Transfer domain - and other related tools & accounts

[neverendingqs]

From #350:

The only other thing is the domain - @lmerotta did offer, I’m happy to, and @Naramsim is probably happy to as well I would imagine. What do you need for that @phalt - an email address to change the contact to? Will probably need the auth code from you too. I’m on tdmalone at gmail if you wanted to set it to me, I could hang on to it until we work out whether we’re gonna be in S3/Netlify/elsewhere and then work out then where best to keep it.

FYI @lmerotta is not part of the PokeAPI org.

We might also need a new subdomain (api.pokeapi.co) as per #355 (comment):

How about putting the website in a different Netlify server all together, than set up a proxy in Netlify to redirect requests from pokeapi.co/api/ to api.pokeapi.co? That way both projects can be kept completely separate and can be updated separately.

[tdmalone]

I've invited @lmerotta to be part of the PokeAPI org.

@neverendingqs It looks like Netlify offers DNS management, so we can probably just delegate the domain to Netlify and manage the rest from there. Although - we might still want to keep Cloudflare in front if we think we might come close to the bandwidth limit.

Semi-related: I'm not sure if full DNS management is available at Netlify - i.e. adding non-Netlify records - but I don't think we have a need for any other records just yet anyway.

@phalt Is the Cloudflare account a PokeAPI specific one? If so, it would be great to 'transfer' that across too, perhaps just by providing @Naramsim & I the passwords? If it's a personal account, no problem, I can just create a new one for PokeAPI use.

And although not related to the domain in any way, while we're talking about handover @phalt it would be good for a couple of us to get admin access to the Slack org as well.

[Naramsim]

Maybe we can create a new email account for the pokeapi org. Could be on Gmail or on Hotmail (this shouldn't require a phone). And with that account open a new clouflare account and enable pokeapi there.

Are we really sure to continue to use clouflare? In my opinion it caused too many cors problems.

Moreover Netlify acts also as a CDN. I think.

I would use the same url pattern for this static deployment as it is now. So in my opinion we should still support calls on pokeapi.co/api/v2/...
We can duplicate this endpoint on the subdomain mentioned above: api.pokeapi.co/...
We need to preserve our audience which is using the API but it is not aware of the changes that will happen.

Saying that i am also thinking to the v1 users. @phalt once said that a lot of calls are directed to the v1 endpoint. Is it possible to make ditto scan also the v1 endpoints?

[tdmalone]

@Naramsim I’ll create separate issues and/or add these questions to other existing issues - standby for the references to pop up.

[cmmartti]

In #355 (comment) I suggested moving the API to api.pokeapi.co and keeping the website at pokeapi.co. We can set up Netlify to proxy requests for pokeapi.co/api to api.pokeapi.co. This should maintain full backwards compatibility, and we can keep the current API address as the canonical one.

[tdmalone]

^ What he said ;)

Although, I think the canonical URL should probably be the new one and we just proxy for backwards-compatibility - although I’ll add this comment to that ticket too.

[neverendingqs]

Semi-related: I'm not sure if full DNS management is available at Netlify - i.e. adding non-Netlify records - but I don't think we have a need for any other records just yet anyway.

Based on the ToS, I think we can add non-Netlify records?

It is expressly allowed to have DNS records within your zone pointing to non-Netlify resources, but we expect that all zones you host with Netlify also have at least one hostname hosted by Netlify

[lmerotta-zz]

@tdmalone as said in the other issue, I can have a really cheap price for hosting a domain, and managing it's DNS records, so the offer is still valid, and if @phalt is okay I'll start the process on my side.

[tdmalone]

FYI I have created https://github.com/PokeAPI/pokeapi/wiki/PokeAPI-tools-&-accounts to track tools & accounts that are being transferred over to the new team, which includes the domain transfer.

Also on that list is Cloudflare (potentially); the Slack workspace; Docker Cloud/Docker Hub (if the 'pokeapi' organization is owned by @phalt, as it seems to be taken?); the Twitter account; and also the Heroku account or just the pokeapi-slack-invite app.

(I haven't created separate issues for all of these but probably this issue can just serve for all of them, as I imagine the process will be similar. I know @phalt has limited internet access at home at the moment so we may need to wait a bit until that is resolved.)

[sargunv]

IIRC there's also a DigitalOcean account being used to host the API right now

[tdmalone]

Yeah I figured we wouldn't need that anymore as soon as we complete the static site migration :)

[sargunv]

I do plan on finding somewhere to host the ditto updater bot, so that's probably something worth transferring if you don't want to depend on something only I control. It should run fine on their smallest container (I plan on testing that today).

