Domains API release notes

These are the Domains API release notes. We'll make sure to keep you updated with any up and coming feature releases and new offerings.

April 2020

WHOIS Privacy Changes

On July 1, 2020, we will be improving our privacy offering to give you more control over how you manage privacy for your domains. First, you will be able to enable or disable privacy without canceling and re-purchasing the product. When first adding privacy to a domain, proxy contact information will be used to replace your personal contact information in response to WHOIS queries. To temporarily expose your personal contact information in WHOIS, a new exposeWhois attribute is being introduced, as well as a new agreement key to verify consent to expose personal contact data, as follows:

PATCH /v1/domains/mydomain.com
"consent": {
   "agreedAt": "2020-03-30T10:00:00Z",
   "agreedBy": "12.13.14.15",
   "agreementKeys": ["EXPOSE_WHOIS"]
 },
"exposeWhois": "true"

Proxy contact information can be restored using the following command, with no agreement key required:

PATCH /v1/domains/mydomain.com
"exposeWhois": "false"

In addition, beginning July 1, 2020, we are offering free basic privacy protection on all new domains and on existing domains that don't already have our advanced privacy protection. Basic privacy will mask most personal contact data in whois queries, exposing only company name, country, and state. For domains with basic privacy protection, personal contact information can optionally be exposed or masked in whois using the same API commands detailed above.

Now available: .APP, .DEV, and .PAGE

Beginning April 28, 2020, API users may register .APP, .DEV, and .PAGE domains, with one special accommodation. .APP, .DEV, and .PAGE are designated as secure namespaces. All major browsers require that domains in these namespaces have an SSL certificate.

Registrants are not required to purchase an SSL certificate as a pre-requisite to purchase their domain, but domain name providers are required to notify their registrants at the time of registration that they will need an SSL certificate in order to serve their domain in a browser.

Complete details about this requirement are available via the following API method:

GET /v1/domains/agreements?tlds=APP

In support of these special TLDs, an additional agreement key called HTTPS_NOTICE is being introduced to the consent section in the body of the purchase endpoint for users to acknowledge that they have reviewed this requirement and wish to proceed with the registration. Including this new required agreement key, the consent section of a valid purchase request would look like this:

POST /v1/domains/purchase

"domain": "mydomain.app",
"consent": {
   "agreedAt": "2020-03-30T10:00:00Z",
   "agreedBy": "12.13.14.15",
   "agreementKeys": ["DNRA", "HTTPS_NOTICE"]
 },
...

Indefinite Trademark Claims TLDs

13 additional TLDs are now available through the API: .ACCOUNTANT, .CRICKET, .DATE, .DOWNLOAD, .FAITH, .LOAN, .MEN, .PARTY, .RACING, .REVIEW, .SCIENCE, .STORAGE, and .WIN. These TLDs are in an indefinite trademark claims period. Currently, domains in these 13 namespaces that have trademark claims will be treated as unavailable. Domain without trademark claims can be purchased normally.

DNS Zone Record Limits

To ensure the scalability of our DNS management features for all clients, we are implementing limits on the number of records that can be created in a single zone. Beginning April 28, 2020, standard DNS customers can create up to 500 records per zone, and premium DNS customers can create up to 1,500 records per zone. This change will affect the following endpoints:

PUT /v1/domains/{domain}/records
PUT /v1/domains/{domain}/records/{type}
PUT /v1/domains/{domain}/records/{type}/{name}
PATCH /v1/domains/{domain}/records

When any of the above endpoints are invoked, we will evaluate whether the requested update to the zone would cause the zone to exceed the record limit. If not, we will process the request normally. If so, we will return a 422 response with the following error details:

code: ZONE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED
message: Zone cannot exceed 500 records; requested operation would exceed the limit.

For zones that currently exceed the limit, all existing records will remain intact. However, no new records may be added until the overall zone record count is brought within the record limit, which can be accomplished using the PUT method.

DNS Zone Record Page Size

When retrieving records from a zone, the limit parameter is used to indicate the number of records to be retrieved. To ensure system scalability, on April 28, 2020, we will be enforcing a maximum limit of 500 records. This change will affect the following endpoints:

GET /v1/domains/{domain}/records
GET /v1/domains/{domain}/records/{type}

When a request is received with a limit greater than 500, we will return a 422 response with the following error details:

code: VALUE_OVER
message: Limit must have a value no greater than 500.

Users will still be able to iterate through all of their zone records in page sizes up to 500, using the offset and limit parameters.