domain life cycle misconception?

[Thomas Corte]

Hello,

I'm looking into developing a WHMCS integration for a customer.

However, it seems to me that WHMCS (as currently specified) is suffering from a severe misconception when it comes to typical domain life cycles (as present in almost all registries). This is evident from this blog post:

https://blog.whmcs.com/133541/feature-spotlight-domain-expiry-automation

which claims

"If a domain is not renewed before the expiry date is reached, it enters what is commonly referred to as the Grace Period. The Grace Period typically lasts between 0 and 45 days and often does not have any additional costs associated with it allowing a domain name to still be renewed at the normal rate.

When the grace period elapses, most domains then enter a status of Redemption. Redemption is the last chance to renew a domain before it becomes available for registration again and often coincides with registries putting the domain up for auction."

However, the statement in bold is false for almost all domain registries. Verisign (com/net), Donuts (info) or Godaddy (biz) will all automatically renew a domain name that isn't deleted within the post-expiration grace period (also known as the auto-renew grace period, for that reason). The redemption phase, on the other hand, will usually only be entered if the domain is explicitly deleted, but never when it just reaches its expire date. This means that, if left alone, a domain will most likely be automatically renewed by the registry (causing costs to the registrar, even if the customer no longer wants the name).

Consequently, if an WHMCS installation is configured to not perform automatic renewals for domains, if would have to send explicit delete requests for domains the customer no longer wants. But my understanding is that it doesn't do that.

Is nobody aware of this obvious shortcoming? How has this never come up as a common problem?

[WHMCS John]

Hi @Thomas Corte,

For most of our admins, the main distinction between a renewal grace and redemption period, is the price charged for restoring access to the domain charged by their registrar. The particulars of renewing/deleting the domain at the registry is handled by the registrar invisibly, so our workflows and documentation reflect those of most registrar APIs (LogicBoxes, eNom/OpenSRS, GoDaddy etc).

For the most part, WHMCS doesn't communicate directly with registries, meaning this particular detail is abstracted to the registrar and so isn't something WHMCS needs to do. The important part is determining the correct price to invoice clients based on the registrar's fees at that particular point in time and sending the appropriate API commands to restore the domain's operations.

[othellotech]

>How has this never come up as a common problem?

 

Because WHMCS doesn't talk to *registries* or gTLDs, it talks to *registrars* who already handle the autoreew/autodelete for you 🙂

 

However there are plenty of issues with whmcs default handling of domain lifecycle, especially for cctlds

[Thomas Corte]

Ok, thanks for your replies.

Seemingly WHMCS then isn't well equipped to talk to registrars performing automatic renewals (and I know at least one who does so).