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Home › Registrars › Registrar Systems › Data › Field Definitions

Registry field definitions

The templates for all operations sent to our registrar systems use a list of possible fields for which values can be specified. Other operations may restrict what fields can be used or introduce new fields and that is explained with that operation. This page contains the following sections:

Sections
Individual Field Definitions
Deprecated Fields

Sections

This list of fields can be thought of as comprising a number of sections

The domain name itself. The total length of the domain name (including suffixes such as co.uk) should be no more than 63 characters. The only characters allowed in a domain name are lowercase letters, digits and '-' (the hyphen character). A domain name cannot begin or end with a hyphen.
The account that identifies to whom the domain is registered. This identifies the company or individual who the account is for. This field must be populated at the point of registration, and can only be changed by completing the registrant transfer process. This is the overall container to which multiple domains may be assigned.
There are two account addresses. The first is the administrative (or main) address and is the one we display on the WHOIS. The second is the billing address, which need only be supplied if you want us to bill the registrant directly.
The nameservers. We recommend that at least two independent name servers should be provided for every domain name registration. The name servers should be active and respond to domain name system (DNS) queries for the domain before an application is made. However we do not enforce those recommendations because we recognise that registrar provisioning mechanisms may not allow this at the time of registration.

Nameservers are registry objects. A nameserver object may be used for multiple domains on the same tag, but not across tags. This enables a single change to a nameserver object to affect multiple domains.
Up to three Administrative Contacts, which should be registrant contacts, not registrar contacts. These contain a contact name and email address for the individual or organisation to whom the domain name is registered. The name of the contact may either be supplied as that of a person or it may be a job role within the organisation.

These contacts will be given a log-on to our Online Services and are not published on the WHOIS.
Up to three Billing Contacts,which should be registrant contacts, not registrar contacts. These contain a contact name and email address for the individual or organisation to whom the domain name is registered. The name of the contact may either be supplied as that of a person or it may be a job role within the organisation.

These contacts will be given a log-on to our Online Services and are not published on the WHOIS.
Billing fields. These can set options on how and to whom this domain name is billed. If you set all billing to come to you (which is the default option) then you do not need to give us a billing address or any billing contacts.

Individual field definitions

It is possible that more fields will become mandatory in the future and we encourage registrars to complete values for as many of the fields as possible. In particular, accurate population of the registrant fields will assist us in making any subsequent changes to the domain name registration.

Domain fields

These fields are per domain. The billing fields are also per domain, as are the nameserver fields.

Field	Mandatory or Read-Only	Description
key	Yes	The domain name itself. The total length of the domain name (including suffixes such as co.uk) should be no more than 63 characters. The only characters allowed in a domain name are lowercase letters, digits and '-' (the hyphen character). A domain name cannot begin or end with a hyphen.
registrar-tag	Yes/No*	This replaces the 'ips-key'* field.* When releasing the domain name to another registrar, this is the tag of the receiving registrar. * Mandatory for release requests only
notes	No	A free form field for miscellaneous information relating to the domain name.
created	Read Only	The user that created the domain and the date the domain was created. Returned by various operations but cannot be changed by registrar. Output format is: creator YYYYMMDD The creator is either the email address from which the original creation message was sent or the TAG if they used EPP. If it is an email address then it may contain spaces. 'created' is only used by the Automaton. For EPP see 'crDate' and 'crID'.
crDate	Read Only	The date the domain was created. Returned by various commands but cannot be changed by registrar. Output format is: YYYYMMDD 'crDate' is only used by EPP. For the Automaton see 'created'.
crID	Read Only	The user that created the domain. Returned by various operations but cannot be changed by registrar. Contains either the email address from which the original creation message was sent or the TAG if they used EPP. If it is an email address then it may contain spaces. 'crID' is only used by EPP. For the Automaton see 'created'.
changed	Read Only	The date the domain was last changed and the user that last changed the domain. Returned by various operations but cannot be directly changed by registrar. Output format is: changed_by YYYYMMDD Contains either the email address of the last person or process inside Nominet that changed it, or the email address from which the last modification message was sent or the TAG if they used EPP. If it is an email address then it may contain spaces. 'changed' is only used by the Automaton. For EPP see 'upDate' and 'crID'.
upDate	Read Only	The date the domain was last changed. Returned by various operations but cannot be directly changed by registrar. Output format is: YYYYMMDD 'upDate' is only used by EPP. For the Automaton see 'changed'.
upID	Read Only	The user that last changed the domain. Returned by various operations but cannot be changed by registrar. Contains either the email address of the last person or process inside Nominet that changed it, or the email address from which the last modification message was sent or the TAG if they used EPP. If it is an email address then it may contain spaces. 'upID' is only used by EPP. For the Automaton see 'changed'.
expiry	Read Only	The date the domain is due to expire on. Returned by various operations but cannot be changed by registrar. For some registrations this field may not be present or may be blank, which indicates that the registration has no set expiry date. The output format is: YYYYMMDD 'expiry' is only used by the Automaton. For EPP see 'exDate'.
exDate	Read Only	The date the domain is due to expire on. Returned by various operations but cannot be changed by registrar. For some registrations this field may not be present or may be blank, which indicates that the registration has no set expiry date. The output format is: YYYYMMDD 'exDate' is only used by EPP. For the Automaton see 'expiry'.
period	Unused	This field is currently unused but is included in the EPP schemas for forward compatibility. When it is used it will enable registrations for periods other than two years.

