Object associations.

[Roger Castillo Cortazar <[e-mail]>]

I don't know if this has been issued before, but I checked in the cafax history
and I couldn't find anything about it.

In the reqs. document
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-provreg-grrp-reqs-05.txt
we can read as folows:

3.4.9 Object Information Query

   [4] The protocol MUST provide services to identify all associated
   object references, such as name servers associated with domains
   (including delegations and hierarchical relationships) and contacts
   associated with domains.  This information MUST be visible if the
   object associations have an impact on the success or failure of
   protocol operations.

Now, as we can read in the host mappings.
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-provreg-epp-host-04.txt
we can find this:

2.3 Status Values

linked

   The host object has at least one active association with another
   object, such as a domain object.  Servers SHOULD provide services to
   determine existing object associations.

3.2.2 EPP <delete> Command

   A host name object MUST NOT be deleted if the host object is
   associated with any other object.  For example, if the host object is
   associated with a domain object, the host object MUST NOT be deleted
   until the existing association has been broken.


..............................

The service for identifying all associated object references is a MUST in 
the protocol reqs.

There isn't  any problem with the domain object as pointed in 3.4.9 [4].
The information about object associations for a domain object MUST be given 
to authorized clients,
and that's how it's described in the domain object mappings.

This service is NOT described in the host mappings.
How can a client query the registry to look for all the object associations 
for one of his sponsored host objects ?
Looks like the protocol spec is not fulfilling the requirements for this 
service.

Now, let's assume we offer the service to the clients.
The number of associations for a host object could be a few hundreds, and 
in some cases a few hundreds of thousands.

Has anyone given a little tough about this ? Maybe those who are working on 
implementations.
How can we interpret and apply this considerations of de reqs. to the 
object mappings for hosts ?

Perhaps we can add an <host:assoc> child element to the server response to 
the <info> command
to show the number of active associations for the host object.


The same considerations can be made for the contact objetc and its 
associations with domain objetcts.

In the contact object mappings, we can read in 3.2.2 EPP <delete> Command, 
that a server SHOULD notify
clients of object relationships when a <delete> command is attempted and 
fails due to existing object relationships.

How can a client verify that the contact object he wants to delete no 
longer has any active relationship ?

..................................................

Greetings.

Roger Castillo Cortazar
NIC-Mexico http://www.nic.mx