Two versions of Simpletask missing in play store

[mpcjanssen]

The dropbox and cloudless versions of Simpletask have been suspended in the playstore because of a "repetitive content" violation.
To me it's not clear how one should publish different flavours of the same app in the playstore then. For now. I will start adding builds to https://mpcjanssen.nl/artifacts if or when I will find a proper solution to this which doesn't risk suspending my whole gmail account.

[mpcjanssen]

Appeal text:

The set of applications nl.mpcjanssen.todotxtholo, nl.mpcjanssen.simpletask and nl.mpcjanssen.simpletask.nextcloud are three seperate versions of the same app but with different storage backends. A major selling point of the different versions is that the local storage version doesn't need network access. I do not know how to merge all these storage backends into a single app without listing unnecessary permission requirements for the local only app.
I therefore think these different version (although very similar) do provide enough differentiating functionality (the storage backend) to all be allowed. The amount of downloads for each clearly support this.
Also going to direct suspension instead of a warning after several years being live with these apps is too harsh.

[mpcjanssen]

That didn't really help:

Thanks for contacting the Google Play team.
Status of app (nl.mpcjanssen.todotxtholo, nl.mpcjanssen.simpletask): Suspended from Google Play due to policy violation
I’ve reviewed your appeal request and found that your apps still violate Google Play Policy.
During review, we found that your apps violate the Repetitive Content policy. We don't allow apps that merely provide the same experience as other apps already on Google Play. Apps should provide value to users through the creation of unique content or services.
For example, your apps contain highly similar content to each other. 
You can read through the Repetitive Content policy page for more details and examples of common violations.
Please note that we don’t allow 

Copying content from other apps without adding any original content or value.

Creating multiple apps with highly similar functionality, content, and user experience. If these apps are each small in content volume, developers should consider creating a single app that aggregates all the content.

Please also re-examine each of your apps to make sure that they are compliant with the Repetitive Content policy. Developers are important partners in maintaining a great user experience on Google Play and we appreciate your cooperation. 
If your developer credentials are still in good standing with Google Play and if your app allows for it, you can publish a new compliant version of the app by following these steps:

Make the necessary changes to your app to address the issue described above, if possible.

Double check that your app complies with all other Developer Program Policies. Additional enforcement could occur if there are further policy violations.

Sign in to your Play Console and upload a new app using a new package name and a new app name.

Please let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks for your continued support of Google Play.

[nicodn]

Is it possible to swap the currently active version on Google Play to the Cloudless or the main build? I'm selfishly asking so that I can install on my chromebook without having to enable developer mode in order to sideload the apk (and lose all my data) 🙏

edit: I just made a €5.00 EUR contribution as a vote for the cloudless version, thanks for all the hard work!!

[smichel17]

Normally, tasks are saved to the todo.txt file whenever you update the list and you can export your saved filters and lua config as well. So, migrating between different versions of Simpletask is not very much work; you just need to change the app-wide settings.

If I understand you right, though, you are currently using the Nextcloud version, but have not connected it to a Nextcloud server yet, so you don't have access to the todo.txt, saved_filters.txt, and config.lua files that way. In this case:

• If you are only looking to save your task list, you can easily select one item -> select all -> share
  • Now you have the full text of those tasks, and you can save it in a file somewhere. After installing the cloudless version, you can just paste the text back in on the add task screen.
• For the lua config, you can do basically the same thing. It is all in one text box, so it is easy enough to copy and paste it to a new file.
• For the saved filters, I don't know how to export these if you are using the nextcloud version, without connecting to a nextcloud instance.
  • If this is what you are looking for, I could make a temporary account for you on my nextcloud instance.

[nicodn]

I'm using the cloudless version on my phone but I can't install it on my chromebook because sideloading is blocked there. I tried installing the nextcloud version on the chromebook but it shows a login screen. I use a separate app to sync the file on my sdcard. Is there a way to open the todo.txt file from the local filesystem on the nextcloud version?

[mpcjanssen]

@nicodn I am currently thinking to publish a version using the storage access framework as the single google play version. This would offer at least the same functionality as the current separate versions.

[mpcjanssen]

@smichel17 comment on wrong issue?

[mpcjanssen]

For now I have also disabled the nextcloud version in preparation of the storage access framework version.

[jason-mehmel]

(Thanks for looping me in from the erroneous issue opening.)

[mpcjanssen]

I have rolled out the Storage Access Framework version to the play store. This is missing some stuff (most notably archiving) I will re-add this functionality gradually.

[aubreyz]

I can't see it, but that might involve a delay on Google's end?
But clarify what this replaces -- presumably this is just a replacement for the cloudless version?? Or can it also access Dropbox?

If I am already running the cloudless version, can I install separately three cloudless versions (FDroid version, the old non-available one, and this new one)? It would be great if that were the case, and even better if the main program icon could be given slightly different colours to reflect which version is running.

At the moment I am running two completely separate versions of simpletask (Dropbox and Cloudless) for different purposes (different filters, different backgrounds, different settings) - it is a useful thing to be able to do (which swopping databases does not achieve)

[mpcjanssen]

@aubreyz it is still under review at google side and yes this new version can access all storage providers which integrate with the storage access framework among which Dropbox, nextcloud and Google drive if the client apps are installed.
It is also possible to install all apps in parrallel but I am not so sure if I still have the motivation to maintain all the current versions next to the new storage framework version. I think finding another way to satisfy your use case would be more likely.

[mpcjanssen]

This version is also rejected because of the donate button in the app.

[aubreyz]

Yes Google are infuriating. Can I make a small suggestion for the longer term if just maintaining one version: It would be nice if it were possible to allow the background colour (or something else glaringly obvious) to depend on which database is loaded. That way it will be clear which database one is working with. Better still to allow the filter-set to be tied to a database (maybe a filter set of the same name as database name would be a simple way to do it - if a filter set exists of same name as database then load that otherwise load a default)

If dropping versions, my vote would be to maintain the "storage framework" version plus the cloudless version on Fdroid depending how much work that is...