eForms
Form 60 – Annual Report of Centralized Service Companies
Viewer - Instructions and Download
Before downloading the Viewer Application, please print and read this page of instructions! You will save yourself a lot of time by referring to this page first, before contacting FERC with problem issues. Most problems will involve Internet communication issues which are addressed below. Of course, we make mistakes - and need to fix things on the server or with the software, so we do not mind emails, questions, and suggestions.
Downloading and Viewing the Form 60 Database
The public version of the Form 60 database is available for partial or complete download to client sites and may be viewed with the Form 60 Database Viewer. The Database Viewer will permit the selection, viewing and printing of individual or all Form 60 annual submissions for 2006 through the present.
The resulting Form 60 Database downloaded to the local client may be manipulated for specific reporting or analysis needs using Microsoft Visual Foxpro 8.0 (VFP 8.0) or commercially available reporting software such as Crystal Reports or others that support the VFP 8.0 database container structure. Learn how to connect to a Visual FoxPro Database through Microsoft Access to access the Form 60 database.
Depending on your browser, you can either download the installation file, or run the installation from within your browser. In any event, the downloaded file is named Form60v.exe and can be considered the Installation Disk for the Viewer Application. You must execute this file to install the Viewer Application. Follow the instructions given during the installation process. It will be easier for us to help you with problems if you use the default directory/folder names for the software. The default for the viewer is C:\program files\form60viewer\. The software should be installed on the workstation. The database may be installed on a network for multiple user access.
Once the application is installed on the client PC, it is accessed through the Start\Programs\FERC Applications menu. There are two sub-items under this heading named Form 60 Data Download and Form 60 Data Viewer. You must first use the Form 60 Data Download application to obtain the database. Within the download application, you select the company and year of interest to download. You select multiple companies by highlighting them on the displayed list. You also have a checkbox option of selecting all respondents (Form 60 Filers) for a particular filing year.
The download process may take a few minutes, depending on your connection speed and amount of data for the selected company. When requesting a download, the server extracts the requested companies from our database and creates a small database. This database is compressed, sent via Internet to your PC, and decompressed. All this takes some time. So, give it a few minutes before you think something is wrong.
If you want many companies, it may be quicker to download the entire database for the year instead of selecting individual companies.
When you use the Viewer, select the company and year of data using the available drop-down boxes on the 'Schedule Selector' window.
As an alternative, we have an FTP site where you can download a compressed (zipped) copy of the database for particular years. If you want the most current information, you might visit this site just to check the dates on the files. When the date changes, we have probably added more respondents, or made other corrections to the database. If you have problems with this, contact your computer support personnel. They know all about FTP and compressed files.
Download Problems
You should not experience much trouble downloading and installing the Viewer application on your workstation. However, the component of the viewer that provides the Listing of Available Companies - and downloads the database may not work properly with your workstation or network configuration. In the event that you cannot download data, it is suggested that you download the entire database for the specific year you desire from our FTP site. The downloaded file should be unzipped into the appropriate folder. Then, start the Viewer and use Options/Change DB Location to point to the database folder.
Download Problems - Potential Solutions
The Form 60 Viewer uses HTTP (to get the list of companies) and FTP Receive (to download the selected database data) and notify you of availability of updated Viewer software. These common Internet Communication Protocols may be blocked by your Internet Firewall for security reasons. This will require intervention by your computer or network support personnel. To assist in diagnosing this problem, we make available an Internet Communications Test Application – which you can download and run on your workstation just as you did the Form 60 Viewer. Please see a description of this application below under Forms Communications Test Application. Note that your workstation only needs to pass the HTTP send/receive and FTP Receive tests. FTP Send is not necessary for proper operation of the Form 60 Viewer.
The easiest and most effective solution is to ask your Firewall Administrator to install a rule in the Firewall permitting HTTP Send/Receive and FTP Receive from DNS: eforms1.ferc.gov, IP address: 208.207.43.25. This presents a minimal or non-existent security risk since all communication requests are issued by the Client (your workstation). The FERC Forms Server does not “push” unsolicited information to your workstation.
Problem Reporting and Assistance
If you have any problems with downloading or using the viewer application, please send an email describing the problem to ferconlinesupport@ferc.gov . In order to help in diagnosing a problem, please attach the file F60view.log to your email. The Viewer Application writes little notes on how it is feeling about life on your PC to this log file. If you don’t attach it, we will send you a reply email asking for it. So, it just saves time for all of us if you do it first off. This file is found where the Form 60 viewer was installed (possibly c:\program files\form60viewer) folder. If you see two files called F60view, and can’t determine which is the log file, attach and forward the smaller of the two files (or turn off the option to 'hide extension of known file types' in the Windows Folder Options).
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Downloads & Links
Electronic Submission Software
Viewer
- » Software [EXE]
- » Instructions & Download
Form Communications Test Application
Database Utility
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