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SiteHost API changes accommodate InternetNZ’s new registry platform

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If you use the SiteHost API, there are a number of changes coming next Tuesday, November 1.

Last month we mentioned that some changes to our API would be coming one day soon, due to InternetNZ replacing their entire .nz registry system. That day is today, and we are happy to present the changes we’ve made to the API to accommodate this replacement.

We're currently planning to release the new API version on November 1st, to coincide with InternetNZ's migration.

A summary

We've made a number of changes to our API to accommodate new features in the EPP system:

  • /srs/create_contact: Second street address and extension field added to phones

  • /srs/update_contact: Second street address and extension field added to phones

  • /srs/create_domain: Billing Contact field added

  • /srs/update_domain_contacts: Billing Contact field added

  • /srs/whois: New fields from Internet NZ provided.

  • /srs/transfer_domain: New parameter structure that follows the standard set by other API methods. Also adds in the Billing Contact field

  • /srs/uncancel_domain: 1.0 and 1.1 deprecated, 1.2 now requires a reason for restoring a domain.

Outside of /srs/uncancel_domain, none of these changes break earlier versions of our API, so you'll be able to continue with your current implementation after November 1st.

For more detailed information about these changes - such as implementation details - please check out our documentation.

Why is this happening?

Internet NZ is moving over to a new registry backend on Tuesday 1 November, which introduces new features such as billing contacts and extra fields for contacts. We have made extensive changes to our backend to accommodate for this, with the intent to make this transition as smooth as possible. Alongside that, we wished to go beyond feature-parity and access new features that InternetNZ is introducing. We also took the opportunity to standardise our API.

As a result, we made the decision to update certain methods to better mirror our other API methods and worked hard to ensure that all of the changes we made would work on both old and new versions of the API.

What changes should I make?

Ideally, we recommend that you support all of the new changes.

However, if you needed an order of priority, we would recommend the following:

  1. /srs/transfer_domain

  2. /srs/create_contact and /srs/update_contact

  3. /srs/create_domain and /srs/update_domain_contacts

The biggest change to be aware of is the parameter change to /srs/transfer_domain. Due to the change in how we accept optional parameters, you will need to modify your /srs/transfer_domain implementation. Please note that the current versions of this API call will still work, although you will be unable to specify a Billing Contact.

All of the new contact fields are optional and can safely be ignored. Please note that if something is assigned to these new fields, the old /srs/update_contact methods will not remove these values.

Billing Contacts are optional and, by default, will not have a contact assigned to them on domain registration. They are also only present on .nz domains as of right now, but we are looking into introducing them into international domains as soon as possible.

How can I test this?

This is currently live in our demo environment. All of the NZ TLDs are tied to InternetNZ's new registry system, so all new features are currently available. We'd appreciate any feedback as to make this transition as smooth as possible.

If you currently don't have access to our demo environment, or have any questions around this transition, please contact us at support@sitehost.co.nz.