Import your connections from other tools

Edgely Console: MobaXterm and Remote Desktop Manager

Also in the app Edgely Console: Documentation tab, Security, Export and Import

Edgely can read the files of a few common remote-access tools and password managers, so you don't have to recreate everything by hand.

Supported Formats

Import Vault opens the same dialog from three places: Vault > Import Vault in the ribbon, Import beside Import Vault in Settings > Vault, and Import in the Vault Manager. The ribbon's Connections > Import Connections takes Edgely files only.

Connections From Remote Desktop Manager or MobaXterm

1. Export from the other tool first:
   • MobaXterm: User sessions > Export all sessions to file writes a .mxtsessions file. Edgely also reads MobaXterm's own MobaXterm.ini, which the installed edition keeps in %APPDATA%\MobaXterm
   • Remote Desktop Manager: File > Export > Current vault, saved as .rdm, .xml or .json. Edgely tells the formats apart by their content, whatever the extension
2. In Edgely, open Connections > Connections Manager from the ribbon
3. In the Connections Overview panel on the right, click Remote Desktop Manager or MobaXterm under Import From. If a connection's details are showing instead, click Connections Overview at the top of the list. Import under Quick Actions offers the same two, beside Edgely Export
4. Click Browse and choose the file. The dialog lists the connections it found, with host, port and protocol. A WebDAV entry is listed in red, because it will be skipped. Entries of other kinds that Edgely cannot import are not listed here; the result names them
5. Tick Overwrite existing connections if connections you already have should be updated from the file (see "Importing the Same File Twice" below)
6. Click Import (the button shows how many connections it will import)

The Import Complete dialog then shows how many connections were imported, skipped and failed. Its warnings name every entry that was left out, with the reason, and every connection that was already in Edgely.

What Comes Across From MobaXterm

• SSH, Telnet, RDP, VNC, FTP and SFTP sessions, each with its name, host, port (the protocol's default when the session has none) and, except for VNC, its user name. The session's comment becomes the connection's notes.
• MobaXterm's folder tree: each session goes into the folder of the same name and place, and empty folders are created too. The explorer lists every folder at the same level, so a subfolder is shown with its path: Prod\Web appears as Prod / Web, in the explorer, in the Groups list and in the connection editor's Group menu.
• Every other kind of session (Shell, Serial, Browser, Mosh, WSL and the rest) is skipped and named in the result with the reason, for instance Skipped "Bash": Shell session: Edgely has no such connection. A session with no host is skipped and named the same way.
• MobaXterm does not write its files in UTF-8. Edgely reads what it writes, so a name with accented letters, such as Préprod, comes through intact.
• Passwords and SSH key paths are not imported, and the result reminds you of it. Other session settings, such as terminal options or a jump host, are not carried over either.

What Comes Across From Remote Desktop Manager

• SSH, Telnet, SFTP, FTP, RDP and VNC entries, each with its name, host, port (the protocol's default when the entry has none) and user name. The entry's description becomes the connection's notes.
• For an RDP entry, the host and port come from the entry's address. Its domain is added to the connection's notes as a line such as Domain: CORP, because an Edgely connection has no domain field; the result says so for each connection concerned.
• Remote Desktop Manager's folder tree, empty folders included.
• A Credential entry is not a connection. The result names it and points to Import Vault > Remote Desktop Manager (Credentials Only), described below.
• A WebDAV entry is skipped, with a hint to add it as a Storage endpoint instead.
• Every other entry is skipped and named with its Remote Desktop Manager type, for instance Skipped "intranet": WebBrowser entry: Edgely has no such connection for a web page. An entry with no host is skipped and named the same way.
• Passwords are never imported: Remote Desktop Manager encrypts them with its own key. The result reminds you to add them in Edgely.

Importing the Same File Twice

Edgely compares the file with what you already have, so importing a file again duplicates nothing:

• A connection with the same name and host as one you already have (ignoring upper and lower case) is the same connection. It is left alone and named in the result as already in Edgely.
• With Overwrite existing connections ticked, that connection is updated in place instead: the imported protocol takes the port from the file and keeps its own settings and credential, the user name, notes and folder are taken from the file when the file has them, and the connection's other protocols are kept.
• A folder is reused when one of the same name already sits in the same place.
• Two identical entries in one file make one connection; the second is named in the result as listed twice in the file.

This holds across Remote Desktop Manager's formats too: importing the .json export of a vault after its .rdm export creates nothing new.

