What's new in this Release

Online Service

• Registrars may now put unallocated money on their account. 
  
• Registrars can turn auto-allocate on or off.
• When a registrar sets up a direct debit or continuous card authority, auto-allocate is turned off.
  
• Registrars may now opt-in to Nominet's anti-phishing feed.

EPP

• XML schema nom-domain-2.0 has been updated to fix a bug for future reseller support
• EPP Poll and Email Notifications will now include abuse notifications - if these have been enabled via Online Services
• New XML schema nom-abuse-feed-1.0 [required to receive new abuse notifications from EPP] .
  

WDM

• The interface to select name servers when creating or modifying a domain name has been updated.
• You can now save your preferred nameservers as favorites.  This will allow you to easily use your favorite nameservers when creating or modifying a domain name.

Other

• We are introducing our anti-phishing feed. 
  
• The phishing lock will be extended to allow domain names to be locked as a result of any illegal activity.
• Details on this new services will be available on 20 January.

What's new in this Release

Web Domain Manager

• Registrars can now manage the WHOIS opt out lock on an account
  

EPP

• Nominet EPP 2.0 schemas - the <account:addr> and <account:contact> elements will no longer include 'type="admin"' in responses.
• We will be updating the SSL certificate on the EPP servers.

Other

• We will no longer send an email to the registrant of a domain name confirming their registrar has paid the renewal for a domain name.

Planned release date: 6 October 2009

Tag verification list

We are releasing a new function that enables registrars to download a list of all tags that accept tag changes. The operation is available in automaton and EPP. The list returns all tags that accept tag changes along with the registrar's trading name and the handshake settings appropriate for that tag. Tags that do not accept tag changes are excluded from the list.

New EPP schemas

We are releasing beta versions of new EPP schemas. These new schemas will be operational from 8 November 2009. The new schemas are being released to allow registrars to test their EPP implementation in preparation for the changes to nameserver objects that will also be released on 8 November 2009. The beta schemas should be used in conjunction with our EPP testbed.

Nominet EPP schemas 2.0 are available and for standard EPP use version 1.0.1

Please also be aware that the current and beta schema bundles for Nominet EPP now include
'nom-tag-1.0.xsd' for using the tag list command mentioned above.

Nameserver changes

As previously announced we will be changing our data structure to simplify our representation of nameserver objects within the registry database. It is important that registrars are aware of these changes and are prepared for the release on 8 November 2009. The impact of these changes is fully documented for each of or registration systems; automaton, EPP and web domain manager.

Changes to error messages

On 8 November we will be changing the wording of a number of our automaton error notifications to more clearly describe the nature of the error. The error code (V number) and any data returned remains unchanged, however the description of the error within the message has been rewritten. The error messages rewritten are; V123, V124, V175, V208, V220, V234, V246, V247, V264, V265, V269, V270, V271. A full list of automaton error codes is available.

• dac.nic.uk on port 2043, you will connect to our Time Delay DAC.
  Please note, these are the settings used by our existing DAC service.  If you need DAC results without a 100ms delay, please connect to our Real Time DAC.
  
• dac.nic.uk on port 3043, you will connect to our Real Time DAC.
  

Planned release date: 02 June 2009

Web Domain Manager

• We will be releasing the phishing lock operation in web domain manager. Instructions for use are available.

EPP Standard

• We are improving our notifications by including information about ignored fields used in requests. These warnings now include the fully-qualified name of the field which has been ignored.
• Host create: Hosts are now treated as epp-std objects. You may now only create a host object if either, the superordinate domain exists under your tag and the equivalent nom-nameserver object does not, or in the case of non-Nominet administered nameservers, the equivalent nom-nameserver object does not exist across the entire registry. Note that this does not prevent tags from linking against nameservers that are under other tags or against non-Nominet administered nameservers.
• Host check: Behaves in an epp-std way. It reflects the ability to be able to create a host object. Validation rules are identical to those implemented by host create.

Changes to the Automaton BULK and LIST operations

BULK Operation

• There is now a maximum message length of 8192 bytes for a BULK operation.
  
