#Whois

This library presents whois information for domains in a variety of TLD's through a standardized API (see example below).

##Installation

sudo gem install jm81-whois

##Example

domain.name         #=> "example.com"
domain.expires_on   #=> 2011-08-13 <Date>
domain.created_on   #=> 1995-08-14 <Date>
domain.updated_on   #=> 2004-03-26 <Date>
domain.database_updated_at #=> Mon Sep 28 23:44:55 UTC 2009 <Time>
domain.status       #=> ["clientDeleteProhibited", "clientTransferProhibited", "clientUpdateProhibited"]
domain.name_servers   #=> ["A.IANA-SERVERS.NET", "B.IANA-SERVERS.NET"]
domain.registrar_name #=> "RESERVED-INTERNET ASSIGNED NUMBERS AUTHORITY"
domain.whois_server   #=> "whois.iana.org"
domain.available?   #=> false
domain.registered?  #=> true
domain.expired?     #=> false

domain.raw # Raw whois information

domain.to_s # Key value pairs of anything that looks like an attribute.
            # Especially useful for non-API information, such as registrant
            # data.

##Code layout

Since pretty much every TLD has a different whois format, the various classes (which inherit from Domain::Base) in the Domain module (files in domain folder) have the following:

• HOST constant: the host name of the whois server
• ATTR_MATCH constant: A regular expression with two groups, that matches each key value pair line in the raw whois data. The first group is the key, the second group is the value.
• ATTR_NAMES constant: Hash where the key represents a method name of the API and value in the text of the key in the raw data (the first group of the ATTR_MATCH regexp).
• responds_to : list of the TLDs that this class provides whois data for. ( responds_to :biz, :us, :travel )

Methods in Base may be overriden in case that the above constants are insufficient (particular likely for lists of values, such as status and nameservers.

##Note on Tests

Tests are against actual whois data and thus are somewhat brittle, especially expires_at and updated_at.

##TODO

• Whois information for:
  • Registrars
  • Nameservers
• Additional TLD's
• Standardized access of registrant data