Google Tasks on iOS

Several major changes:

1. "Edit" button in task detail dialog is gone - you can now directly tap on a field and start editing it. Note that you still can get non-editing view by pressing the keyboard icon - that way you can tap links and phone numbers in the text. Try it!
2. There is no undo, so be careful what you type. Worse case you can quit the app half-way through editing a task, the changes are not preserved until you hit the back button.
3. Completing a task now completes all descendant tasks. Un-completing a task now also un-completes all ancestor tasks. Basically it now works like Google intended. If you find any way to make a complete task have non-complete sub-task let me know. This includes moving non-completed subtasks into complated tasks etc.
4. Moving and indenting task - tap "Edit" button in task list view and you can drag and drop tasks at will. To indent a task, press it for about 0.1 second and then slide it left or right. Just flicking it wouldn't work - you have to press and then slide. Also see the video below.
5. Massive, massive rewrites. There could be bugs, although I think I gave it a thorough beating.
6. Just added - a counter of active and "due today or earlier" tasks to the list view.

What's not there:

1. Moving tasks to a different list is not there yet.
2. Deleting tasks from task list is not there yet.
3. Couple of new messages have not been localized.

Instructions:

1. Download GeeTasksPro-b.9.12.ipa and drag-drop it to iTunes
2. Download Memengo_AdHoc.v5.mobileprovision and drag-drop it to iTunes. This file did not change since the last time, so you can skip this step if you've done it before.
3. Sync iTunes with iPhone/iTouch. If you are normally pick-and-choosing which apps to sync make sure to pick GeeTasksPro so it syncs down to the device.
4. Ta-Da!

Hi Denis - I've had the same 'keyboard error' with beta 9 as i did with beta 8.
Videoed it this time so you can see it happening and maybe replicate it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es7nyXUWJYU

Generally it seems to happen when:

Boot up GeeTasks.
Click on 'Add a new task' screen area.
Rotate iphone / keyboard rotates.

… Keyboard will be unresponsive.
Rotate the iphone back and the keyboard 'doubles' up on screen, usually unresponsive, but in the video I did get it working somehow…

Thanks!

I like the rearranging tasks feature; however, I have encountered a couple problems:

1. The default "sort" or "group" option for each list no longer saves. Now when I close the application and open it again, my lists all return to the default sort preference, rather than saving whatever sort of group preference I choose for each list.

2. If I hit the "edit" button and then sort a list while "edit" is still activated, it crashes the application every time. Since "sorting" is currently only available when a list is not sorted, it would be nice if the "edit" option were not allowed when other sort or group options were used—or (which would be really cool) if you could use the rearrange feature when tasks or sorted or grouped by date to change the due date of tasks by dragging.

I just ran into another bug. I moved a task from Wednesday to Thursday. Then I took one of the tasks scheduled for Thursday and changed the due date to January 5. Now January 5th is listed first in my list, even though I have tasks scheduled for many dates between now and then. Interestingly, this mis-order of dates now shows up on the online version of Google Calendar too.

I was only able to fix this by changing the date on the web-based version of Google Tasks.

Another issue:

Now when I click on a task to check it off as completed, Geetasks no longer automatically syncs up that change with Google Tasks, even though "sync immediately and silently" is selected in preferences.

• If you enter or edit a long task name in the task details mode, when you go back to the list, the "edit" button has fallen off the right edge of the screen.
• In an earlier beta, something caused GeeTasks to crash, and after that it quit on open. I had to reinstall it. I'm not sure what caused that, so I can't reproduce it, and it might even be fixed. But just in case, I'd suggest a "reset" button in the GeeTasks panel in Settings, which would come as close to a fresh install as possible, without the hassle of having to download everything again.
• Encountered a weird stuck state a few times, where tasks couldn't be selected or moved. Tapping would make the task "selection-blue" but nothing would happen on letting go. All other functions worked though, including add new task, which at least once fixed the condition.
• "Add new task" is still visible in edit mode, but it doesn't do anything.
• The text "Tap to resubmit x tasks" is almost always truncated.
• If you try to drag a task while a sync is happening, the task will revert to its status when the sync began, sometimes in mid-drag. Should either not allow drags of synching tasks, not allow rearranging at all while synching, not synch while in edit mode, or (preferably) sense when something is being modified in edit mode, and give precedence to its new position.
• Experienced a crash on "sort by date", and I think several items had been pulled out of the hierarchy when I relaunched. (My notes are a little confusing on that last point, but it jibes with my memory…) I'm not a big "sort" user to say the least - this was the first time I'd tried the sort function in one of the betas, so my experience is of limited value. And from the sound of it, you've been focusing on sorting lately, so you may well have fixed whatever caused the crash.

not quite bugs:

• The "edit" button should be called "rearrange," since you can't actually edit tasks in edit mode.
• In inline/quick-entry mode, the white-plus-in-blue-circle looks confusingly like a button (especially given the other white-symbol-in-blue-circle in the top right, which is a button)

Coming up: a boatload of feature ideas ;)

Beta 9-12 is up.

Jesse, you're super helpful. I fixed the "long name problem". It wasn't really triggered by long names, it was about timing of events - you have to tap on "create new task" and then, before sync is complete, on the name of the task itself. This one was a real head-scratcher, took me some time to figure it out. I am really glad you found it - it can cause all kinds of weirdness.

I have also fixed broken fade-out. That was an easy fix, I wish all problems were like this. :-)

I will keep the editing behavior as is - I don't want people to spend more time in "editing" mode than needed. I will add red delete thingies and then one this view is complete we can revisit.

If I'm keeping my score right, I have addressed the problems you have found except the unknown "stuck, can't do anything" state. It might have been related to the "long name" problem. Let me know if you see it again.

Alas - still getting the missing grippy widget problem. Btw, left/right shift doesn't work either, when the grippies have disappeared… So, how do I submit that log?

Oh, also, I realized that the sorting can be a bit confusing. Last night, I opened Tasks without realizing I was in a sort-by-something mode, and was really confused that I couldn't rearrange anything. Then once I realized this and tried to fix it, I noticed that the sort button is ambiguous — does its text indicate the mode you're in, or the mode that clicking on the button will result in? These are UI design issues that will probably involve some more planning to fix, but I wanted to bring them to your attention.

All right, Jesse and I have resolved the outstanding issues in email, I think. There are still some UI quirks (e.g. the wrong sort mode makes drag-drop not work which is by design but might still be confusing) but there doesn't seem to be any more obvious bugs. Thank you all for your contribution, I will submit the update to Apple today.