Kirk Fletcher wrote:
> Well no, that kind of misses the point. How we are charged by OpenSRS
> has nothing to do with how we charge the customers - they are totally
> separate. If client A buys 10 ticks of xxx.biz, and client B does
> likewise - and then client B ends up winning - I can simply either
> refund A (if I charged up-front) or invoice B (if I didn't). The
> OpenSRS system only deals in RSP credits - nothing more.
Wait? I just realized something! OpenSRS doesn't include any tools that help
with the actual billing of clients. So is there _ANY_ extra trouble for
OpenSRS in billing us one way and we bill the customers the other way!? I
don't see any, now that I think about it I don't see any.
Now that it think about it as a technical person, I think it would be _very
easy_ for the client scripts on the Customer<->RSP end to calculate a
holding fee in the charge for each customer. This is as simple as writing
"$cost = $holding_fee + $num_tickets * $ticket_price", no?
The RSP<->OpenSRS end this only deals with how many credits go into a
"holding fees for .biz registrations" category. This can be easily
calculated. It's a simple "SELECT COUNT(domain) FROM
biz_pending_registrations;" statement to calculate the holding fee! (Yes, I
know: to see there is enough credits for a new order some additional
calculations are required.. but not that hard at all!)
Now this is just my opinion of the implementation. Seems that it would be
very easy to implement. If the OpenSRS technical people also think this is
easy to implement, then lets have Option Three.
<side-note>
This whole .biz pre-registration deal really speaks for why OpenSRS should
either (a) offer scripts that do the billing and integrate into credit card
backends, or (b) have a better API where out-of-band management information
(such as transfer notifications, notifications of failed or approved
pre-registrations) can be transmitted. Simply put: we are creating a *HUGE*
nightmare of accounting work that needs to be done with refunding
pre-registrations. OpenSRS better be prepared to provide management
information on what pre-registrations need to be refunded by the RSP.
</side-note>
David