• The 'operation' field is now mandatory to bring the BULK operation in line with other Automaton operations.
• Replies will no longer include a blank line after "Your original message follows ---------" and the original message, in line with other Automaton operations.
• Some BULK replies will no longer have 'Regards, Nominet' after the original message.
• If a handshake is required when using the BULK to release domain names, ' - handshake requested' will be appended to the subject line.
• The 'successful release pending handshake' reply will now include a list of domain names.
• 'V109 Invalid bulk request' errors will now generally include a compiler-style reason (e.g. 'mismatched brackets').
• The filter clause can now use the 'changed' field.
• The filter clause can now use wild cards on email addresses.
  
• filter: email not = 'X' will now return domain names which do not have an e-mail address.
• filter: auto-bill = '0' and filter: auto-bill = 'NULL' will now return the same results.
• filter: next-bill = '0' and filter: next-bill = 'NULL' will now return the same results.
  
• filter: first-bill = 'th' and filter: first-bill = 'NULL' will now return the same results.
• filter: nservers = [ 'X', 'Y'... ] functionality has been added; matches domains with all and only given nameservers.
• The update clause will now also return a list of affected domain names.
• The update clause will now return 'V269 No matches found on your tag for bulk operation.' if no domains match the where-clause, instead of a success message.
• The update clause will now ignore superfluous glue records.
• Updating nservers will find an existing nameserver and use that if consolidation is set.
  
• Dry-run clause replies will no longer include 'Domain Name List follows...'
• Dry-run nameserver replacement replies now return a list containing only the domain names which are affected by the change.
• The select clause can now select the 'reg-status' field.
  
• The select clause can now select a mobile number for each contact.
• select: phone will return the 'a1-phone', 'a2-phone' and 'a3-phone' fields.
• select: mobile will return the 'a1-mobile', 'a2-mobile' and 'a3-mobile' fields.

LIST Operation

• Replies no longer include a blank line after "Your original message follows ---------" and the original message, in line with other automaton operations.
• fields: all will now include mobile numbers.
  

What's new in this Release

Online Service

• The log in screen for Online Services has been updated.
• The password reset tool has been updated.
  

DAC

• All announced DAC changes have been put on hold.
  

Data Structure

• All billing contacts for domain names will be deprecated and removed from all Nominet systems.  While providing a billing contact will not cause an operation to fail, we will not store that data. 
  
• Fax numbers will be deprecated and will be removed from all Nominet systems.
  
• Admin contacts will be limited to two landline and two mobile phone numbers (down from ten).
  

Other

• Added opt-out option for monthly statement mailing run.  You may set this opt-out in Online Services.
• The text for welcome emails has been updated.
  
• Renewal emails for registrants will now only go to admin contacts since billing contacts will be deprecated.
• The process we use to update information when a registrant's account is found to have incorrect or poor quality data is being updated.  More information about this updated process is available.
  

What's new in this Release

Online Service

• The application to use the Nominet membership logo has been moved to Online Service.
• Registrars can now add additional text and a URL to renewal emails sent to registrants. 
  

EPP

• EPP testbed implements core features of EPP standard (Check, Create, Renew, Delete)

Other

• ENUM testbed now requires tokens to be signed by testbed Validation Agency certificates (signed by Nominet testbed certificates authority)
• Restored notifications to registrars when accounts are merged from Online Services

• Fork and merge functions - to merge and split customer accounts
• Multiple create - to allow the creation of multiple domains onto a single account
• Handshake options - to use web domain manager to set handshake options for various functions requiring either automatic permission or manual intervention
• Modify multiple accounts - to use web domain manager to modify several accounts at once

• Poll command.
• Account fork operation.
• Account merge operation.
• The "accept" and "reject" setting for the transfer operation.

• The <ns:crDate> element will now be provided in the <ns:creData> element in responses to domain creates or modifies.
• Some responses will now correctly have a <domain:name> element in the <failData> element where it was missing before.
• The <domain:name>, <account:roid>, <contact:roid> or <ns:roid> element provided in a <failData> element can no longer be empty. If there is no name or id "NA" will be given instead.
• Some <warning> elements that previously had no namespace will now be part of the relevant namespace.
• Some <extension> elements (containing a <warning> element) that were previously incorrectly put after the <trID> element will now correctly appear before the <trID> element.

• An example of the invoice layout is available.

