To be able to use the FIDES services you need to be registered as a FIDES user. In order to register into FIDES, you will need to contact your FIDES Local Registration Authority (in short "LRA"), who is an Offical working in your Member State National Administration being responsible for all the people accessing the FIDES services on behalf of his Member State National Administration. You can ask your National Administration for the name of your FIDES LRA. Alternatively you can also ask the FIDES Helpdesk.

Your FIDES LRA will then either use the AdminTool User Management pages to create or update your FIDES account, or he/she will fill-in a FIDES Registration Form and fax it back to the European Commission, DG Fisheries (the fax number is shown on the form). Among other information, this form must contain your surname, given name, business E-Mail address and optionally your business fax number. Once the DG Fisheries has configured your FIDES account you will receive by Fax (if possible) or by E-Mail a letter containing all the information you will need, including your personal login and password to be used in FIDES Web Sites.

The FIDES Registration Form can be obtained from here in either Microsoft Word 97 format (DOC) or Rich Text Format (RTF) or Portable Document Format (PDF).

The same form should also be used for updating a user account (e.g. in case the E-Mail address changes), modifying user access rights and revoking a user. In that case the user surname and given name are not mandatory as long as the user login is supplied instead.

Accessing FIDES doesn't require a digital user certificate anymore. In case you have an old FIDES PKI CUG certificate installed in your browser you can leave it alone, or you can delete it (please refer to your browser documentation for detailed instructions). It's of no importance.

3.2 Connecting to FIDES

After you have sent your Registration Form, you will be given a username/password for the FIDES application.

When you connect to a FIDES Web Site (https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fides/), you will be asked to authenticate yourself with your personal login and password. Once this is done you will be authenticated by the application and able to submit transactions through your Internet browser.

For this to work, you will need a browser supporting strong cryptography (128-bit encryption keys or better). You can click here to test your browser capabilities.

In order to support encryption, FIDES still uses a Certificate at the server side. One thing you might consider doing is updating the GlobalSign Root Certificate in you browser so that your browser can check for its authenticity. You'll need to to this in case your browser always complains about not being able to verify the identity of the FIDES server each time you start a FIDES session. Click here to install the latest GlobalSign Root Certificate (if a pop-up box asks you what to do with this file, select Open, click on Install Certificate and follow the on-screen instructions). This works with most browsers.

3.3 Accessing FIDES from different computers

Connecting to FIDES from another computer is not an issue anymore as user digital certificates are not required any longer. Just use the same URL, login and password as you would use on your own computer.

This also means that the whole security mechanism relies solely on your password being keps secret. Therefore you should never disclose it. Once it's compromised, or in case of doubts please send a mail to fish-fidesinfo@ec.europa.eu asking for a new password to be generated (alternatively you can do it yourself using the AdminTool User Management pages).
 
 
 

4. Using the application

4.1 Generalities

Take special care about the security of your personal username and password. It is your responsability to keep both the personal user name and password in a safe place away from malicious usage. Keep in mind that anyone who has your login and password can use FIDES on your behalf, even if he can't have physical access to your computer. 

Also, when you are done with the application, do not forget to close ALL browser windows that are open. Why? Because if you let just one browser window open, your username/password will be kept in memory. This means that anyone who can get access to your computer will get instant access to the FIDES system using your personal FIDES profile (i.e. being identified as you), without needing to supply any login or password. 

4.2 Different ways to send data to FIDES

You have three possible ways to send your data to the FIDES application and you can choose the way that best suits your needs or your hardware installation: 

using the Web interface: this is the most user-friendly way because you have plenty of information online and a user interface that guides you through the process of uploading your data or retrieving data from the server. This is not only user-friendly but it is also the most secure way to connect to FIDES: by using the Web interface, you talk to the FIDES server through a digitally encrypted channel, and you're authentified through your login/password pair wich is sent over the Internet on the encrypted channel. The encryption is performed using a server side digital Certificate, which also guarantees you are talking to the genuine FIDES server hosted at the European Commission. To access the interface, you have to use Netscape Communicator v4.0 or newer,  or Microsoft Internet Explorer v4.0 or newer.  Other browser might work as well but are not officialy supported. At least your browser must support Secure Socket Layer (SSL), HTML 3.2, frames, and JavaScript (see 4.3);

using FTP: this way, you can upload your transaction files to your outgoing directory. Normally, the processing results are available within 15-30 minutes. Any FTP client will work (see 4.4). 

using email (SMTP/X400): uploading your data is as simple as sending an email to fish-fides2@ec.europa.eu. Your data can be either in the body of the message or included into an attachement. Any email client will work (see 4.5);

4.3 Using the Web User's Interface

Once you are connected to the Web Site, an easy to use interface will show up on your screen.  The first page gives you a listing of the regimes that are available. 