Credentials From Remote Desktop Manager

1. Open Import Vault and choose Remote Desktop Manager (Credentials Only)
2. Read the notice (Remote Desktop Manager's passwords cannot be imported) and click Continue
3. Choose the Remote Desktop Manager export (.rdm, .xml or .json). The import runs as soon as you choose it

Edgely creates a password credential, with an empty password:

• for each Credential entry, named after it
• for each connection entry that names a user, named after the entry and its protocol, for instance web-01 (ssh)

When Remote Desktop Manager gives a domain, the user name is written DOMAIN\user, for instance CORP\admin. A credential whose name is already in your vault is left alone and listed in the result, so importing the same file twice creates nothing twice. A Credential entry with no user name creates no credential and is named in the result. Afterwards, edit each credential to add its password.

Credentials From a Password Manager (CSV)

Open Import Vault, choose Chrome CSV, Firefox CSV, KeePass CSV, 1Password CSV or LastPass CSV, then choose the file: the credentials are imported as soon as you choose it. A row without a name or a password is not imported and is listed in the result. A CSV import does not check what is already in your vault: importing the same file twice creates each credential twice.

Edgely Database Manager: DBeaver, pgAdmin, MySQL Workbench, SSMS and SQL Developer

Also in the app Edgely Database Manager: Help, then Documentation (F1), Connection Import

Migrate from another database client without retyping its connection list. Open Connections → Import Connections in the ribbon. The dialog runs in two phases.

Phase 1: detection. Database Manager looks for each tool's file in its standard place and lists the tools whose file holds at least one connection, with the number found:

MySQL Workbench has one card: the Workbench 26 store is read when it holds a connection, the 8.0 connections.xml otherwise.

If your tool keeps its file somewhere else (a portable install, a synced profile), use Browse... and pick the file itself. A SQLite database is recognised by its tables whatever its name (pgAdmin's or Workbench 26's); an .xml file is read as Workbench 8.0 or SSMS, a .json file as DBeaver or SQL Developer, and any other file is tried with each. This also works for a RegSrvr17.xml copied from a Windows machine to a Mac or Linux one.

Phase 2: selection. Every connection found is listed; tick the ones to bring across. A key icon marks a connection whose password came with it, a shield one that goes through an SSH tunnel. A connection matching one you already have (same host, port, user and database) is marked DUPLICATE and starts unticked; tick it anyway and it is imported under a new name (user-name, then (2), (3) and so on).

Below the list, two boxes, both ticked when the dialog opens:

• Create import group: connections the tool kept in no folder go into a group named Imported from and the tool's name, for example Imported from pgAdmin 4 (after Browse..., the tool the file came from). A connection that was in a folder keeps that folder as its group either way. Untick the box and the loose connections land with no group.
• Import passwords (where available): the passwords that came with the connections (from DBeaver, and from a SQL Developer export saved with an export password) are stored in the encrypted vault, exactly as if you had typed them. Untick the box to import the connections without them: the user names still come across, and you add the passwords in the connection dialog afterwards.

When a file holds entries that cannot become a connection, those are skipped and a notice says how many; the application log names each one and why.

What comes across

A folder inside a folder becomes one group named with its path, for example Prod/EU, since groups are one level deep. Every imported connection gets notes: the tool's description of it, when there is one, then the line Imported from and the tool's name.

DBeaver's passwords live in credentials-config.json, encrypted with a well-known local key when you have not set a DBeaver master password. Database Manager decrypts that file and brings the database password and the SSH tunnel's user and password with the connection.

Never imported:

• MySQL Workbench, pgAdmin and SSMS passwords. Workbench keeps them in the operating system's keychain or vault, pgAdmin in the keychain or encrypted under its master password, SSMS encrypted for your Windows account; Database Manager reads none of them.
• Passwords from SQL Developer's own `connections.json`. The file SQL Developer keeps for itself encrypts them for that machine; only an export saved with an export password carries passwords Database Manager can read.
• SSMS Windows authentication. The login is your Windows account, so the connection comes across with no user name.
• An SSMS named instance. SQLDEV01\SQLEXPRESS imports as the host SQLDEV01 on port 1433. The instance name is kept in the connection's properties (instance) but not used to connect: set the port that instance listens on.
• Connections Database Manager cannot open, which are skipped and counted in the notice: a pgAdmin server that connects through a pg_service entry; a Workbench connection through a local socket or named pipe, over the X Protocol, or to another kind of database; an SSMS server that is not a Database Engine (Analysis, Integration or Reporting Services), a named pipe or a LocalDB instance; any entry with no host. SSMS's own list of recent connections is not read.
• DBeaver connections to other engines (SQLite, MongoDB, Redis and the rest) and SQL Developer entries with no host are left out without a notice.