• Change to registrant change notification to allow for single notifications where multiple domain names on the same account have been transferred.
• Change to the registrar change notification and registrar change authorisation request to include additional domain name fields.
• Addition of the registrant transfer authorisation request notification

• We shall fix a small bug in the EPP greeting message.  The object URI for nameservers is declared as
  

  <objURI>http://www.nominet.org.uk/epp/xml/ns-1.0</objURI>

<objURI>http://www.nominet.org.uk/epp/xml/nom-ns-1.0</objURI>

• We shall include a <resData> element where necessary in the response for EPP <update> requests. This will include <creData> elements for any nameserver or contact objects created as part of the modification made.

• The reply-to address for automaton messages is currently hostmaster@nic.uk. This will be changed to do-not-reply@nic.uk.

• A <ns:roid> element containing the identifier of the nameserver object to be modified.
• An optional <ns:name> element giving the new name for the nameserver object.
• An optional <ns:addr> element with ip attribute of "v4" giving the new ipv4 address for the nameserver object.
• An optional <ns:addr> element with ip attribute of "v6" giving the new ipv6 address for the  nameserver object.

• Increase the number of IP addresses for EPP connections to 4 per tag. The number of simultaneous connections to EPP will remain at 4 per tag.
  
• Increase the number of simultaneous connections to the DAC to 4 per registrar.
• A small change to the EPP schema to allow the period field to be set to 24

• Addition of an "abuse-limit" attribute to the <domain:chkData> element returned for successful check commands. This gives the remaining number of checks/creates on existing domain names in the current rolling 24 hour period.
• Addition of an optional <domain:account> element to the <domain:transfer> command to allow the account on the new tag to be specified when requesting a transfer.

• Addition of the account Fork command - This can be used to split domain names onto a clone of their account. This is useful when account details, such as the opt out field, need to be changed for only a subset of the domain names on an account.
• Addition of the account Merge command - This is allows the consolidation of a list of domain names onto a single account.

• Addition of the <domain:check> command.
  
• A fix to <account:info> responses.
  This will correct the wrong <account:co_no> label to the correct <account:co-no>.
• A fix to the <greeting> element.
  This is sent on initial connection to provide the date stamp in UTC rather than local time.
• An update to the contact schema
  The nom-contact-1.0.xsd schema now allows multiple phone numbers and mobile numbers.
• An update to the account schema
  Acceptable values for registrant type is now consistent with website documentation.
• Error message updated
  Acceptable values for registrant type listed in error message is now consistent with website documentation.

• Enforce matching of tag given in the subject line with the PGP signatory
  This bug was introduced in June 2007 with the data restructuring release.
• The field names first-bill, recur-bill, auto-bill and next-bill will be corrected in query replies. These are currently sent out with incorrect labels first_bill, recur_bill, auto_bill and next_bill respectively. Again, this bug was introduced in June 2007 with the data restructuring release.
• Change to responses to successful RECEIVE operation
  These replies will include a list of the domain names that were included in the registrar change. More details are given here.

• Common Schema added.
  The nom-common-1.0.xsd schema contains a tagType element used in all the nom-* schemas where a tag appears.
  
• Account and Contact schemas updated
  The <account:update> command can now be used to set an existing contact to one of the admin or billing roles.
  

• SSL enabled beta EPP server released
  Registrars can connect to a secure version of the beta EPP server that uses SSLv3. This SSL EPP server will run in parallel to the plaintext beta EPP server and is connected to the same test database.
  
• Registration status returned by EPP
  Element <domain:infdata> now returns a <domain:reg-status> element to match that returned by the Automaton.
  
• EPP domain and notification schemas updated
  The nom-domain-1.0.xsd and nom-notifications-1.0.xsd now include the <domain:reg-status> element.
  
• Maximum number of connections to beta server increased
  Up to four simultaneous connections can be made by one registrar to the beta EPP server (previously 1).
  
• Read time-out on unauthenticated connections decreased
  Connections which are not logged in will now time out after being idle for 6 minutes (previously 60).
  

• EPP server response formatting corrected
  XML output from the beta EPP server is now correctly indented, namespaces included where necessary and erroneous line-breaks have been removed.
  
