[db-wg] Deployment of New RIPE Database Web Forms

Dear Colleagues

The Database Group is pleased to announce the deployment of a new and
improved set of web forms for accessing the RIPE Database. These forms
allow users to:

- Query the RIPE and TEST Databases
- Query a set of global Internet resource databases, excluding personal
data
- Perform a Full text search on the contents of the RIPE Database,
excluding personal data
- Find Abuse contacts for an Internet resource

The new forms are available now at:
https://apps.db.ripe.net/search/query.html
https://apps.db.ripe.net/search/full-text.html
https://apps.db.ripe.net/search/abuse-finder.html


The current Query CGI and text search (using Glimpse) were some of the
first tools the Database Group wrote for accessing Version 3 of the RIPE
Database. These are now almost ten years old. The new forms use
up-to-date technology and makes use of the RIPE Database API.

The Query form queries the RIPE and TEST Databases providing the same
usable features as the old advanced Query CGI. Alternatively it can be
used to query the Global Resource Service databases (GRS).

The Full text search allows searches over the plain text content of RIPE
Database objects, without regard for any relationships. We re-index the
text of RIPE Database objects every night. The indexed data is taken
from the RIPE-GRS source database, and includes all the operational data
but none of the personal data.

The Abuse Finder accepts an Internet resource identifier and returns any
abuse details found for that resource. This includes "abuse-mailbox:"
email addresses, IRT objects and pointers to related objects that
include a "remarks:" attribute that contains text that 'looks like'
possible abuse contacts.

The global Internet resource databases are a set of databases covering
the operational resource data from the RIRs and some major routing
registries. This Global Resource Service is currently in beta release.

All these forms have been available for a while on RIPE Labs. They are
now all available as production services. The RIPE Database Search form
on the home page of the ripe.net website, will still be linked to the
old Query CGI until Wednesday, 10 August. After this date all web
queries will use the new form.

If you have any issues or find any bugs in the new web forms, please
report them to ripe-dbm at ripe.net. We will assess any reports quickly and
report back with an estimate of time for fixing the problem or an
explanation of why it works this way. Some issues may be added to a
feature request list and processed after any urgent bug fixes.

Regards,
Denis Walker
Business Analyst
RIPE NCC Database Group