Difficulty importing Dashlane generated CSV...

ScottChapman
ScottChapman
Community Member

So, when I export Dashlane into a CSV (I remove everything that's not an item to start with) but I realize that the format doesn't really match exactly what the documentation says it is looking for. Specifically it looks like there are separate username/email address fields (generally it looks like items have one or the other but not both)

I end up with very different results depending on home I import:
1. If I import via the web, I can select Dashlane as the import type, but it only imports about 10%. Doesn't tell me why it stopped or anything.
2. If I import via the app (current) there is no Dashlane option, just regular CSV. Here it imports all of them but it seems like it gets really confused about the username/email address fields...

Is there some reasonable way of importing this? Or do I need to write some code that merges the username/email fields into one?


1Password Version: 7.2.5
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: 10.14.3
Sync Type: Not Provided

Comments

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni

    Welcome to the forum, @ScottChapman! I'm sorry for the trouble. Exporting data from one application and importing it into another can be problematic, which is why we've created this guide to creating a 1Password-compatible CSV file. Have you tried that yet?

  • ScottChapman
    ScottChapman
    Community Member

    Yes, that is what I was referring to as "documentation". I was able to write some code to help me out (I'll probably publish the git repo when I'm done).

    I think it would have been easier if you had leveraged their JSON format for input (IMHO)

  • Thanks @ScottChapman. This is definitely an area in which I think we can improve. In many cases we're limited by the exports provided by 3rd party tools, but that isn't an excuse to not handle the import process more gracefully. The importer shouldn't stop with no feedback to the user as to why. I'll let our development team know about this difficulty and see what we can do to improve on our end.

    Ben

  • MrC
    MrC
    Volunteer Moderator

    @ScottChapman ,

    The Dashlane exports are bad. See my reply here. (I've commented on this multiple times on the forums here, and periodically I check their exports - they always come back bad).

  • ScottChapman
    ScottChapman
    Community Member
    edited March 2019

    The JSON export is actually not (as) bad.

    @MrC - your converter is great by the way, maybe you can include Dashlane - JSON with it? I can share some code I wrote that does the conversion.

    Also is the 1pif format documented anywhere?

  • ScottChapman
    ScottChapman
    Community Member

    @Ben - I actually had different behavior when I tried to import from web and from the desktop tool; In one case it imported one and stopped (to reason why) and in the other case it just gave some not particularly useful format error

  • As far as I'm aware 1PIF is not documented outside of a few scattered posts here on the forum, however OPVault is:

    OPVault design

    Ben

  • MrC
    MrC
    Volunteer Moderator
    edited March 2019

    @ScottChapman ,

    I have wanted to create a dashlane converter for quite some time, yet every time I revisit Dashlane's exports, I find them seriously problematic. Yes, I could write a converter for just Logins. Some of my requirements for developing a converter are that the export must be sufficiently robust enough to:

    1. Not cause the converter to fail miserably (since it would be nearly impossible to support this).
    2. Not present a fiction of the data from the source vault.
    3. Not require a user to meticulously check each record one by one against the source - this is often more tedious and error prone than just manually creating new records.
    4. Not require a user to have to later create a new 1Password record and delete the imported one because data that was converted/imported does not work as designed (due to garbage source data).
    5. Not require me to constantly monitor and track the password manager's export format changes.

    The JSON export is problematic:

    1. It is missing records (no Secure Notes, no Receipts exported).
    2. It does not provide the proper linkages to reconnect various records (items under ID in the UI are incomplete as exported, and cannot be reconnected).
    3. Much vital information is absent from various records in the export (e.g. almost all of the information from a credit card is missing).
    4. The URLs are not the URLs presented in the UI - only the domain part is exported (http://this.example.com/login --> http://example.com). This is wrong and broken.
    5. The login records may contain a second login username, which means I have to duplicate the record, one record for each of the two logins (to allow 1Password to work as designed). This is doable, but can double the number of records that users must edit to correct the URLs issues mentioned in (4).
    6. There are minor issues too, such as missing password history, missing record category, the URLs can be nonsense (the UI used to allow random string nonsense input for URLs, and these will be present in records).
    7. Their are typos and a weird mixture of languages in the labels in the export (e.g. PAYMENTMEANS_CREDITCARD vs. PAYMENTMEAN_PAYPAL, DRIVERLICENCE, AUTHENTIFIANT).

    It is quite clear that Dashlane does not care (and has never cared) about their data and export quality and fidelity (It's as if they've hired a first semester Jr. High School programmer to do this work).

    The exports have been so poor (historically) that they violate all the basic requirements mentioned above. Given the type and nature of these issues, and their track record, they will either a) never fix them, or b) will likely change / correct issues piecemeal or seemingly at random.

  • ScottChapman
    ScottChapman
    Community Member

    I guess I would never expect that it would be perfect, but it if it can at-least get most of it that seems better than nothing. I found that from the JSON I was able to come up with a very reasonable set of CSVs (one for credit cards, and the other for identities). I'm happy enough with the results.

  • MrC
    MrC
    Volunteer Moderator
    edited March 2019

    I get it @ScottChapman , I really do.

    Keep in mind - you only have to convert once, so fixing up the issues is not that big a deal.

    Whereas, I have to support each and every user that has a problem... and they will have problems, given the issues I've listed. And I have to document all of these cases and exceptions, and set expectations (which often occurs after the fact).

    And I have to support each and every change to the file export format.

    And I do this for more than 40 converters. On multiple platforms, and for multiple password manager revisions. And often deal with various language and locales variances.

    My goal is to write converters that are reliable, and I don't want to leave users guessing, or worse, lose data because they didn't double-check each item very carefully. Users (we humans) are not good at this, and in some cases, manual creation of entries is the better, safer route when an export is missing data, or values are abbreviated or otherwise modified from what users entered and can see in the UI.

  • ScottChapman
    ScottChapman
    Community Member
    edited March 2019

    Have you considered doing a summer internship at Dashlane to fix up their export mechanism?
    (closing sarcasm tag)

  • MrC
    MrC
    Volunteer Moderator

    I'm a couple generations past the age of internship. :-)

    @ScottChapman

This discussion has been closed.