Subject: [regext] draft-brown-epp-fees: <fee:balance> in <domain:check> ?

From: Martin Casanova <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2016 08:24:38 +0200

Hi Gavin and Jothan, Hi all

We are looking for an easy way to give registrars the option to check 
their account balance and credit limit via EPP.

We where checking 
http://www.verisigninc.com/assets/epp-sdk/verisign_epp-extension_balance_v00.html 
and
https://www.registry.net.za/content.php?wiki=1&contentid=18&title=EPP%20Contact%20Extensions#balanceCom
but we hesitate to implement an extension just for that purpose.

We thought it would be convenient to integrate this feature into the 
Registry Fee Extension.
In Chapter 3.5  (draft-brown-epp-fees-07) there is already the 
possibility to return the <fee:balance> in an extended <domain:create>.

However the drawback is that one needs to execute an actual transform 
command (ie <create>, <renew>, <update>, <delete>, <transfer op="request">)
in order to obtain the balance after the transformation was executed.

We would like to suggest that this functionality is integrated into an 
ordinary <domain:check> command / response in one way or another.

That would allow a registrar to query the balance whenever needed 
without any side effects
and even enable it to automate alerting in case the balance drops under 
a certain level.

Thanks for your consideration.

Martin

-- 
SWITCH
Martin Casanova, Domain Applications
Werdstrasse 2, P.O. Box, 8021 Zurich, Switzerland
phone +41 44 268 15 55, direct +41 44 268 16 25
[email-masked]

Visit our new Website www.switch.ch

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From: Alexander Mayrhofer <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2016 06:43:43 +0000

Martin, all,

> in order to obtain the balance after the transformation was executed.

I do agree with Martin that an option to gather the current account balance without actually performing a transaction would be great. While tying it to the execution of a billable transaction sounds great from the business perspective ;) I don't think it's very practical. 
 
> ordinary <domain:check> command / response in one way or another.

I do agree that the "check" command would be a viable option - even though, technically, it would be information of an object that is not tied to the registrar balance at all (But we do have that "independent" information in the response to the transform commands as well).

Maybe an optional attribute in the "fee:check" element itself? ("balance=yes")?
Maybe a "balance" pseudo-command-Value for the "fee:command" element?
Somewhere in the greeting/hello Process?

Neither of the options we came up with is particularly elegant - does anybody have better ideas?

Alex

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From: Michael Holloway <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2016 09:07:58 +0200

Hi all

I agree it would be very useful to be able to query balance. A few other 
registries have their own [propriety?] solutions, sometimes using a 
registrar object "<registrar:info>" solution or contact:info on 
registrar id (which also requires extension) as in the ZA link you 
provided. I have also seen it displayed on login and sent over poll 
messages. None of the solutions are particularly elegant. Adding a 
specific extension for balance (potentially as part of registrar object) 
seems fine to me, especially if other registries are doing the same, so 
I see nothing wrong with implementing Verisign's extension.

In any case I would vote +1 for Gavin to add the balance to a 
domain:check command in this extension as it makes sense to see the 
price of a domain along with remaining balance before purchasing it.

Regards,
Michael

*Michael Holloway
Senior Infrastructure Architect**| Com Laude*
E: [email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]>

On 06/06/16 08:43, Alexander Mayrhofer wrote:
> _______________________________________________
> regext mailing list
> [email-masked]
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/regext

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From: Patrick Mevzek <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2016 10:01:43 +0200

> anybody have better ideas?

There is already one extension dealing exclusively with balance
handling:
http://www.verisign.com/assets/epp-sdk/verisign_epp-extension_balance_v00.html

Why not keep the 2 aspects (fee & balance) separated ?
Since there are registries not using a prepayment model, hence where
the balance has no meaning, but the fee part is useful.

-- 
Patrick Mevzek

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From: "Hollenbeck, Scott" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2016 11:02:12 +0000

> -----Original Message-----
> From: regext [mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of Patrick
> Mevzek
> Sent: Monday, June 06, 2016 4:02 AM
> To: [email-masked]
> Subject: Re: [regext] draft-brown-epp-fees: <fee:balance> in
> <domain:check> ?
> 

FWIW Verisign has no IPR claims for the balance mapping. It can be freely implemented by anyone.

Scott