Net::EPP::Simple - a simple EPP client interface for the most common jobs

	#!/usr/bin/perl
	use Net::EPP::Simple;
	use strict;

	my $epp = Net::EPP::Simple->new(
		host	=> 'epp.nic.tld',
		user	=> 'my-id',
		pass	=> 'my-password',
	);

	my $domain = 'example.tld';

	if ($epp->check_domain($domain) == 1) {
		print "Domain is available\n" ;

	} else {
		my $info = $epp->domain_info($domain);
		printf("Domain was registered on %s by %s\n", $info->{crDate}, $info->{crID});

	}

EPP is the Extensible Provisioning Protocol. EPP (defined in RFC 4930) is an application layer client-server protocol for the provisioning and management of objects stored in a shared central repository. Specified in XML, the protocol defines generic object management operations and an extensible framework that maps protocol operations to objects. As of writing, its only well-developed application is the provisioning of Internet domain names, hosts, and related contact details.

This module provides a high level interface to the EPP protocol. It hides all the boilerplate of connecting, logging in, building request frames and parsing response frames behind a simple, Perlish interface.

It is based on the Net::EPP::Client module and uses Net::EPP::Frame to build request frames.

The constructor for Net::EPP::Simple has the same general form as the one for Net::EPP::Client, but with the following exceptions:

* Unless otherwise set, port defaults to 700

* Unless the no_ssl parameter is set, SSL is always on

* You can use the user and pass parameters to supply authentication information.

* The timeout parameter controls how long the client waits for a response from the server before returning an error.

* if debug is set, Net::EPP::Simple will output verbose debugging information on STDERR, including all frames sent to and received from the server.

* reconnect can be used to disable automatic reconnection (it is enabled by default). Before sending a frame to the server, Net::EPP::Simple will send a <hello> to check that the connection is up, if not, it will try to reconnect, aborting after the nth time, where n is the value of reconnect (the default is 3).

* login can be used to disable automatic logins. If you set it to 0, you can manually log in using the $epp-_login()> method.

The constructor will establish a connection to the server and retrieve the greeting (which is available via $epp->{greeting}) and then send a <login> request.

If the login fails, the constructor will return undef and set $Net::EPP::Simple::Error and $Net::EPP::Simple::Code.

RFC 5730 requires that all EPP instances must be protected using "mutual, strong client-server authentication". In practice, this means that both client and server must present an SSL certificate, and that they must both verify the certificate of their peer.

Net::EPP::Simple will verify the certificate presented by a server if the verify, and either ca_file or ca_path are passed to the constructor:

	my $epp = Net::EPP::Simple->new(
		host	=> 'epp.nic.tld',
		user	=> 'my-id',
		pass	=> 'my-password',
		verify	=> 1,
		ca_file	=> '/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt',
		ca_path	=> '/etc/pki/tls/certs',
	);

Net::EPP::Simple will fail to connect to the server if the certificate is not valid.

You can restrict the ciphers that you will use to connect to the server by passing a ciphers parameter to the constructor. This is a colon- separated list of cipher names and aliases. See http://www.openssl.org/docs/apps/ciphers.html#CIPHER_STRINGS for further details. As an example, the following cipher list is suggested for clients who wish to ensure high-security connections to servers:

	HIGH:!ADH:!MEDIUM:!LOW:!SSLv2:!EXP

If you are connecting to an EPP server which requires a client certificate, you can configure Net::EPP::Simple to use one as follows:

	my $epp = Net::EPP::Simple->new(
		host		=> 'epp.nic.tld',
		user		=> 'my-id',
		pass		=> 'my-password',
		key		=> '/path/to/my.key',
		cert		=> '/path/to/my.crt',
		passphrase	=> 'foobar123',
	);

key is the filename of the private key, cert is the filename of the certificate. If the private key is encrypted, the passphrase parameter will be used to decrypt it.

Net::EPP::Simple supports the use of a simple configuration file. To use this feature, you need to install the Config::Simple module.

When starting up, Net::EPP::Simple will look for $HOME/.net-epp-simple-rc. This file is an ini-style configuration file.

You can specify default options for all EPP servers using the [default] section:

	[default]
	default=epp.nic.tld
	debug=1

You can specify options for for specific EPP servers by giving each EPP server its own section:

	[epp.nic.tld]
	user=abc123
	pass=foo2bar
	port=777
	ssl=0

This means that when you write a script that uses Net::EPP::Simple, you can do the following:

	# config file has a default server:
	my $epp = Net::EPP::Simple->new;

	# config file has connection options for this EPP server:
	my $epp = Net::EPP:Simple->new('host' => 'epp.nic.tld');

Any parameters provided to the constructor will override those in the config file.

