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- Automaton Template Guidelines
Introduction
This document contains answers to some of the most common questions asked when using the Automaton.
Contents
- General
1.1 Why does the Automaton refuse to accept my PGP signed message?
1.2 What does Reserved for Delegation mean when querying using the whois server?
1.3 What does "Unknown Action" mean?
1.4 The Automaton complains about an "Unknown field". What fields can be used?
- Application
2.1 Why was my application "Referred for manual approval"?
2.2 How long does manual approval take?
2.3 The Automaton complains about a missing field. What fields are needed?
- Modification
3.1 Why does the Automaton say you do not have authority to modify the domain?
3.2 Do all of the fields need to be given when modifying a Domain Name registration?
- Release
4.1 How can I release a Domain Name registration that doesn't have a tag?
- Query
1 General
1.1 Why does the Automaton refuse to accept my PGP signed message?
The Automaton may reject requests saying that the request is not a PGP signed message when the request was signed. The three most common reasons for this are;
a) The message is signed with a key that has not been registered. If the key used to sign the message does not appear in the Automaton's PGP keyring it will not recognise the signature. This can be solved by registering your PGP key.
b) The contents of the signed message have been altered after the signing process. The two main culprits for this type of error are cut and paste operations (with TAB characters being replaced by SPACE characters) and mail program line wrapping.
c) The PGP message delimiters are corrupt in some way. PGP lines of text to denote the start and end of the sections of a PGP message. These must not be modified and must start at the beginning of the line. Common problems are missing '-' characters and the lines being indented in some way.
Test of b) and c) can be done by sending the message to yourself, saving it to a file and running the PGP command on the file. PGP will report any problems to the screen.
1.2 What does 'Reserved for Delegation' mean when querying using the whois server?
A Domain Name can be reserved for delegation for one of two reasons. If it was requested via the Nominet UK's predecessor as manager of the .uk Top Level Domain, the UK Naming Committee and approved but not delegated a Domain Name is reserved for the original applicant. If a Domain Name falls into one of the categories that requires manual intervention it is reserved whilst the manual intervention takes place.
1.3 What does "Unknown Action" mean?
The Automaton check the subject line to determine what action to take with the message. If this does not correspond to one of the possible actions it returns the message "Unknown Action" with the subject line of the offending message. Details of the correct subject line can be found in the documentation for each operation.
1.4 The Automaton complains about an "Unknown field". What fields can be used?
A template is given for each of the Automaton requests in the documentation for the request type. Any fields given which do not appear in the template will not be recognised and will cause the Automaton to abandon processing the request with an error. A detailed list of all of the available fields can be found elsewhere on this site.
1.5 When should I give the IP address of the nameserver?
The IP address of a nameserver should only be given if it lies within the domain being delegated. For example;
Delegating the domain newdom.co.uk with nameservers ns.newdom.co.uk and ns.myisp.net.
key: newdom.co.uk
nserver: ns.newdom.co.uk. 1.2.3.4
nserver: ns.myisp.net.
2 Application
2.1 Why was my application "Referred for manual approval"?
Only requests within the .co.uk and .org.uk Second Level Domains and are not "Reserved for Delegation" (see above) which are submitted in a PGP signed message are processed immediately. All other requests are referred for manual approval.
2.2 How long does manual approval take?
Requests which are referred for manual approval are normally processed on the working day following submission. If there are problems processing the request this may take longer. If you have queries about requests which have been referred contact Nominet.
2.3 The Automaton complains about a missing field. What fields are needed?
In order to process a request the Automaton requires certain fields to be present. These are described in the field description document. In short the Automaton needs information about the organisation the Domain Name registration is for and full administrative con tact details.
3 Modification
3.1 Why does the Automaton say 'you do not have authority to modify the domain'?
The Automaton uses the PGP key which signed the message to determine whether you have authority to modify the domain. If the PGP key does not match the value of the ips-key field then the request is rejected. If a domain does not have an ips-key field then all Automaton requests are rejected. In order to get domains tagged which do not have tags you need to send an email message to hostmaster@nic.uk.
3.2 Do all of the fields need to be given when modifying a domain?
Only the fields being changed need to be given when modifying a domain. The only exceptions to this are that the key field giving the domain must always be given and when changing contact information the name of the contact must always be given.
4 Release
4.1How can I release a domain that doesn't have a tag?
If a domain doesn't have a tag you must send an email message to hostmaster@nic.ukrequesting the domain to be tagged.
5 Query
5.1 Why do query requests have to be PGP signed?
Query requests must be signed as they return all of the database entry for the requested domain. This information may contain sensitive information, such as billing details, and is therefore protected.
