NAME

Net::EPP::Client - a client library for the TCP transport for EPP, the Extensible Provisioning Protocol

SYNOPSIS

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

        my $epp = Net::EPP::Client->new(
                host    => 'epp.nic.tld',
                port    => 700,
                ssl     => 1,
                frames  => 1,
        );

        my $greeting = $epp->connect;

        $epp->send_frame('login.xml');

        my $answer = $epp->get_frame;

        $epp->send_frame('<epp><logout /></epp>');

        my $answer = $epp->get_frame;

DESCRIPTION

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.

RFC 4934 defines a TCP based transport model for EPP, and this module implements a client for that model. You can establish and manage EPP connections and send and receive responses over this connection.

"Net::EPP::Client" also provides some time-saving features, such as being able to provide request and response frames as "Net::EPP::Frame" objects.

CONSTRUCTOR

        my $epp = Net::EPP::Client->new(PARAMS);

The constructor method creates a new EPP client object. It accepts a number of parameters:

host
"host" specifies the computer to connect to. This may be a DNS hostname or an IP address.
port
"port" specifies the TCP port to connect to. This is usually 700.
ssl
If the "ssl" parameter is defined, then "IO::Socket::SSL" will be used to provide an encrypted connection. If not, then a plaintext connection will be created.
dom (deprecated)
If the "dom" parameter is defined, then all response frames will be returned as "XML::LibXML::Document" objects.
frames
If the "frames" parameter is defined, then all response frames will be returned as "Net::EPP::Frame" objects (actually, "XML::LibXML::Document" objects reblessed as "Net::EPP::Frame" objects).

METHODS

Connecting to a server:

        my $greeting = $epp->connect(%PARAMS);

This method establishes the TCP connection. You can use the %PARAMS hash to specify arguments that will be passed on to the constructors for "IO::Socket::INET" (such as a timeout) or "IO::Socket::SSL" (such as certificate information). See the relevant manpage for examples.

This method will "croak()" if connection fails, so be sure to use "eval()" if you want to catch the error.

By default, the return value for "connect()" will be the EPP <greeting> frame returned by the server. Please note that the same caveat about blocking applies to this method as to "get_frame()" (see below).

If you want to get the greeting yourself, set $params{no_greeting}.

Communicating with the server:

        my $answer = $epp->request($question);

This is a simple wrapper around "get_frame()" and "send_frame()" (see below). This method accepts a "question" frame as an argument, sends it to the server, and then returns the next frame the server sends back.

Getting a frame from the server:

        my $frame = $epp->get_frame;

This method returns an EPP response frame from the server. This may either be a scalar filled with XML, an "XML::LibXML::Document" object (or an "XML::DOM::Document" object), depending on whether you defined the "dom" parameter to the constructor.

Important Note: this method will block your program until it receives the full frame from the server. That could be a bad thing for your program, so you might want to consider using the "alarm()" function to apply a timeout, like so:

        my $timeout = 10; # ten seconds

        eval {
                local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die "alarm\n" };
                alarm($timeout);
                my $frame = $epp->get_frame;
                alarm(0);
        };

        if ($@ ne '') {
                alarm(0);
                print "timed out\n";
        }

If the connection to the server closes before the response can be received, or the server returned a mal-formed frame, this method will "croak()".

Sending a frame to the server:

        $epp->send_frame($frame, $wfcheck);

This sends a request frame to the server. $frame may be one of:

a scalar containing XML
a scalar containing a filename
an "XML::LibXML::Document" object (or an instance of a subclass)
an "XML::DOM::Document" object (or an instance of a subclass)

Unless $wfcheck is false, the first two of these will be checked for well-formedness. If the XML data is broken, then this method will croak.

Disconnecting from the server:

        $epp->disconnect;

This closes the connection. An EPP server should always close a connection after a <logout> frame has been received and acknowledged; this method is provided to allow you to clean up on the client side, or close the connection out of sync with the server.

AUTHOR

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