For the last few weeks we have been rolling out a new address scheme for handles across our system. The new scheme is designed to refine the address data we keep on file, and bring our database into line with the standard schema for contact objects as defined in RFC 3733.

Traditionally, our system stored postal address data (with the exception of postcode and country code) in a single address field. The work we've been doing introduces a series of new fields that replace this single field. They are:

The new scheme is designed to gracefully fallback to the old scheme - when a new handle is created with the new-style address data, it is "flattened" back into a single address field, and this field is show alongside the other fields whenever it is displayed. Similarly, all functions that create or modify handles will continue to accept the old-style address parameter. This means that existing code does not need to be changed. The old-style handles will be supported for a very long time to come.

However, we recommend that all new code be written to support the new address scheme. Today we are also releasing new versions of WWW::CNic and CNic_Toolkit that support the new scheme, and all documentation has been updated to reflect the new policy.