Introduction
This version of GogTasks has two set of synchronization algorithms and protocols implemented:
- "The old one"
- A new one based on the Official Google Tasks API and OAuth 2.0
In short, the new one is safer both in terms of authentication security and task content integrity. I would advice you only to use the old one if you are having trouble with the new. The longer story follows.
The old API
Before May 2011, interacting with Google Tasks could only be done by mimicking the behaviour of web applications such as the Tasks canvas. The communication was pretty straight forward, but not documented or released as a public API from Google. Still, many applications both on mobile platforms, and in this case on the Windows desktop, took use of the API. To be able to use it you had to authenticate as a web application, which is not a trivial task programatically. This is why many of the GogTasks users have experienced login problems from time to time.
The old API is only still in the application for backward compatibility reasons and because the new API has not been tested as thoroughly yet. I aim to remove it as soon as it is feasable.
The new ("Secure login and API")
From version 4.0 of GogTasks, GogTasks supports OAuth 2.0 for authentication and use of the official Google Tasks API. Those two go hand in hand and cannot be implemented separately. For you as a end user, this means a couple of things in terms of positive security effects:
- You do no longer store or your username and password in the application
- GogTasks now support all current and future Google authentication methods including two-channel authentication.
- Even if your computer is compromised by malicious software and get hold of the authentication key, only your Tasks will be exposed. GogTasks, and potential "thieves", can not access any other resources from your Google account but the Tasks, using the stored authentication key.
As for the new Tasks API and the changes behind the scenes here, you as an end user will not notice much. Hopefully it has become more stable, but this is too early to say as of August 22nd 2011. There is one downside in that it is a bit slower, though. Hopefully this will improve in the future. The reason for this is that each individual task update must be sent in individual HTTP packages, as of before one could package them in transactions.
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