Basically there are two types of buttons you can click on: 
 

	click on this button to go to the next screen of the application. Each transactions are grouped by regimes
	click on this button to get more information, when available

Click on a regime, then the desired transaction to dispay the form related to the choosen transaction. 

The purpose of this form is to allow you to dynamically alter or add information to the transaction file that you want to submit. Any information you enter in this form supersede corresponding information in your transaction. However, if your transaction is already self-sufficient (in terms of FIDES II parameters), you can ommit to fill in any fields. 

Do not forget to choose your transaction file by clicking on 'Browse', and selecting the file from your computer. Then you can choose if you want to View or Download the results. Viewing the results means that you will view the result in your browser as an HTML page; dowloading the results means that you will save the results in an HTML page on your hard drive. 

If the file is not in FIDES format (i.e. without a header and a body part), it must at least contain the body part for the given transaction. 

Click on Submit to submit your transaction and wait for the results page to be displayed. This results screen if divided in two part: the HEADER and the BODY. Check the body to see the output of your transaction. In case of an error message, correct the problem and try again, or call the Helpdesk for further assistance. 

Note the presence of a 'Quickload' menu item on the left of the upper banner. The Quickload button is here to provide you with a quick and convenient way to submit transactions that are already self sufficient FIDES message (see section 2. Message format specifications for details). 

If you have any comments or remarks concerning the presentation of the Web interface, feel free to drop a line to fish-fidesinfo@ec.europa.eu. Your feedback is very important to us as we will adapt the systems to your needs. 

4.4 Using FTP

This way of connection is especially useful if you want to implement an automated submission process of your data. However, be warned that this is a non secure way to transmit your data (anyone who can listen to the wire can intercept your transaction). Please contact the FIDES Helpdesk if you want to use the FTP connection. Currently this service is only accessible via dedicated lines or direct dial-up connection to the FTP service at the Commission. 

The settings to connect to the FTP service, as well as a username and password will be provided to user who request the opening of an FTP account. Requests should be directed to fish-fidesinfo@ec.europa.eu.

The connection to the server is fairly simple but depends heavilly on your FTP client application. Let's go for a short explanation with the basic ftp client delivered with almost any Operating Systems.  Note that FTP commands are the same on all the clients so there are chances that this explanation will works for you even if you use another FTP client (graphical FTP clients are often more user-friendly and self-explanatory). 
 

type 'ftp' from a command prompt to launch the ftp client;

at any moment, you can type 'help' or '?' at the ftp command prompt to get some information about available commands (maybe you could even try the help command followed with the name of another command to get some specific help about that specific command, e.g. help ls);

type 'open <ip address or name>' to open the site;

provide your usename;

provide your password;

you are directed to your home directory. If you want to upload a file, go to the outgoing directory;

type 'put <transaction_file.trn>' to upload the file;

type put '<transaction_file.tmp>' to upload the unlock file;

that's it, your file has been uploaded to the FIDES system.

FIDES system will parse your outgoing directory (named to_eu) and process valid file that are found there. After a few minutes, an answer from the system will be put in your incoming directory (named from_eu). Be sure to check this answer to learn about the success or failure of your transaction. 

The extension of the filename gives you an indication about the outcome of your transaction: 
 

.fin: a processed file which means your transaction was successful;

.err: a processed file which means your transaction resulted in an error.

Note that the filename that you use to name your transaction can also contain some additional parameters, as defined bellow: 

t=: gives the transaction name (e.g. t=CR-RPT-A;.trn for Catch Report A);

x=: gives the transaction character set (e.g. x=EUROASCII;.trn);

f=: gives the transaction reference (e.g. f=my_ref;.trn).

 

If you got an error message from FIDES in your incoming directory, correct the problem described in the error file and try again.  If you have no new files in this directory, check in your outgoing directory to see if your transaction file is still there. If your file is still there, two possible explanations to the problem can be found: 

you are not allowed or configured to use the FTP interface;

the system is not online or is misconfigured.

4.5 Using X.400/SMTP email

You can send your transaction to fish-fides2@ec.europa.eu for processing.  Note that you can supply your transaction to the system in a variety of ways: 
 

by pasting the content of your transaction into the body of your message;

by sending the transaction as an attachement (this is the recommended method);

by providing some additional parameters in the Subject field.

Only one transaction can be sent per mail. 
 

Additional parameters that you can provide in the Subject fields are: 
 

f= gives the transaction reference. Do not forget to include a semi-colon;

t=: gives the transaction type. Do not forget to include a semi-colon;

x= gives the transaction character set.

