Import into Codebook from Ascendo DataVault

Codebook
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We recently had a new Codebook user contact us about importing his Ascendo DataVault data into Codebook. We have very good documentation located here for how to format CSVs exported from other password managers to Codebook’s expected format. Unfortunately, it’s not always straight forward to format the exported CSV into the format Codebook is expecting. Ascendo’s CSV export format falls into this category. Its format doesn’t contain a header row (Category, Entry, Field Label Names) and each row represents one Entry in the format of:

Entry Name, Field Label, Field Value, Field Label, Field Value,..., Note Value

To assist with customers who are moving over from Ascendo DataVault, we’ve created a python script which will convert the exported Ascendo DataVault CSV to the expected Codebook CSV format which will allow the data to be seamlessly imported into Codebook. This is experimental at this point and not officially supported, but the user who contacted us reported success with it. Python is required to be installed on the system to run the script. Here are the complete instructions:

Install Python

If you’re using macOS, python should already be installed by default, you can confirm this by opening Terminal (Spotlight search for Terminal or Applications > Utilities > Terminal) and typing

python --version

Which will report the version of python installed (version 2.7 is typically installed by default, this version will be fine to use)

If you’re using Windows, you can install python by following these instructions:

  1. Download Python 3 for Windows here: Download Python | Python.org
  2. Once it completes, open the folder in which it downloaded and double click the python-3.10.4-amd64.exe file. This will bring up the Python Setup window. One the first screen, check the “Add Python 3.10 to PATH” checkbox at the bottom (this is unchecked by default), then select “Install Now”. Once the installation completes, you should be shown an “Installation Successful” screen and you can close out of it.

Export each Category’s Entries to CSV from Ascendo

Create a new folder on your Desktop called Codebook. Run the Ascendo export tool for each Category by selecting the all of the entries for a Category and exporting the “Selected Items” giving the file the name of the Category (i.e. Bank Accounts.csv, Credit Cards.csv, Logins.csv).

Download the python script

  1. Download the python script from our website here: https://www.zetetic.net/downloads/codebook/tools/ascendo_converter.py (right click and save linked file)
  2. Move the python script to the Codebook folder on your Desktop

Run the python script

If you’re using Windows:

  1. Hit the windows key and search for “Command Prompt”, then launch it.
  2. Use this command to change directories to the Codebook directory on the Desktop: cd %HOMEPATH%/Desktop/Codebook then hit enter.
  3. Use this command to run the python script to convert your Ascendo Exported CSVs into a single Codebook CSV: python ascendo_converter.py

If you’re using macOS:

  1. Open Terminal using spotlight search (or Application > Utilities > Terminal).
  2. Use this command to change directories to the Codebook directory on the Desktop: cd ~/Desktop/Codebook then hit enter.
  3. Use this command to run the python script to convert your Ascendo Exported CSVs into a single Codebook CSV: python ascendo_converter.py

Importing into Codebook

In the same Codebook directory on your Desktop you should now have a codebook-output.csv file which is properly formatted for Codebook import. On macOS you can import it via File menu > Import > Import Codebook CSV, on Windows you can import it via File menu > Import CSV.

If you don’t already have Codebook installed, you can download a 14 day free trial here:

Windows: Download Codebook for Windows - Zetetic
macOS: Download Codebook for macOS - Zetetic

Cleaning up

Once the import is complete, you’ll want to cleanup any remaining unencrypted copies of your Ascendo DataVault data export and the converted Codebook CSV used for import. Delete the entire Codebook folder from your Desktop and empty the recycling bin/trash.