[db-wg] Updated proposal for clean-up of references by name

[Apologies for duplicate messages]

Dear Colleagues,

I'm attaching the updated proposal for automatically 
cleaning up the references by name in RIPE Whois Database.
We have incorporated Janos's suggestions to the proposal.

If no more comments come, we plan to apply the procedure 
described in the proposal in the first half of January, 2003.
The operation should not take more than a day. We will notify
the community about the actual date of the operation.


Regards,

Engin Gunduz
____________________________
RIPE NCC Database Group



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Proposed solution for cleaning up references by name and other
invalid references in RIPE Whois Database

Motivation:

References by name and invalid references cause two main problems:
   1. One reference by name in a single object locks all person
       and role objects with that name, that is, they cannot
       be deleted, because of referential integrity checks.
   2. Having anything other than a NIC handle as a reference makes
       the implementation of whois database software considerably
       more complex, since the software needs to deal with these
       exceptions. This increases the coding time, maintenance time
       and testing time of the software.

Classification of the inconsistencies we need to solve and proposed
solutions:

   1.   Objects that refer to a person or role object by name.
         a. There is only one object with this name.
           1. The referring inconsistent object is not maintained, or 
              the maintainers of referring inconsistent object and the
              person/role object with this name are the same. 
              Solution: Update the referring inconsistent object so that it
              will contain the NIC handle instead of the name. Add
              appropriate remarks and changed attributes to the object
              to explain the reason for update.
           2. The referring object is maintained, and the maintainers are
              different from the maintainers of the object with the 
              referred name (If the latter object is not maintained, then
              the maintainers are by definition different.)
              Solution: Create a role object with this name. It will list
              the role or person object with this name in its admin-c and
              tech-c attributes. Update the inconsistent object to refer 
              to the NIC handle of this new role object. Add appropriate 
              remarks and changed attributes to the object to explain the 
              reason for update.
         b. There is no person or role object with this name:
            Solution: Create a person object with this name. Clearly 
            mark this new object putting appropriate remarks attributes 
            so that users will see it is actually a dummy object. 
            Update the inconsistent object to refer to the NIC handle
            of this new person object. Add appropriate remarks and 
            changed attributes to the object to explain the reason for 
            update. Protect it with the inconsistent object's maintainer(s).
         c. There are multiple person and role objects with this name.
            Solution: Create a role object with this name. It will list 
            all the other role and person objects with the same name 
            in its admin-c and tech-c attributes. Update the inconsistent
            object to refer to the NIC handle of this new role object. 
            Add appropriate remarks and changed attributes to the object
            to explain the reason for update.
   2. Objects that refer to a non-existent NIC handle.
      Solution: Create a person object with that NIC handle. Clearly mark 
      this new object so that users will see it is actually a dummy 
      object. Name it "person: Place Holder Object". Protect it with
      the inconsistent object's maintainer(s). Note that there is no 
      need to update the inconsistent object itself. 
   3. Objects that refer to a string which is neither a name, nor a NIC 
      handle. For example, it might be a phone number in admin-c attribute, 
      or it might be 'Gunduz', a string that can't be a NIC handle, as 
      it's longer than 4 letters, nor can it be a name as it has only 
      one word. Another example could be "Mr. Gunduz", which enters this 
      category because "Mr" can't appear in a name of person/role object.
      Solution: Create a person object for each such reference. Name 
      the object "person: Place Holder Object" and list the object that 
      refers to it in its remarks attribute. Protect it with inconsistent
      object's maintainer(s). Then update the inconsistent object to refer 
      to the NIC handle of this new place holder person object.

In each case an object is updated, or created, send appropriate notifications
(determined by "mnt-by" and "notify" attributes, as with all other
updates).

Please note that this proposal does not actually solve the problem
of invalid contact information-- rather, it makes the data set more 
uniform, thus decreases the administration and development time of
the whois database.