Edgely files (.econ, .efull, .eset)

The dialog above reads other tools' files only. Edgely's own files are read by the Import Connections card of the Welcome page and by Settings > Account & Sync > Backup & Restore > Import, which both show what the file holds before importing, and by the Import action of the Connections Manager page, which imports at once.

• A file written by Database Manager (Export Connections, or Export in Backup & Restore) is plain JSON: the connections, their groups and, in an .efull or .eset, some app settings. It never holds a password, nor a reference to one in the vault, and Database Manager cannot encrypt it, so importing it never asks for a password. The imported connections have no password: enter them again, or move them with the vault export (Settings > Vault > Export Vault and Import Vault, a .evlt file).
• A file written by Edgely Console imports the same way, as long as it was exported without encryption: Database Manager cannot decrypt a Console file protected by a password, and says so. Console connections are servers (SSH, RDP, SFTP...), not databases: only one with a protocol on a database port comes across, as that engine (5432 PostgreSQL, 3306 MySQL, 1433 SQL Server, 1521 Oracle). Every other one is left out, and the preview and the result say so, naming each. Credentials in the file are not imported.
• A vault export (.evlt) picked there is refused with a pointer to Settings > Vault > Import Vault.

Edgely files in Edgely Console

Also in the app Edgely Console: Documentation tab, Security, Export and Import

Edgely's own files (.econ, .evlt, .efull and .eset) are imported with the Unified Import wizard, whose window is titled Import Data. Files made by other tools have importers of their own: see "Importing From Other Tools" below.

Steps

1. Open the wizard: in Settings > Vault, click Import beside Unified Import. It also opens from Import under Settings > Account & Sync > Backup & Restore, from Connections > Import Connections in the ribbon, and from the Connections Manager (Import under Quick Actions, then Edgely Export)
2. Click the file area (Click to select file) and choose the file. Edgely recognises the kind of file by its extension, then reads it to tell whether it is encrypted. A file with any other extension is refused
3. Click Next. If the file is encrypted, enter the password it was exported with and click Next again. An .evlt file always asks for its password
4. Review the import preview:
   • How many connections, credentials and groups the file holds and, when there are any, how many conflict with what you already have
   • The list of each, with a check mark on an item that will be imported and a warning sign on an item whose name you already use. A list shows its first ten items, then says how many more there are
   • Import app settings, shown when the file carries settings and ticked by default: untick it to keep your current settings
5. Click Next and pick a conflict resolution strategy
6. Click Import

The preview is for checking the file, not for picking from it: every connection, credential and group in the file is imported, subject to the conflict strategy. Only the app settings can be left out.

Conflict Resolution

An item of the file conflicts with one of yours when it is the same item, ignoring upper and lower case: a connection when both its name and its host match, a group when its whole path matches (Web inside Prod is not your Web inside Staging), and a credential when its name matches. Credential files (.evlt) work differently: see the next section.

The default is Skip existing, which is the safe choice. Overwrite existing is appropriate when the file is the source of truth. It edits your items rather than replacing them:

• An overwritten group stays where it is, with everything that was already inside it; the file's connections join it.
• An overwritten credential or connection keeps its identity, so everything that used it (a connection's credential, a protocol's own credential, a jump host) still does.
• A field the file does not carry keeps the value you had.
• Importing the same file twice with Overwrite existing creates nothing the second time.

A connection's protocols come across with their own credential and settings, and a jump host is linked to the connection it names in the file, or to yours if the file is imported back where it came from. A connection whose jump host is in neither is imported without one, and the import says so.

Credential Files (.evlt)

An .evlt file goes through the same steps: the wizard asks for the file's password, lists the credentials it holds, marks those it already knows (with the name you gave them), and imports them.

The import itself does not go by name. It recognises a credential it has met before (one exported from this vault, or already imported from this file), even if you have renamed it since:

• Such a credential is skipped, or, with Overwrite existing, replaced by the file's copy; connections that use it keep their link. Rename imported skips it as well.
• Any other credential is added, even when one of yours has the same name.

The same files can also be imported from Vault > Import Vault > Edgely (.evlt) in the ribbon, which has no preview and always skips the credentials it has met before.

After Import

The last step of the wizard shows the outcome: Import Complete when nothing failed, Import Completed with Errors when something failed, or Import Failed when something failed and nothing was imported or skipped. Below it:

• For connections, credentials and groups: how many were imported, skipped and failed
• Whether the app settings were applied
• Errors: every item that failed, by name, with the reason
• Warnings, such as a connection imported without the credential it referenced, or a credential of a type Edgely does not recognise, which is skipped

Items skipped because of a conflict are counted, not listed by name. Failures are not fatal: the import carries on with the other items, and each failure appears with its cause so you can address it and retry.