• EPP elements <name>, <infdata>, <credata> in responses corrected.
  Responses from the beta EPP server to nameserver and domain creates and modifies now include correct XML.
• EPP schema inconsistencies corrected
  The Nominet EPP schemas that can be downloaded are now consistent with the online documentation and the responses from the beta server. Element <contact:voice> replaced with <contact:phone> in all documentation. Element <ns:creData> now includes <name> and no <crDate>.
• Fail data added to nameserver, account and contact schemas
  Nominet EPP schemas now include <account:failData>, <contact:failData> and <ns:failData> elements.
• The "type" attribute added to addresses
  Responses from the beta EPP server now include the "type" attribute on <account:addr> elements.
• EPP element <response> corrected
  Responses with result code 1001 are now correctly formatted.
• EPP namespace "nameserver" replaced with "ns"
  Responses from the beta EPP server now do not contain any references to the "nameserver" namespace.

• Beta EPP server and sandbox database released
  Registrars can now connect to a plaintext beta EPP server which uses a test dataset. Every day the dataset is reset.
  

• Registrant Email is a mandatory field
  'reg-email' became mandatory for all new domain name registrations.
  
• No queries on domains on other tags
  The automaton can only be used to query domain names on your own tag.
  
• Operation responses for domain names on other tags changed
  The automaton responds to operations to domain names that exist but are not on your tag in the same way as if the domain names did not exist at all.
• Requests containing old fields are rejected
  This includes tech-c, t-addr, t-phone, t-fax, t-email.
• The reg-ref field is no longer valid
  The reg-ref field was used pre-launch to tidy up data, but is no longer valid.
• Registrar change handshake option
  You can set your preference for receiving domain names onto your tag on the options page.
• Registrar change - notification
  You no longer receive a 24 hour email notification of domain names being transferred off your tag, rather notification is received at the point of transfer.
  
• Nameserver consolidation
  You can set your nameserver consolidation preference on the options page.
• Automaton field names
  On the options page you can select an option to use new field names that reflect our new data structure.
• The list operation now returns different fields
  Account fields (except account name) are not returned, but the account id and nameserver identifiers are.
• Additional fields are returned as part of the query response
  These additional fields are nameserver, account and contact identifiers.
• The bulk syntax has been changed
  It is now not possible to modify account fields as part of the bulk operation.
• Reply messages have changed
  It was necessary to change the reply messages for successful creates and modifications to include the identifiers of any nameservers, accounts and contacts created as part of the operation.

• Stopped sending confirmation of registration letters to registrants
  Registrants now receive a welcome email containing account log in details.
  
• Online services provide a single log in
  You can access all of your Nominet services and contact details within a single account structure.
  
• Online 'registrar change' process
  Online Services now offers an online process for changing registrars, replacing the manual process.
• Online 'registrant transfer' process
  Online Services now offers an online process for transferring a domain name to another registrant, replacing the manual process.
• Merge accounts process
  Online Services, utilising the revised data structures, enables the merging of accounts and multiple domain names onto a single registrant service account.

• New fields were added in line with our data restructure and for when we introduce EPP
  

  The new reg-locality field was a new address component introduced in response to those registrars who felt that reg-city was not correctly descriptive. reg-city was still mandatory, but this was later changed. This field did not appear in the WHOIS output.

  The new reg-ref field was a registrar defined optional field, that contained the registrar registrant reference. We used this field as a part of the restructuring of the register to create a relational data model. Data entered in this field was be entered in the database, however it was not currently cleared on a registrar transfer or registrant transfer, and so it could be passed on to another registrar. This field did not appear in the WHOIS.

  The new billing contact address fields: b-locality, b-city, b-county, b-postcode, b-country were additions to the billing contact information. The billing contact address field was a single field, not split up in same way as the registrant data, which this corrected. These new fields were made live. None of them were mandatory but we recommended using them in preference to putting the whole address in b-address.

  These new fields did appear in the WHOIS.

• Automaton error messages updated to accommodate domain tasting error messages
  Two new error messages V175 and V176 were added to indicate where the usage limits for cancelling uninvoiced domain names were exceeded. Further information about these error messages can be found on the Automaton error messages page.

• Users became able to manage their own mailing list subscriptions
  There is also automated unsubscription from lists when services cease.
  
• Passwords no longer sent out in plain text
  We now send an email containing a web URL.
  
• Increased protection on login page
  We introduced greater protection against dictionary attacks on the login page.