deletion of task has no effect

[haegar33]

Bug description

using the api.delete_task() function reports success but task are still present

Expected behaviour

when executing the api.delete_task() twice I would expect an error for the second call as task should be already deleted

Is reproducible

Yes

To reproduce

Code Snipplet:

from todoist_api_python.api import TodoistAPI
api = TodoistAPI(key)

I receive a list of completed task via the REST API as this does not work with the python module. I get a python dict clist, then:

  for c in clist:
        print('Delete item: ',c['content'],c['task_id'])
        try:
            is_success = api.delete_task(task_id=c['task_id'])
            print(is_success)
        except Exception as error:
            print(error)

works fine, but when I run the script a second time all "deleted" tasks are back again

Version information:

• Package version: 8.1.3
• Python version: 3.10

Additional information

[haegar33]

actually the problem is not for the python module but for all API calls! Whether using the Sync V9 or REST V2 API it is not possible to delete tasks. Looks like this intentional by the company to preserve your data for commercial reasons?

[brunorosilva]

Hi @haegar33 ,

The problem is not that you're unable to delete tasks. The problem is that the API does not check if the task exists before deleting it. Here's a code sample to demonstrate this behavior.

from mysecret import secret
from todoist_api_python.api import TodoistAPI
import numpy as np

api = TodoistAPI(secret)

try:
    is_success = api.delete_task(task_id=str(np.random.randint(1e2, 1e8))) # some fake id
    print(is_success)
except Exception as error:
    print(error)

> poetry run python3 test_api.py
True

I did not develop the API therefore I do not know if this is the intended behavior of the API, but it is easily fixable and, in my opinion, the SDKs should check if the task exists before deleting it.

I've managed to delete tasks using both the Python SDK and the REST v2 endpoint directly, so this is not the problem.

Using the REST v2 API w/ postman

The response is 204 and the task was indeed deleted.

[goncalossilva]

Indeed, deleting tasks through the API should work. If there is a case of a specific existing task where it doesn't, I'd appreciate it if you could report it to our support team, and include the ID! We'd definitely take a look. It's worth noting our official apps use the API as well, so if it works there, it likely works here as well.

As for subsequent deletions not raising an error, deletions are (by design) idempotent in Todoist's API. So attempting to delete a previously deleted task will work. This is intended.