Account fields

These fields are set on a per account basis. As well as the numbered fields for contacts in this section there are fields for managing contacts as objects.

Field	Mandatory or Read-Only	Description
account-id	Yes/No*	The account on which to register the domain name. * Mandatory if 'account-name', 'addr', 'country', 'postcode', 'a1-name' and 'a1-email' fields are not provided. Mandatory if the country code is GB, JE, GG or IM
account-name	Yes/No*	This replaces the 'for' field. This identifies the company or individual whom the domain name is registered on behalf of. The field can only be changed by completing the registrant transfer process. * Mandatory if 'account-id' is not provided.
trad-name	No	This replaces the 'reg-trad-name'* field.* The trading name of the organisation if different to 'account-name' above.
type	No	This replaces the 'reg-type'* field.* This describes what type of organisation the domain name has been registered for. The value given must be from our list of types. Full details of these types, what they mean and what effect they have on other fields can be found here.
opt-out	No	This replaces the 'reg-opt-out'* field.* If the account type indicates a personal registration then the registrant can also choose not to have their address details displayed on the WHOIS. In this case the 'opt-out' field should by marked as y. If the 'opt-out' field is marked as n their address details will be displayed on the WHOIS. The default value is that the registrant has not opted-out. The details of which types this can be set for can be found here.
co-no	Yes/No*	This replaces the 'reg-co-no'* field.* The registered number of the company or organisation. * Mandatory for registrations in the .net, .ltd and .plc SLDs and must be specified for certain values of 'type'. Full details of which types this can or must be set for can be found here.
addr	Yes/No*	This replaces the 'reg-addr'* field.* The street address of the main administrative address for the account - this can be a PO Box number. Multiple lines can be specified either with multiple uses of this field or one field with a caret (^) character separating address lines. * Mandatory if 'account-id' is not provided.
locality	No	This replaces the 'reg-locality'* field.* The locality field of the main administrative address.
city	No	This replaces the 'reg-city'* field.* The city field of the main administrative address.
county	No	This replaces the 'reg-county'* field.* The county field of the main administrative address.
postcode	Yes/No*	This replaces the 'reg-postcode'* field.* The postcode field of the main administrative address in uppercase with a space between the two parts of the postcode. * Mandatory if 'account-id' is not provided and the country code is GB, JE, GG or IM
country	Yes	This replaces the 'reg-country'* field.* The ISO 3166 Country Code of the main administrative address (for example, 'GB'). * Mandatory if 'account-id' is not provided.

Nameserver fields

These are the fields for the technical nameserver data. There are two sets of fields, those used in a domain context and those used in a nameserver object context.

Nameserver fields used in a domain context

Field	Mandatory or Read-Only	Description
dns0-id, dns1-id,... dns9-id	No	If you wish to explicitly specify a nameserver object to link your domain name to then use this field to do so. The dns0, dns1, ..., dns9 fields will also be available to specify nameservers by name.
dns0, dns1,... dns9	No	The DNS data for the correspondingly numbered object.

Nameserver fields used in a nameserver object context

Field	Mandatory or Read-Only	Description
dns-id	Yes	The ID that specifies the nameserver object to work on.
dns	Yes	The DNS data for the specified nameserver object.

