Structuring of address attributes in person, role and organisation objects

Abstract
--------

This is a proposal to properly structure address attributes in person, role and organisation objects.

    * Structuring of address attributes in person, role and organisation objects
          o Abstract
          o Intended Audience
          o Introduction
          o Changes to objects
          o Implementation
                + Stage 1
                + Stage 2

Introduction
------------

Currently there is only a single "address:" attribute. This holds all the address details in free text format. It is almost impossible to break down this single free text into the component parts of an address. We propose to structure the address into separate attributes matching the standard components. It also brings it into line with our internal Registration Database.

This will

    * improve the overall 'usefulness' of the data
    * allow historical data in the database to be 'cleaned' by removing the personal data but keep the city/country information. This may be useful for future statistical purposes
    * allow information to be made available to those who insist on doing IP to city mapping without disclosing any personal data.

This is a convenient time to do this along with the other changes currently proposed with person and role objects.

Changes to objects
------------------

The "address:" attribute will be replaced with:

    * "street:"
    * "city:"
    * "zip:"
    * "country:"

The "country:" attribute will only accept an international country code to avoid differences in spelling.

Taking the person object as an example (the same change will apply to role and organisation).

person:         [mandatory]  [single]  
street:         [mandatory]  [multiple]
city:           [mandatory]  [single]
zip:            [optional]   [single]
country:        [mandatory]  [single]
phone:          [mandatory]  [multiple]
fax-no:         [optional]   [multiple]
e-mail:         [optional]   [multiple]
org:            [optional]   [multiple]
nic-hdl:        [mandatory]  [single]  
remarks:        [optional]   [multiple]
notify:         [optional]   [multiple]
abuse-mailbox:  [optional]   [multiple]
mnt-by:         [optional]   [multiple]
changed:        [mandatory]  [multiple]
source:         [mandatory]  [single]  

These new attributes will not be inverse searchable. So it will not be possible to find all persons in a city, for example.

Implementation
--------------

Again this will be rolled out in stages.

Stage 1

    * Only allow new objects with properly constructed attributes.
    * Whenever a person/role/organisation object is modified with "address:" attributes a warning message will be added to the acknowledgement.
    * Whenever a person/role/organisation object is referenced with "address:" attributes a warning message will be added to the acknowledgement.

***WARNING: The person object [DW-RIPE] still contains "address:" attributes.

Stage 2

    * Whenever a person/role/organisation object is modified with only "address:" attributes an error message will be added to the acknowledgement.
    * Whenever a person/role/organisation object is referenced with only "address:" attributes an error message will be added to the acknowledgement and the update will fail.

***ERROR: The person object [DW-RIPE] still contains "address:" attributes.