You can do a simple <check> request for an object like so:

	my $result = $epp->check_domain($domain);

	my $result = $epp->check_host($host);

	my $result = $epp->check_contact($contact);

Each of these methods has the same profile. They will return one of the following:

* undef in the case of an error (check $Net::EPP::Simple::Error and $Net::EPP::Simple::Code).

* 0 if the object is already provisioned.

* 1 if the object is available.

You can retrieve information about an object by using one of the following:

	my $info = $epp->domain_info($domain, $authInfo, $follow);

	my $info = $epp->host_info($host);

	my $info = $epp->contact_info($contact, $authInfo);

Net::EPP::Simple will construct an <info> frame and send it to the server, then parse the response into a simple hash ref. The layout of the hash ref depends on the object in question. If there is an error, these methods will return undef, and you can then check $Net::EPP::Simple::Error and $Net::EPP::Simple::Code.

If $authInfo is defined, it will be sent to the server as per RFC 5731, Section 3.1.2 and RFC 5733, Section 3.1.2. If the supplied authInfo code is validated by the registry, additional information will appear in the response. If it is invalid, you should get an error.

If the $follow parameter is true, then Net::EPP::Simple will also retrieve the relevant host and contact details for a domain: instead of returning an object name or ID for the domain's registrant, contact associations, DNS servers or subordinate hosts, the values will be replaced with the return value from the appropriate host_info() or contact_info() command (unless there was an error, in which case the original object ID will be used instead).

The hash ref returned by domain_info() will usually look something like this:

	$info = {
	  'contacts' => {
	    'admin' => 'contact-id'
	    'tech' => 'contact-id'
	    'billing' => 'contact-id'
	  },
	  'registrant' => 'contact-id',
	  'clID' => 'registrar-id',
	  'roid' => 'tld-12345',
	  'status' => [
	    'ok'
	  ],
	  'authInfo' => 'abc-12345',
	  'name' => 'example.tld',
	  'trDate' => '2011-01-18T11:08:03.0Z',
	  'ns' => [
	    'ns0.example.com',
	    'ns1.example.com',
	  ],
	  'crDate' => '2011-02-16T12:06:31.0Z',
	  'exDate' => '2011-02-16T12:06:31.0Z',
	  'crID' => 'registrar-id',
	  'upDate' => '2011-08-29T04:02:12.0Z',
	  hosts => [
	    'ns0.example.tld',
	    'ns1.example.tld',
	  ],
	};

Members of the contacts hash ref may be strings or, if there are multiple associations of the same type, an anonymous array of strings. If the server uses the "hostAttr" model instead of "hostObj", then the ns member will look like this:

	$info->{ns} = [
	  {
	    name => 'ns0.example.com',
	    addrs => [
	      type => 'v4',
	      addr => '10.0.0.1',
	    ],
	  },
	  {
	    name => 'ns1.example.com',
	    addrs => [
	      type => 'v4',
	      addr => '10.0.0.2',
	    ],
	  },
	];

Note that there may be multiple members in the addrs section and that the type attribute is optional.

The hash ref returned by host_info() will usually look something like this:

	$info = {
	  'crDate' => '2011-09-17T15:38:56.0Z',
	  'clID' => 'registrar-id',
	  'crID' => 'registrar-id',
	  'roid' => 'tld-12345',
	  'status' => [
	    'linked',
	    'serverDeleteProhibited',    
	  ],
	  'name' => 'ns0.example.tld',
	  'addrs' => [
	    {
	      'version' => 'v4',
	      'addr' => '10.0.0.1'
	    }
	  ]
	};

Note that hosts may have multiple addresses, and that version is optional.

The hash ref returned by contact_info() will usually look something like this:

	$VAR1 = {
	  'id' => 'contact-id',
	  'postalInfo' => {
	    'int' => {
	      'name' => 'John Doe',
	      'org' => 'Example Inc.',
	      'addr' => {
	        'street' => [
	          '123 Example Dr.'
	          'Suite 100'
	        ],
	        'city' => 'Dulles',
	        'sp' => 'VA',
	        'pc' => '20116-6503'
	        'cc' => 'US',
	      }
	    }
	  },
	  'clID' => 'registrar-id',
	  'roid' => 'CNIC-HA321983',
	  'status' => [
	    'linked',
	    'serverDeleteProhibited'
	  ],
	  'voice' => '+1.7035555555x1234',
	  'fax' => '+1.7035555556',
	  'email' => 'jdoe@example.com',
	  'crDate' => '2011-09-23T03:51:29.0Z',
	  'upDate' => '1999-11-30T00:00:00.0Z'
	};

There may be up to two members of the postalInfo hash, corresponding to the int and loc internationalised and localised types.

