Embedded Files
The file used for batch input to the apps PasswordServant, or PS-Lite, must be a comma delimited CSV file. Every comma delimited field must be represented as a hyphen-delimited string. A template file will be generated by the mentioned apps in the case the button ”Batch input” is pushed without having downloaded a CSV-file with the name ”PS_BatchInputData.csv” into the app directory on the SD-card (see app manual on another page on this site). This template file can then be uploaded to a PC, where it can be opened and edited. It is preferrably opened with a spreadsheet program like Excel, or LibreOffice Calc, but any text editor can also be used. Below is shown an example where the template has been edited to include three web account entries, and two credit card entries using a spreadsheet program.
There are some rules to how it can be edited in order for it to be accepted by the CSV parser in the apps.
- The first row in the file must be exactly as shown.
- The first column in the following rows must contain any of the password group names (”Web accounts”, ”Computer logins”, etc).
- The second column, after the prefilled password group name, is the name field (which is what is shown in the spinner when selecting an entry in the app). If this field is not filled in, the row is skipped during batch input.
- Empty rows must not be inserted into the file.
- Any other column than the first (and second if the entry should be copiied into the database) may be left empty, but the column with an X in it (the Notes field) must contain at least one visible character.
All of the above rules can easily be visually checked in a spreadsheet program.
There is one more rule, which is not so easy to check in a spreadsheet program, which is that there must not be any CR or LF characters at the end of a column input. CR, LF is inserted at the end of each row when the spreadsheet program writes it to a CSV file, see below where a text editor is used to show the CSV file (including the line end characters).
Line end characters may get inserted if you copy data from other programs into the spreadsheet, but not if you enter it from the keyboard, so normally this should not be a problem. But if the app parser does not accept your CSV file, it may be worthwhile checking it up in a text editor.
Another possible issue could be if you want to enter a number starting on a zero (like ”0123”), then you might need to prepend it with a ' character, (”'0123”) or else the spreadsheet program may remove the leading zero. The same may be needed for large numbers that the spreadsheet otherwise reformats to engineering format.
Adding new rows is most easily done by copying the ”template row” of the desired password group.
To know what meaning data in a specific column is to have, see the descrpition in the manual.
The X that is inserted in the template file in the last column of each row (the Notes field) is there to make it more visible which is the last field (column) when opening the file using a spreadsheet program, but also to get the correct number of comma delimiters in the CSV file. It must only be removed when it is replaced by any other notes data.
Batch input into PS-Lite may not lead to insertion of all data as the number of entries per password group is limited to five.
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