AUTOMATED NSI ORDER FULFILMENT
Domain Name Sales & Purchasing System

This optional capability can only be used by Network Solutions Inc (NSI) Certified Domain Name Registrars. SSL Certificates and NSI Registrar Accounts are required.

The standard version of SendSafe does not ship with this option (for information contact C Prompt).

The NSI Order Fulfilment System is used to automate the sale of Domain Names. All Admin, Tech, & Billing contract information is stored in the SendSafe SQL / ODBC database (along with Domain name + NS information). The contact information is store as address records linked to an order (of a domain name). See SendSafe database for more information. This is very close to a fully operational Domain Name store. All you need to add is a whois domain name query page and sales support.

This SendSafe system has been fully tested in the NSI OT&E environment. C Prompt strongly recommends additional testing of any newly configured SendSafe system in the OT&E environment before going on-line with a production NSI Registry server.

How this option interacts & communicates with the NSI Registry: 

When a customer purchases a Domain name, SendSafe will connect directly to the on-line NSI Registry System (using an SSL connection) and inserts the Domain Name + Name Servers directly into the registry database; thereby completing the Domain Name order.

The connection to the NSI on-line registry database is via a tcp/ip connection over the Internet. This is a direct secure socket connection system, not a low performance system that uses https + cgi or other web based protocol.

Required Components & Settings:

• OUTPUT FORMAT needs to be set to DOMNAME in the appropriate storefront configuration.
• An SendSafe database should be used to store the Admin, Billing, & Tech contact information.
• Java JVM Version 1.1 or higher must be installed on the machine running the SendSafe Robot. The NSIPlugin is a Java Application (NSIPlugin.jar).

SendSafe NSI Plugin installation notes: 

1. The system requires a Verisign or Thawe SSL Server certificate. This certificate is used for identification of the client to the NSI on-line Registry server. The client certificate and key files must be in DER-encoded binary not Base64-encoded (text).
2. The certificate files must be located in the same directory as the JSOF Robot (jsof.exe) file.
3. The NSIPlugin (a C Prompt developed Java Application NSIPlugin.jar) should be placed in a subdirectory of the JSOF Robot directory. Typically this directory is named NSIPlugin. The storefront configuration file mush have the keyword NSI PLUGIN LOC set to the location of the NSIPlugin.jar file.
4. See licensing restirctions

The following Keywords must be configured in the storefront configuration for the store that is selling domain names (see Advanced Config).

• NSI SESSION STRING
• NSI PLUGIN LOC
• NSI ENABLED

The "NSI SESSION STRING" is where the connection to the on-line NSI Registry is configured. This string has several parts separated by spaces. These parts are:

• NSI Host Server IP Address or Internet Name
• NSI Host Server Port
• Registrar NSI Account User Id
• Registrar NSI Account Password
• File name for the Registrar Client SSL Server Certificate
• File name for the Registrar Client SSL Server Certificate Key
• Optional file name for the CA Certificate for the CA that issued the client certificate.

Example of connection string:

199.199.199.199 640 MyUserId MyPassword dsa-client-cert.der dsa-client-key.der dsa-ca-cert.der

Analyzing NSI Registry Connection or Transaction errors:

There are two sources of information about the NSI Registry dialog conducted by the NSIPlugin.

The first source to look at is the EMSG audit file. This file contains audit records for all orders processed by the SendSafe system. Look for entries like those listed below. This example excerpt from an audit file contains a successful NSI registration of a domain name (for more information on audit files see: audit files and solving problems).

The NSI transaction error & status codes in the audit file are NSI Registry error codes (which are documented in rfc2832).

The second source of information is the archive directory. Copies of all failed NSI transaction are stored in this directory. The archive directory can be found as a subdirectory of the SendSafe directory. The files to look for will be named in the following format: 

<Storefront><order number>.NSIProcInput.<DomainName>.txt
<Storefront><order number>.NSIProcResults.<DomainName>.txt

Example: IF the storefront=CPROMPT and the Domain name = wizbang.com, then the names of the archive files will be:

CPROMPT1728.NSIProcInput.wizbang.txt
CPROMPT1728.NSIProcResults.wizbang.txt

In these archive files is contained the input to the NSIPlugin and the results of the NSIPlugin attempt at processing. The NSI transaction error & status codes in archive file are NSI Registry error codes (which are documented in rfc2832).

Operations Information:

• The JSOFDNBasket.class will operating in a mode very similar to single shipper entry mode which keeps the NS information identical for all three lineitems of a domain name order.
• The contact information (Admin,Billing, & Tech) are entered into the SendSafe system as three separate items in a single order. The three items are identified by attributes which are set to Admin, billing, and tech. The admin record is the master record (item) for a specific domain name order. This Admin record (item) is the item that includes a price; the other two items are listed with zero cost.
• The Quantity field is interpreted internally as the registration periods in years (and is labeled as such on the BuyDName.class).
• ItemCodeId numbers are automatically assigned by the BuyDName.class as the domain names are displayed.
• The domain name order will be entered into the database as a single order with line items for each of the three contracts (Admin, Billing, & Tech). There will be entries made in the Addresses table, OrderLineItem table, Order table, and Customer Table (the information that goes into the customer table will that which was entered into the credit card billing order form applet JSOFShipper.class).
• The domain name that was ordered can be found in the AltItemDescription column in the {OrderLineItem} table of the SendSafe database. The format of this column will contain the following text:
  "<Contact Record type><delimiter> DomainName.com"

Licensing and Licence Agreements

(1) The NSIPlugin contain a Java software library provided by the open source program of NSI / Verisign. In compliance with this open source agreement, C Prompt provides to its customer the object modules for the C Prompt developed Plugin code along with object modules containing a modified version of the Open Source NSI API. The version of the NSI API provided in the NSIPlugin has been modified by C Prompt and is not the original software obtained from the Open Source program. The NSI API is a public domain software covered under the GNU Lesser public license.

(2) The NSIPlug in contain the industry leading SSLava SSL Encryption Library by Phaos. The NSIPlug-in cannot be used in more than one copy of SendSafe unless additional individual licenses for each copy are obtained from Phaos or C Prompt. The C Prompt license for SendSafe is not as restrictive as the Phaos license. In all cases regarding the NSIPlug-in, the licence agreement from Phaos must be followed.