 

Any additional parameters in the Subject field supersede corresponding parameter in the transaction

Thus as an example of Subject, you can have t=CR-RPT-A; f=my_reference;x=Cp1252;. Pay attention not to forget the semi colon (';') after each given additional parameter. 

If you get an error message, correct the problem described in the error file and try again.  If you feel the error is related to the system, do not hesitate to contact the FIDES support (fish-fidesinfo@ec.europa.eu). 
 

Now a word about security. For historical reasons, users generally send their FIDES email messages in clear text and relied on the email protocol for telling FIDES server who they are. Be warned that doing so is very insecure. Not only your information travels in clear over the Internet, but it's also very convenient for a trained hacker to masquerade you and submit whatever they want to FIDES on your belhalf!

Nowadays S/MIME email security is fully supported by FIDES and can be enforced on a per-user basis. This means that you can now use any standard S/MIME compliant email agent software to:
 

digitally sign your emails and be sure nobody will be able to masquerade you again

digitally encrypt them, making it virtually impossible for a third party to eavesdrop

do both at the same time (which is the recommended option if you can do it)

 

FIDES will take similar measures when replying back to you, so you will know for sure whatever you receive through the Internet really is the genuine FIDES reply message and that nobody else but you can read it.

You will need a Personal RSA Certificate to use S/MIME security. If you already have one chances are FIDES will trust it and it will work with FIDES right out of the box. The only necessary step will be to install the FIDES S/MIME Bridge Server Certificate from the FIDES Links page in your email software (this usually only needs to be done once).

If you currently have no Personal RSA Certificate however, the IDA Programme at the European Commission may be able to give one to you. More information can be found IDA Web site.
 
 
 
 

5. Transaction Examples

In this section, you will find several examples of transactions using different presentations and options.

5.1 Catch Report A Examples

Consider the following example: a user wants to submit a Catch Report A transaction for Sweden using tags to start and end records and terminators to separate fields inside the records.

In that case, the file will look like in the following example (note the <SYSTEM.PROBE> tag which means that this transaction is a test. You need to remove it for real transactions!):

<FIDES2> <HEAD> <CONTENT_TYPE.CURRENT.PRESENTATION>StartTagEndTag-Terminator <REQUEST.NAME>CR-RPT-A <REQUEST.COUNTRY.ISO_A3>SWE <SYSTEM.PROBE> </HEAD> <BODY> <RPM>199901;</RPM> <DAT> HER;3BCD-C;C ;17.5;0;0;0;17.5;</DAT> <DAT> HER;5B6ANB;C ;0;0;0;25;25;</DAT> <DAT> SPR;3BCD-C;P ;1.1;0;0;0;1.1;</DAT> </BODY> </FIDES2>

(Download this transaction)

Now consider exactly the same transaction but with a fixed size presentation:

<FIDES2> <HEAD> <CONTENT_TYPE.CURRENT.PRESENTATION>StartTagEndTag-FixedSize <REQUEST.NAME>CR-RPT-A <REQUEST.COUNTRY.ISO_A3>SWE <SYSTEM.PROBE> </HEAD> <BODY> <RPM>_199901 <DAT>_HER_3BCD-C__C17.5_______0__________0__________0__________17.5______ <DAT>_HER_5B6ANB__C0__________0__________0__________25_________25________ <DAT>_SPR_3BCD-C__P1.1________0__________0__________0__________1.1_______ </BODY> </FIDES2>

(Download this transaction)

As you can see, the <CONTENT_TYPE.CURRENT.PRESENTATION> tag has changed to reflect the new body presentation.

As a third example, imagine that you want to submit a file with start tags only as record separators and terminator as field separators, but you want that the answer to be provided with start tags AND end tags. Then, the transanction will looks like:

<FIDES2> <HEAD> <CONTENT_TYPE.CURRENT.PRESENTATION>StartTagTerminator-Terminator <CONTENT_TYPE.REPLY.PRESENTATION>StartTagEndTag-Terminator <REQUEST.NAME>CR-RPT-A <REQUEST.COUNTRY.ISO_A3>SWE <SYSTEM.PROBE> </HEAD> <BODY> <RPM>199901; <DAT> HER;3BCD-C;C ;17.5;0;0;0;17.5; <DAT> HER;5B6ANB;C ;0;0;0;25;25; <DAT> SPR;3BCD-C;P ;1.1;0;0;0;1.1; </BODY> </FIDES2>

(Download this transaction)

As you can see, the <CONTENT_TYPE.REPLY.PRESENTATION>StartTagEndTag-Terminator line has been added to the header.

5.2 Vessel List Declaration Example

5.3 Cath Report Landing Example

7.1 Additional documentation