Contact fields

These are the fields for the contact data. There are two sets of fields, those used in an account context and those used in a contact object context.

Contact fields used in an account context

This table onlys shows the administrative contact fields, but there are corresponding billing contact fields that can also be used in an account context, which are described in the billing fields section.

Field	Mandatory or Read-Only	Description
a1-name	Yes/No*	First admin contact name. This contact will receive a log in to the account holders online system. * Mandatory if 'account-id' is not provided.
a1-email	Yes/No*	Email address for the first admin contact. * Mandatory if 'account-id' is not provided.
a1-phone	No	Phone numbers for the first admin contact.
a1-fax	No	Fax numbers for the first admin contact.
a1-mobile	No	Mobile numbers for the first admin contact.
a2-name	No	Second admin contact name. This contact will receive a log in to the account holders online system.
a2-email	Yes/No*	Email address for the second admin contact. * Mandatory if 'a2-name' is provided.
a2-phone	No	Phone numbers for the second admin contact.
a2-fax	No	Fax numbers for the second admin contact.
a2-mobile	No	Mobile numbers for the second admin contact.
a3-name	No	Third admin contact name. This contact will receive a log in to the account holders online system.
a3-email	Yes/No*	Email address for the third admin contact. * Mandatory if 'a3-name' is provided.
a3-phone	No	Phone numbers for the third admin contact.
a3-fax	No	Fax numbers for the third admin contact.
a3-mobile	No	Mobile numbers for the third admin contact.

Contact fields used in a contact object context

This table only shows the administrative contact fields, but there are corresponding billing contact fields that can also be used in an account context.

Field	Mandatory or Read-Only	Description
contact-id	Yes	The ID that specifies the contact object to work on.
name	Yes	Specified contact name.
email	Yes	Email address for the specified contact.
phone	No	Phone numbers for the specified contact.
fax	No	Fax numbers for the specified contact.
mobile	No	Mobile numbers for the specified contact.

Billing fields

The billing fields shown here include the billing contact fields and billing address fields that are used in an account context and the billing data fields that are used in a domain context.

Billing fields used in an account context

Unless the billing data has been set so that we bill the registrant direct, there is no need to supply this account context billing data.

Field	Mandatory or Read-Only	Description
b-addr	No	The address for the billing contact. Multiple lines can be specified either with multiple uses of this field or one field with a caret (^) character separating address lines. If this field is left blank it will stay blank. If you wish to blank this field then you can do so using the NULL mechanism.
b-locality	No	The locality field of the billing address.
b-city	No	The city field of the billing address.
b-county	No	The county field of the billing address.
b-postcode	Yes/No*	The postcode field of the billing address in uppercase with a space between the two parts of the postcode. * Mandatory if the country code is GB, JE, GG or IM. >
b-country	No	The country field of the billing address.
b1-name	No	First billing contact name and should be set only if domain names on the account are to be billed direct to the registrant. This contact will receive a log in to the account holders online system to pay for direct domain name invoices.
b1-email	Yes/No*	Email address for the first billing contact. * Mandatory if 'b1-name' is provided.
b1-phone	No	Phone numbers for the first billing contact.
b1-fax	No	Fax numbers for the first billing contact.
b1-mobile	No	Mobile numbers for the first billing contact.
b2-name	No	Second billing contact name and should be set only if domain names on the account are to be billed direct to the registrant. This contact will receive a log in to the account holders online system to pay for direct domain name invoices.
b2-email	Yes/No*	Email address for the second billing contact. * Mandatory if 'b2-name' is provided.
b2-phone	No	Phone numbers for the second billing contact.
b2-fax	No	Fax numbers for the second billing contact.
b2-mobile	No	Mobile numbers for the second billing contact.
b3-name	No	Third billing contact name and should be set only if domain names on the account are to be billed direct to the registrant. This contact will receive a log in to the account holders online system to pay for direct domain name invoices.
b3-email	Yes/No*	Email address for the third billing contact. * Mandatory if 'b2-name' is provided.
b3-phone	No	Phone numbers for the third billing contact.
b3-fax	No	Fax numbers for the third billing contact.
b3-mobile	No	Mobile numbers for the third billing contact.

Billing fields used in a domain context

These fields are the billing data and are used to control how a domain is billed.

