captain" contains only alphanumeric characters and a space. The root issue is the inclusion of a whitespace (which breaks the one-word constraint), yet this is not clearly conveyed to the user. Users are likely to interpret this error as a restriction against symbols or special characters, leading to confusion about why their input was rejected.
2. Mismatch with Normal Expectations: From a user's perspective, error messages should be specific to the issue. If the problem is with the whitespace, the error should explicitly state something like: "Tags should be a single word containing only alphanumeric characters." The current message leads users to believe their input violates an unrelated rule about character types rather than addressing the actual problem.
3. Usability Impact: Clear and actionable error messages are essential for efficient use of the application, especially for the target audience (fast-typists, as per Constraint-Typing-Preferred). The current message unnecessarily increases trial-and-error efforts to identify what caused the rejection.

I do still feel that the issue should not be rejected because it highlights a usability gap in the app’s feedback mechanism, which falls under the Functionality Bug category. While the term "alphanumeric" may be correctly defined from a programming perspective, the error message fails to effectively communicate the actual cause of the input rejection. Improving this message aligns with the app's purpose and enhances its usability for the target audience.

Severity: Low This issue does not prevent functionality but impacts user experience by making the input validation process unnecessarily confusing.

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