Wednesday, September 21, 2005, 3:10:54 PM, you wrote:

TW> Message received 2005-09-21 from 'Zeljko Dimic':

>> Hi Brian,
>> 
>> there is no way for Tucows to find authoritative expiration date of domain
>> that is registered through another registrar. Registry does not supply this
>> information, or any other for domains not in our portfolio.

TW> This is simply not true.

 Well Tim, it *is* true.  No matter how much you want to have OpenSRS
 pass you the data the fact is, the Registry (*the* authoritative
 source for exp dates) will not give it to a Registrar if the domain
 is not owned by the requesting Registrar (at least for com|net).  The
 notion of regexes or simple programming techniques doesn't even come
 into play when you're faced with such a situation because you can't
 trust the output of another Registrar.

 I'm with you -- I wish it were different so I could easily handle
 transfers on a programmatic level -- But it is not up to Tucows or me
 or you.:(

 Regards,
 -tom

TW> You can get the authoritative expiration date for SOME domains outside
TW> your profile. What you are trying to say is that you cannot implement an
TW> authoritative expiration date in the generic case.

TW> So, has tucows complained to icann about this problem and had them to fix 
TW> the problem at the source?

TW> If you have, and they said 'no', good on you, but let's go try again!

>> It is possible to query other registrars' whois and collect information, but
>> there are few problems with this approach.
>>  - whois run by other registrar in general is not always reliable and
>> accessible to us
>>  - whois format may differs significantly (though usually this could be
>> solved)
>>  - reported expiration date on some registrars' whois may not always be up
>> to date. Sometimes it depends on the status of one's account with that
>> particular registrar (unpaid invoice would hold back date etc...) Some
>> registrars would use expiration date as in 'paid-until' date. For example,
>> on a multiyear registration, such registrar would register domain for one
>> year only, and renew it with registry annually while showing paid until date
>> in the expiration field. This creates discrepancy btw. registrar and
>> registry expiration dates, and if you transferred early, you may loose
>> remainder of the years(registry date is authoritative), though you paid for
>> it. So in general, we found this data unreliable enough...

TW> Certain registrars appear to be explicitly trying to make it difficult to 
TW> extract the expiry date. We had to solve this problem years ago.

TW> This is pretty core functionality for doing transfers.

TW> It might be a smart thing for tucows to do for their resellers, even if it 
TW> has to be documented as being unreliable. It is a simple matter of whois 
TW> and a bunch of regexes. Then again, it is a simple matter of whois and a 
TW> bunch of regexes, so any reseller with software developers at their side 
TW> can implement it themselves.

>> 
>> Regards,
>> ------------------------------------
>> 
>> Zeljko Dimic
>> Technical Product Manager
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Tucows Inc.
>> 96 Mowat Avenue
>> Toronto, ON, M6K 3M1
>> Canada
>> tel: 416.535.0123 x 1256
>> fax: 416.531.5584
>> ------------------------------------
>> 
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Doctor PC -
>> > Brian O'Donnell
>> > Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2005 6:51 PM
>> > To: [email protected]
>> > Subject: [domains-gen] expiry date of domain before transfer
>> >
>> >
>> > Hello
>> >
>> > Does the API have a way to get the current expiry date of a domain before
>> > we transfer (or attempt a transfer) to Tucows?
>> >
>> > This would eliminate our last bit of manual labour with regard to domain
>> > transfers, and help us streamline our invoicing etc.
>> >
>> > If it doesn't exist, I'd like to add it to the wishlist. If it does, could
>> > somebody point me to it?
>> >
>> > Thanks
>> >
>> > Brian O'Donnell
>> > Doctor PC
>> > www.doctorpc.ca
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > domains-gen mailing list
>> > [email protected]
>> > http://discuss.tucows.com/mailman/listinfo/domains-gen
>> >
>> 
>> 
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