New Tasks created in Tags do not sync back to appropriate Lists in RTM

[jasontango]

Not sure if this is a bug in RememberTheMilk (RTM) or in Astrid 2.8.6. There are two related behaviors that I'm seeing and I think they stem from differences in the list/tag models between RTM and Astrid.

Behavior1:

In RememberTheMilk (RTM), Go to an existing empty list "FooList" (note mixed-case).
Create a new task in it: "test1"

Sync Astrid. In Astrid go to the Tags view and confirm that the new task is present.
Click "New Task" and create a new task "test2". Note that the first tag is "FooList". Click save.
Sync Astrid.

In RTM, refresh the inbox. Note that task "test2" appears with the tag "foolist" (all lower case). Click the list "FooList" and note that "test2" does not appear in the list.

I confirmed that the same behavior occurs if the original list name in RTM is all lowercase: "lowercaselist". After creating the task in Astrid and syncing, visit RTM and you'll see that the task will not appear in List "lowercaselist", it will only appear in tag "lowercaselist". The only way to make it appear in the list is to use the RTM GUI to move it there.

Behavior 2:

In RememberTheMilk (RTM), Go to an existing empty list "FooList" (note mixed-case).
Create a new task in it: "test1"

Sync Astrid. In Astrid go to the Tags view and confirm that the new task is present.
Click "New Task" and create a new task "test2". Note that the first tag is "FooList". Add a second tag "foolist" (all lowercase). Click save.
Note that in Astrid, the task will appear with both tags (FooList and foolist).
Sync Astrid.

In RTM, refresh the inbox. Note that task "test2" appears with the tag "foolist" (all lower case). Click the list "FooList" and note that "test2" does not appear in the list.

Without editing anything, Sync Astrid again.
The task "test2" will be updated and will now only have the lowercase tag "foolist" associated with it. It will be removed from the mixed case "FooList".

[Roger Kind Kristiansen (rogerkk)]

Hi,

I also experience the same behaviour, and just wanted to point you to work being done to rewrite the data model and controller in Astrid, to be able to better accommodate synchronization with different services. I'm guessing you won't see a proper fix for this until Astrid 3.0.

See for example the blueprint at http://groups.google.com/group/astrid-power/web/blueprint-updates-to-data-model-controller-for-astrid-3-0.

Cheers,
Roger

[Tim Su (tim-todoroo)]

This is a known issue - RTM Lists go to Astrid tags, but not the other way. This is to prevent confusion, since Astrid only has tags and not the idea of lists.

This is something that (should) be taken care of in the 3.0 milestone when the synchronization logic is separated and there is a place to store the RTM List a task belongs to. Honestly 3.0 is probably a month or two away at best. =P

[Bill Wohler (wohler)]

I noticed that new tasks were all going into the RTM inbox.

In the meantime, I've taken the approach of one of the RTM developers and have eschewed lists for tags and smart lists. As a bonus, when I create a new task, it is tagged correctly and appears in the proper smart list on RTM.

Still, it would be good to associate an Astrid tag first with an RTM list and then an RTM tag. I assume that's in the works for 3.0. Looking forward to it! Thanks!