Freitag, 19. Oktober 2018

Google Tasks, Level Restriction


In August 2018 Google sent a mail to all developers using the Google Tasks API in their Apps. 

Google announced to restrict Tasks to only 2 levels starting in August 2019.


Google already restricted the number of levels in their Android Tasks App and in Gmail. They will add the restriction to the interface to Tasks, which other Apps can use.

This will affect Outliner's Google Tasks synchronization. Local Outlines or Outlines synced via Dropbox can use multiple levels also in future. However, in an upcoming update in spring 2019, Outliner will ask you (only for Google Tasks synced Outlines) if you want to flatten your Google Tasks Outline or if you want to make it a local Outline and keep multiple levels.

If you are fine with only two levels, Outliner's Google Tasks synchronization will also work in future. If you need more levels, you should change to Dropbox synchronization (Config Outline). If you choose Treeline Dropbox sync you can use a free open source desktop Outliner.
http://android-outliner.blogspot.com/p/tutorial.html#661600341

There will be an experimental multilevel option for Google Tasks sync in Outliner to circumvent this restriction. But depending on Google's future plans for it's Tasks interface, this may stop working at any time and your Outlines will be automatically flattened to two levels.

I know, that's bad news - so, is there anything we can do?

There already is an issue posted in Google's Bug Tracking system. If you think that Google should keep multilevel support, you should post a comment where you tell Google why you think that they should keep supporting multilevel tasks also in future.

Go to the issue tracker, log in with your Google account, vote for the topic by clicking the little star left of the topic name and add a comment:

https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/113611082



This is Google's original mail:

Hello,

With the recent update to Google Tasks, we limited the number of nested tasks a user could create to one level i.e. a sub-task. Sub-tasks are supported, but any nested tasks beyond these (e.g. sub-sub-tasks and so on) are no longer available in the product.

Starting August 30, 2019, we will introduce the same structure in the Tasks API. This means that, as of that date, tasks that are nested beyond more than one level will no longer be supported. For example, if a user has double nested tasks (sub-sub tasks), the revised method of the Tasks API will convert it to a sub-task and return it as such. Please check and update your applications accordingly if they include multiple levels of subtasks.

Sincerely,
The Google Developers Team

3 Kommentare:

Unknown hat gesagt…

This is disappointing. Has anyone found out why Google is doing this?

Unknown hat gesagt…

Google’s planned reduction in the functionality of Google Tasks is disappointing, especially for me as someone who uses your product quite heavily, through Google.

Is there any way you could make Outliner present the flattened structure stored on the google servers as a full tree? For example, could you add a serial number to each task that would prompt the app to display the task in its proper place in a full depth tree?

If something like this could be done, it would allow us to keep using your product to manage our Google data and the extra functionality your product could deliver would make it more attractive to new users.

afritz hat gesagt…

Thank you for your feedback.
Theoretically it would be possible to add hidden information to fake the level information. But that would not work reliable in all circumstances. Especially when there are different devices and Apps syncing the same Outline. So Outliner rather will also restrict the levels for Google Tasks synchronization. However you can change to any of Outliner's other sync options. Treeline Dropbox is an alternative, which will give you a free desktop Outliner.