ICANN has released the code for an RDAP conformance tool.
The tool was developed for ICANN by Viagénie, who had already released a mobile RDAP client. It’s good to see that the code is being released as open source under an Apache license.
Both registries and registrars in the gTLD world are contractually obliged to run RDAP servers. Eventually these will replace whois servers, though some people want a whois-like interface to be retained indefinitely. From a registrar perspective I have mixed feelings about that. While I can see why people would ask for this I don’t see why we should be contractually obliged to run servers for a defunct protocol.
ICANN explains in a blog post what the tool will test and how it presents the results.
In any case hopefully this new RDAP will help those registrars and registries who still haven’t got their servers up and running!