I don't mind just running it on my personal server though if we don't transfer that account.

[tdmalone]

@sargunv ^ I've split out that question so it can be discussed in more detail than this issue.

[phalt]

Currently pokeapi is on namecheap. When you know which account you want me to transfer it to I can do that.

[sargunv]

IMO the domain should go to a pokeapi account controlled by the admins rather than any one person's account.

[lmerotta-zz]

I second @sargunv, and I still can provide the ~8$ of fee for it

[phalt]

Honestly I am happy to maintain the domain as I'll need to change it maybe once and then I can just keep paying for it.

[neverendingqs]

Based on the conversation above, I think these are the options that makes the most sense (wrt. domain management):

• Easiest - @phalt continues to own it
• Next easiest - migrate the domain to Netlify so there's shared ownership while avoiding adding (yet) another account to manage
• Next - migrate the domain to some shared account

[neverendingqs]

RE: Heroku account for Slack

Heroku has team plans, which are free for up to 5 members. That should be sufficient to get us going, but if we want, I can reach out to them as well to see what open source options they have.

[tdmalone]

migrate the domain to Netlify

Oh! I didn't realise Netlify manages domain registrations as well. Do you know if they will transfer in already-owned domains? They don't seem to specifically comment on that in either https://www.netlify.com/docs/dns/#domain-transfer or https://www.netlify.com/docs/dns/#adding-domains

If yes.. I think this would my desired option, to keep everything together.

Heroku has team plans, which are free for up to 5 members.

Even easier I think is just a free Heroku account. Because you can add collaborators on apps, we can just add whoever needs access (probably only two or three peeps, coz it's not like this will change regularly) and then they can access the app from their own Heroku accounts.

[neverendingqs]

I see this in https://www.netlify.com/docs/dns/#adding-domains:

If the entered domain is registered through an external registrar (or already owned by someone else), you will be asked to confirm that you are the owner of the domain. If you are the owner, click Yes, add domain to create a Netlify DNS zone for the domain.

If that doesn't work or alternatively, I can reach out to them.

Even easier I think is just a free Heroku account. Because you can add collaborators on apps, we can just add whoever needs access (probably only two or three peeps, coz it's not like this will change regularly) and then they can access the app from their own Heroku accounts.

Sounds good. Minor concern: is it owner access or just collaborator access?

[tdmalone]

@neverendingqs Yeah it might be worth reaching out to them to clarify. They talk about creating a DNS zone, but not about transferring the registration (for a domain registered elsewhere).

Re Heroku - just collaborator access, for the invited collaborators. Only the main account would have owner access to the app. The password for that account would just need to be known by only 2-3 people and changed if any of those people are no longer involved in maintaining. And that main account would rarely - if ever - get used, as most day-to-day actions can be handled from within people's own Heroku accounts, via collaborator access.

(Our sole Heroku app doesn't do a lot at the moment, but maybe we'll have a need for other apps there in future? Netlify plus Heroku makes up a pretty awesome, easy-to-manage tool suite for us!)

[neverendingqs]

Teams are better so that each person manages their own password (and 2fa). Shared passwords usually means plaintext passwords somewhere :( . But yea, Heroku plays such a small part today that it might not make sense to focus on it right now.

[neverendingqs]

FYI

While we do allow customers to purchase domains through Netlify, we are not an actual registrar and do not have the ability to accept inbound domain transfers. However, our service works equally well with or without the domain under our control - you can choose to host DNS with us no matter what registrar controls your domain following the instructions here:

[tdmalone]

Ah. So we'll need to maintain the domain registration elsewhere still. In that case, I also think @phalt continuing to own it is the best option!

We'd just need to advise Paul of the new nameservers once we have the static site + API all set up and ready to go =]

@phalt Are you able to advise on / provide access to the Cloudflare, Slack, Heroku and Twitter accounts? (or if there's anything else missing from the list at https://github.com/PokeAPI/pokeapi/wiki/PokeAPI-tools-&-accounts)?

[tdmalone]

I have e-mailed Paul to follow up on the account list above - specifically Cloudflare, so we can repoint the DNS when we're ready.

[tdmalone]

Update: @Naramsim & I both have Cloudflare access, which means we can point the domain when we're ready (#376).

Other accounts listed at https://github.com/PokeAPI/pokeapi/wiki/PokeAPI-tools-&-accounts are pending.

[phalt]

Archiving this issue as we're all resolved now.