The EPP <transfer> command suppots five different operations: query, request, cancel, approve, and reject. Net::EPP::Simple makes these available using the following methods:

	# For domain objects:

	$epp->domain_transfer_query($domain);
	$epp->domain_transfer_cancel($domain);
	$epp->domain_transfer_request($domain, $authInfo, $period);
	$epp->domain_transfer_approve($domain);
	$epp->domain_transfer_reject($domain);

	# For contact objects:

	$epp->contact_transfer_query($contact);
	$epp->contact_transfer_cancel($contact);
	$epp->contact_transfer_request($contact, $authInfo);
	$epp->contact_transfer_approve($contact);
	$epp->contact_transfer_reject($contact);

Most of these methods will just set the value of $Net::EPP::Simple::Code and return either true or false. However, the domain_transfer_request(), domain_transfer_query(), contact_transfer_request() and contact_transfer_query() methods will return a hash ref that looks like this:

	my $trnData = {
	  'name' => 'example.tld',
	  'reID' => 'losing-registrar',
	  'acDate' => '2011-12-04T12:24:53.0Z',
	  'acID' => 'gaining-registrar',
	  'reDate' => '2011-11-29T12:24:53.0Z',
	  'trStatus' => 'pending'
	};

The following methods can be used to create a new object at the server:

	$epp->create_domain($domain);
	$epp->create_host($host);
	$epp->create_contact($contact);

The argument for these methods is a hash ref of the same format as that returned by the info methods above. As a result, cloning an existing object is as simple as the following:

	my $info = $epp->contact_info($contact);

	# set a new contact ID to avoid clashing with the existing object
	$info->{id} = $new_contact;

	# randomize authInfo:
	$info->{authInfo} = $random_string;

	$epp->create_contact($info);

Net::EPP::Simple will ignore object properties that it does not recognise, and those properties (such as server-managed status codes) that clients are not permitted to set.

When creating a new domain object, you may also specify a period key, like so:

	my $domain = {
	  'name' => 'example.tld',
	  'period' => 2,
	  'registrant' => 'contact-id',
	  'contacts' => {
	    'tech' => 'contact-id',
	    'admin' => 'contact-id',
	    'billing' => 'contact-id',
	  },
	  'status' => {
	    'clientTransferProhibited',
	  }
	  'ns' => {
	    'ns0.example.com',
	    'ns1.example.com',
	  },
	};

	$epp->create_domain($domain);

The period key is assumed to be in years rather than months. Net::EPP::Simple assumes the registry uses the host object model rather than the host attribute model.

The following methods can be used to delete an object at the server:

	$epp->delete_domain($domain);
	$epp->delete_host($host);
	$epp->delete_contact($contact);

Each of these methods has the same profile. They will return one of the following:

* undef in the case of an error (check $Net::EPP::Simple::Error and $Net::EPP::Simple::Code).

* 1 if the deletion request was accepted.

You may wish to check the value of $Net::EPP::Simple::Code to determine whether the response code was 1000 (OK) or 1001 (action pending).

	my $greeting = $epp->greeting;

Returns the a Net::EPP::Frame::Greeting object representing the greeting returned by the server.

Net::EPP::Simple overrides some methods inherited from Net::EPP::Client. These are described below:

Net::EPP::Simple overrides this method so it can automatically populate the <clTRID> element with a unique string. It then passes the frame back up to Net::EPP::Client.

Net::EPP::Simple overrides this method so it can catch timeouts and network errors. If such an error occurs it will return undef.

This variable contains an english text message explaining the last error to occur. This is may be due to invalid parameters being passed to a method, a network error, or an error response being returned by the server.

This variable contains the contains the text content of the <msg> element in the response frame for the last transaction.

This variable contains the integer result code returned by the server for the last transaction. A successful transaction will always return an error code of 1999 or lower, for an unsuccessful transaction it will be 2011 or more. If there is an internal client error (due to invalid parameters being passed to a method, or a network error) then this will be set to 2400 (COMMAND_FAILED). See Net::EPP::ResponseCodes for more information about thes codes.

CentralNic Ltd (http://www.centralnic.com/).

This module is (c) 2011 CentralNic Ltd. This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

* Net::EPP::Client

* Net::EPP::Frame

* Net::EPP::Proxy

* RFCs 5730 and RFC 4934, available from http://www.ietf.org/.

* The CentralNic EPP site at http://www.centralnic.com/registrars/epp.