New WHMCS name spinner

[AndyW]

Hello,

We implemented the new name spinner and got this result 

https://goo.gl/JdGWr3

All the suggestions were unavailable. Did I miss a config in the setup or is this the intended result?

 

 

[brian!]

Hi Andy,

7 hours ago, AndyW said:

All the suggestions were unavailable. Did I miss a config in the setup or is this the intended result?

it looks fine to me - it's not surprising that a lot of 'findme' domains have already been registered.

the suggestions on your site seems to be working find now...

 

[AndyW]

27 minutes ago, brian! said:

Hi Andy,

it looks fine to me - it's not surprising that a lot of 'findme' domains have already been registered.

the suggestions on your site seems to be working find now...

 

Hi Brian, we switch back to domain registrar for now.

[wp4all]

Hi AndyW,

mostly you will get this kind of result if you are not using the standard theme and Cart theme.

one and the same search but two different results in just 2min.

instead of the standard card the boxes was taken 

Here one answer of the support:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the additional information.

After testing this, I was able to complete domain searches without any error when using the Six template and the Standard Cart order form template.

You may also upload a fresh copy of the stock WHMCS /templates directory, overwriting any existing files just to make sure everything is up to date.

I'd expect that to resolve the issue on any other stock order form templates you may wish to use.

If you have any further questions/issues, please let me know.

Best regards,

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Christian,
The currently supported order form templates are detailed in our documentation here: https://docs.whmcs.com/Standard_Order_Form_Templates
I'd recommend using Standard Cart or its children for the best experience. Older templates (Boxes and Modern) are deprecated and no longer received feature updates.

Thanks for your assistance with pre-release testing of version 7.6.

If we can be of any more assistance, please don't hesitate to get back in contact.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Greetings Christian

Edited August 1, 2018 by wp4all

[AndyW]

Doesnot appear to be a template issue. I'm guessing it's connected to the whois.json config. 

[brian!]

15 minutes ago, AndyW said:

Doesnot appear to be a template issue. I'm guessing it's connected to the whois.json config. 

I doubt it's a template issue too.. possibly just that Namespinning is buggy.. it's certainly very flaky (seemingly can't lookup a .blog domain... even when the correct details are added to whois.json)... frankly, I don't trust it - if there was ever a company not to trust to maintain TLD lookup details with, it's WHMCS!

i'd recommend sticking with a lookup provider or standard whois.

[WHMCS John]

Hi,

The Namespinner platform is powered by a pretty big name in the domain biz.

I've confirmed that the Namespinner platform does support .blog domains. I'd be interested to know what search terms and TLD configuration you're using for it not to return any suggestions.

Defining whois servers won't impact the results of the WHMCS Namespinner. But if it does not support a particular TLD in a direct lookup or the connection fails for any reason, it will fall-back to standard whois to get results; just like the previous domain lookup providers.

[brian!]

12 hours ago, WHMCS John said:

The Namespinner platform is powered by a pretty big name in the domain biz.

so big that you are keeping their name intentionally secret from the users? are we talking about eNom ?? are the search strings entered getting logged by this big name ???

12 hours ago, WHMCS John said:

I've confirmed that the Namespinner platform does support .blog domains. I'd be interested to know what search terms and TLD configuration you're using for it not to return any suggestions. 

it possibly didn't help that I must have renamed .blog in my dev domain pricing to something else - my bad.

though it might still be an idea to add .blog to your dist.whois.json file in the next release.

12 hours ago, WHMCS John said:

Defining whois servers won't impact the results of the WHMCS Namespinner. But if it does not support a particular TLD in a direct lookup or the connection fails for any reason, it will fall-back to standard whois to get results; just like the previous domain lookup providers.

I noticed that yesterday as I intentionally deleted dist.whois.json to test and it was still able to do lookups... though when I gave it an obscure TLD to lookup, it couldn't do it - but as soon as I gave the correct whois definition in whois.json, it worked fine...

[WHMCS David]

Hi All,

I would like to elaborate on the mechanics of domain lookup and I hope to clarify some possible misunderstands or misgivings:

---
The WHMCS Namespinning provider works in the same way that a registrar-drive provider works:

For the availability check, it will submit the search to the API service, the response from the service will contain a value that indicates the status of domain:
1 registered
2 not registered
3 reserved
4 unknown
5 tld not supported

If the status is 4 or 5 the WHMCS will do a subsequent lookup directly to the whois server based on dist.whois.json/whois.json to try to get a more accurate status. 

  -- @brian! That could be the reason that lookup did not function properly when those files were absent.

For the suggestions, for cases 4 & 5 the subsequent lookup is only done on the 'add to cart' action due to the significant impact on performance.

...this is the same behavior as if one has selected Enom as the lookup provider.

---
The service that powers the WHMCS Namespinning provider has comparable TLD support across the gTLD spectrum as Enom. The ccTLDs support is less favorable at this time, but will be improved in the future.  But just a quick revisit: if an unsupported ccTLD is queried, the fallback to the WHOIS servers goes into effect; again this is pre-existing design that was implemented when name spinning with Enom was first introduced.

---
We have made significant efforts to partner with a domain name industry expert specifically to address two issues notable issues:
- poor performance and quality of registrar-drive suggestions
- latency of having accurate data in dist.whois.json vis-a-vis the WHMCS development cycle + unannounced registry changes + new TLDs

If WHMCS Namespinning is failing to address those issues, then clear and constructive feedback would greatly be appreciated.

---
It is true that the service is white labeled. This is not an uncommon business practice, whether it is at the behest of the integrator (WHMCS), the service provider, or both.  There's no secret here, it's a business decision; I'm not sure I understand how that decision affects the functionality of the feature?

---
I think it makes perfect sense for a service provider, registrar, and registry to monitor the query traffic for their APIs.  Those analytics and the aggregate business intelligence produced can help improve the value of their services, products, any collaboration with their peers around governance and policy.  I do not understand how that would be either improper or maligned?  

The service powering WHMCS Namespinning does not receive the identity of your WHMCS instance; they cannot associate your business with the queries that your clients make based on any integration or exchange of information.  As an aside, if one were to select a registrar as their lookup provider, where the API call must be authenticated with reseller credentials, it's possible that they may log correlative information of account + query.  If that is a concern, then it would be a question best directed to the selected registrar since it falls within scope of their TOS, etc.

---
If your theme and/or cart templates were capable of registrar-drive domain lookup and suggestions, they should support WHMCS Namespinning in the same respect.  There might be other template changes that need to be incorporated to prevent general template compatibility; there is nothing unique about the way that the UI triggers or renders the results with respect to WHMCS Namespinning.  It is a modular system that is decoupled between the UI and the backend functionality.

---

If you are having issues, please let us know the specifics, either here or in a ticket so we can work towards a solution and/or elaborate on the current design.  We think that WHMCS Namespinning is a better alternative to registrar-drive lookups & suggestions because if its performance and quality; it should be a much better experience for customers and present more opportunities for your domain sales over the Standard Whois option.