NAME

Net::ParseWhois - An extendable alternative to Net::Whois for parsing whois information.

SYNOPSIS

  # below code based on t/whois.pl in Net::ParseWhois distribution package ...

  use Net::ParseWhois;

  my $dom = 'honestabe.net';

  my $w = Net::ParseWhois::Domain->new($dom);
  unless ($w->ok) {
        warn "error: " . $w->{'error'} . "\n" if $w->{'error'};
        die "No match for $dom\n";
  }

  print "Registrar: ", $w->registrar, "\n";
  print "Domain: ", $w->domain, "\n";
  print "Name: ", $w->name, "\n";
  print "Tag: ", $w->tag, "\n";
  print "Address:\n", map { "    $_\n" } $w->address;
  print "Country: ", $w->country, "\n";
  print "Name Servers:\n", map { "    $$_[0] ($$_[1])\n" }  @{$w->servers};
  my ($c, $t);
  if ($c = $w->contacts) {
    print "Contacts:\n";
    for $t (sort keys %$c) {
      print "    $t:\n";
      print map { "\t$_\n" } @{$$c{$t}};
    }
  }
  print "Record created:", $w->record_created ;
  print "\nRecord updated:", $w->record_updated,"\n";

DESCRIPTION

Net::ParseWhois currently only supports domains from major TLDs and Registrars (.com, .net & .org -- see REGISTRARS for an exact list of who's supported) and tries to maintain backward interface compatability with Net::Whois.

Net::ParseWhois is my attempt at updating Net::Whois to support whois referrals. The author of Net::Whois (Dana Hudes) and I disgreed on how to solve the problem of parsing a distrubuted and non-standardized whois system, so I created this divergent module. (It's my understanding that Mr. Hudes wants to create an IETF draft and assumes registrars/registries will then follow it. I've simply taken the current not-so-defined situation and coded around it.)

Net::ParseWhois contains a generalized parsing system that can be configured for each Registrar, or completely overridden as needed.

The class "Net::ParseWhois::Domain::Registrar" contains a list of known servers that could be returned in a whois referral, and specifies the specific class to use for each. When "Net::ParseWhois" receives a referral from the 'root' whois server, it creates the specified object and calls follow_referral on that object. If a domain is found and a referral given, but no Registrar class has been defined to handle that referral, the method ok will return true but method 'unknown_registrar' will also return true. Net::ParseWhois will still follow the referral, and the raw output from the registrar will be available via the method 'raw_whois_text'.

REGISTRARS

Currently supported:

        whois.dotster.com - Dotster, Inc.
        whois.register.com - Register.com, Inc.
        whois.networksolutions.com - Network Solutions, Inc.
        whois.opensrs.net - Tucows.com, Inc.
        whois.domaindiscover.com - Tierranet, Inc.
        whois.bulkregister.com - Bulkregister.com, Inc.
        rs.domainbank.net - Domain Bank, Inc.
        whois.registrars.com - INTERNET DOMAIN REGISTRARS (Shopnow?)
        whois.corenic.net - Core Internet Council of Registrars
        whois.InternetNamesWW.com -  Melbourne IT, aka Internet Names Worldwide
        whois.easyspace.com - Easyspace, Ltd.

Not supported (with notes..):

        whois.nordnet.net - should be easy.
        whois.namesecure.com - easy
        whois.compuserve.com - easy
        whois.itsyourdomain.com - easy
        whois.namesdirect.com - easy
        whois.enom.com - easy, but no nameserver or expire/updated data
        whois.domaininfo.com - not too hard. follows same structure, but uses different template/style
        whois.nameit.net - different style, not too hard
        whois.yesnic.com - Korean based registrar, field's are labeled. would require work.
        whois.gandi.net - French, RIPE style whois.
        whois.dotearth.com - might be ugly. no newlines between different sections
        whois.names4ever.com - no data?? down?

        Known registrars that I haven't looked at --

        whois.schlund.de
        whois.registrars.com
        whois.gandi.net
        whois.doregi.com
        whois.dotregistrar.com
        whois.ibi.net
        whois.OnlineNIC.com
        whois.paycenter.com.cn
        whois.domainpeople.com
        whois.awregistry.net
        whois.discount-domain.com
        whois.dotearth.com
        whois.psi-domains.com
        whois.gkg.net
        whois.enetregistry.com
        whois.speednic.net
        whois.domaininfo.com
        whois.catalog.com
        whois.oleane.net
        whois.totalnic.net
        whois.alldomains.com
        whois.signaturedomains.com
        whois.1stdomain.net
        whois.enterprice.net
        whois.stargateinc.com
        whois.e-names.org
        nswhois.domainregistry.com
        whois.worldnet.net
        whois.naame.com
        whois.eastcom.com
        whois.domainzoo.com

Note: Now that CoreNic is supported (thanks Vern!), Net::ParseWhois's supported registrars should cover upwards of 90% of the GTLD registrations that are out there.

COMMON METHODS (Specific to Net::ParseWhois)

new("a-domain-name-goes-here") Creates a new instance of a Net::ParseWhois object, which attempts a lookup of the specified domain name.

ok Returns a boolean value indicating whether the Net::ParseWhois object is "safe" or not. If it returns false, then a match was not found or some other error occurred when creating the object. A value of true indicates a match was found and the various methods for returning Registrar data should function. Coders should always check this method first after creating a new Net::ParseWhois object to avoid script failures.

error Returns the error message indicating why the Whois lookup could not be completed. Will return null if there is no error.

  print "Tag: ", $w->tag, "\n";
  print "Country: ", $w->country, "\n";
  print "Name Servers:\n", map { "    $$_[0] ($$_[1])\n" }  @{$w->servers};
  if ($c = $w->contacts) {
    print "Contacts:\n";
    for $t (sort keys %$c) {
      print "    $t:\n";
      print map { "\t$_\n" } @{$$c{$t}};

The following methods apply only to when a succesful WHOIS lookup was performed.

domain Returns the domain name the Net::ParseWhois object looked up.

registrar Returns the name of the registrar of the domain

record_created Returns the date and time the domain's entry was put into this registrar's system. Note that this does not necessarily reflect the original registration date of the domain!

record_updated Returns the date and time the domain's entry was last updated. Updates include changes to contact info, registered name servers, etc.

name Returns the name of the entity that registerted the domain. Typically this will be the name of either a person or a company, but pretty much depends on what was used in the initial registration process.

address Returns an array of strings representing the physical address registered for the domain. This will be the domain owner's address, not that of a technical or administrative contact.

GENERIC METHODS (From Net::Whois)

 todo

AUTHORS / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Net::ParseWhois is maintained by Abraham A. Ingersoll <abe@dajoba.com>.

This module is a based on Net::Whois, which is maintained by Dana Hudes (dhudes@hudes.org). Net::Whois was originally written by Chip Salzenberg (chip@pobox.com).

Thanks to:

Joseph Ingersoll for testing under ActivePerl. Curtis Poe for comments and bug testing. Andy Baio for first version of Registrars.pm. Simon Flack for newer registrars.com parsing module & bug sleuthing. Douglas Freake for (yet to be used) address parsing contribution. Vern Hart for (especially tough) CoreNic.pm parsing module. Adam Stubbs for INameWW.pm and Easyspace.pm parsing modules.

COPYRIGHT

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.