> Some time in 2003 I've read a statement from a Tucows employee that not > only the client functionality will be available per API calls but also > the RWI functionality like retrieval of address data and renewal > management. Probably I'm blind but I can't find a reference to such an > API. Is there anything or is everyone still using "agents" and such things?
The API doc: https://rrc.tucows.com/resources/docs/srsApiDoc.pdf I just implemented a new renewal notice system using the API method "get domains by expire date" because Tucows changed the format of the automated daily renewal e-mails to resellers a few months ago which broke our parser (they have promised to fix the format in the next release). I decided to use the XML over HTTPS post communication method described in https://rrc.tucows.com/resources/docs/XML_HTTPSPost.pdf and it's working pretty well. The method returns the domain name, expiration date, auto renew, and let expire flags for domains in the range you specify. In order to get the domain contact e-mail addresses, you need to make two additional method calls, first "get_user_access_info" to get the username/password to pass to the "get domain" method which will return all of the contact info. Tucows had entered an enhancement request to return the contact e-mail addresses in the "get domains by renewal date" method in order to avoid the additional method calls. While implementing this I discovered a bug in the "get domains by renewal date" method that I reported to Tucows. If you try to request domains expiring on say 2005-02-02, it will only return domains with an exact expiration time of 12 midnight (2005-02-02 00:00:00). If you want a list of all domains expiring on a specific date, you need to make the ending date one day greater than the starting date. This will give you a list that includes domains from 12 midnight on day one to 12 midnight on day two, then you just need to filter out the domains from day two. The bug even effects the renewal messaging Tucows sends out directly. For an example, look at the expiration date of "domains expiring in exactly XX days" sometime. You will see domains included in the list with expiration dates in exactly XX days and domains expiring in exactly XX+1 days. I suspect some domain registrants are receiving double notices because of it.