Field	Mandatory or Read-Only	Description
first-bill	No	The chosen option for billing of initial registration fees: registrar (default) - th Bill customer ie the registrant – bc. Registrant contact details are used when first-bill = ‘bc’.
recur-bill	No	The chosen option for billing of renewal registration fees: registrar (default) - th Bill customer ie the registrant – bc. Registrant contact details are used when recur-bill = ‘bc’. Note: Setting the recur-bill to 'bc' clears out the auto-bill and next-bill fields.
auto-bill	No	The 'auto-bill' field can be set on a domain name with a value between 1 and 182, indicating how many days before expiry you wish to renew the domain name. The field will default to a null value and will be reset to a null value on registrar. When the relevant point in time arrives, the domain will be positively renewed as if a positive renewal request has been received. The auto-bill field can be changed or cancelled one clear day before the day indicated by the field value. Requests must be received by midnight. Therefore if the auto-bill field has been set to 10 for a domain name due to expire on the 20th of the month the auto-bill field can be changed up until midnight on the 8th of the month. To cancel an auto-bill request set the field value to 0. Note: auto-bill and next-bill cannot both be set and auto/next-bill cannot be set when recur-bill is 'bc'.
next-bill	No	The 'next-bill' field can be set on a domain name with a value between 1 and 182, indicating how many days before expiry you wish to renew the domain name. The field is set for a single registration period only. When the relevant point in time arrives, the domain will be positively renewed as if a positive renewal request has been received and the field will be reset to a null value. The next-bill field can be changed or cancelled one clear day before the day indicated by the field value. Requests must be received by midnight. Therefore if the next-bill field has been set to 10 for a domain name due to expire on the 20th of the month the next-bill field can be changed up until midnight on the 8th of the month. To cancel a next-bill request set the field value to 0. Note: next-bill and auto-bill cannot both be set and the auto/next-bill cannot be set when recur-bill is 'bc'.

Automaton-specific fields

These are fields used exclusively within the Automaton. The same information is presented to other registration systems in other ways.

Field	Mandatory or Read-Only	Description
operation	Yes	This specifies the operation that you are requesting the Automaton to perform. The acceptable values for this field are the names of the allowed operations: request, modify, release, renew, delete, query and list (it is not yet available within bulk operations). Example operation: renew

Field

Mandatory
or Read-Only

Description

operation

Yes

This specifies the operation that you are requesting the Automaton to perform. The acceptable values for this field are the names of the allowed operations: request, modify, release, renew, delete, query and list (it is not yet available within bulk operations).

Example

operation: renew

Deprecated Fields

The following table shows fields that may still work but are deprecated and generally have been replaced by new fields.

Field	Description
for	This is a synonym for 'account-name'.
reg-trad-name	This is a synonym for 'trad-name'.
reg-type	This is a synonym for 'type'.
reg-opt-out	This is a synonym for 'opt-out'.
reg-co-no	This is a synonym for 'co-no'.
reg-addr	This is a synonym for 'addr'.
reg-locality	This is a synonym for 'locality'.
reg-city	This is a synonym for 'city'.
reg-county	This is a synonym for 'county'.
reg-postcode	This is a synonym for 'postcode'.
reg-country	This is a synonym for 'country'.
reg-contact	This is a synonym for 'a1-name'.
reg-contact-id	This is a synonym for 'a1-id'.
reg-email	This is a synonym for 'a1-email'.
reg-phone	This is a synonym for 'a1-phone'.
reg-fax	This is a synonym for 'a1-fax'.
reg-mobile	This is a synonym for 'a1-mobile'.
admin-c	This field will no longer be held in the register. Using this field will generate a warning, but not prevent the operation from completing.
a-addr	This field is will longer be held in the register. Using this field will generate a warning but not prevent the operation from completing.
a-phone	This field will no longer be held in the register. Using this field will generate a warning but not prevent the operation from completing.
a-fax	This field is no longer held in the register. Using this field will generate a warning but not prevent the operation from completing.
a-email	This field will no longer be held in the register. Using this field will generate a warning but not prevent the operation from completing.
billing-c	This is a synonym for 'b1-name'.
b-email	This is a synonym for 'b1-email'.
b-phone	This is a synonym for 'b1-phone'.
b-fax	This is a synonym for 'b1-fax'.
b-mobile	This is a synonym for 'b1-mobile'.
ips-key	This field is a synonym for 'registrar-tag'.