NAME

       Net::IDN::Overwiew - Internationalized Domain Names for Applications (IDNA)

DESCRIPTION

       The "Net::IDN::*" modules provide a framework for the handling of Internationalized Domain
       Names for Applications (IDNA) in perl programmes.

       This document provides an overview of the available modules in order to allow you to
       choose the best module for the task at hand.

   AVAILABLE MODULES
       HIGH-LEVEL (USE THIS)

       Net::IDN::Encode
           provides a high-level interface for converting domain names (and for convenience,
           email addresses).

           Use this module if you just want to convert domain names and don't care about how this
           is done internally.

           Currently, this module uses Net::IDN::UTS46. However, this might change in the future
           if another specification (e.g. a revision of IDNA2008) becomes more appropriate.

           The author aims for Net::IDN::Encode to always use the specification that will provide
           the "least surprising" results.

       STANDARD-SPECIFIC

       These modules implement different versions of the the IDNA specifications. Use one of
       these modules only if you require compatibility with a specific incarnation of IDNA.

       Net::IDN::IDNA2003
           implements the orginal IDNA specification, released in 2003 (IDNA2003), which is now
           obsolete.

           IDNA2003 is defined in RFC 3490 <http://tools.ietf.org/rfc/3490> and related
           documents.

       Net::IDN::UTS46
           implements Unicode Technical Standard #46 (UTS #46
           <http://unicode.org/reports/tr46/>), Unicode IDNA Compatibility Processing.  This
           specification supports all domain names allowed under either IDNA2003 or IDNA2008.

       ENCODING

       Net::IDN::Punycode
           performs the actual conversion between the ASCII and Unicode form of strings.
           Punycode is defined in RFC 3492 <http://tools.ietf.org/rfc/3492> and related
           documents.

           Usually, it is not a good idea to use this module directly. If you convert domain
           labels (or other strings) without proper prepration, you may end up with an ASCII
           encoding that is not interoperable or poses security issues due to spoofing.

           Even if you think that your domain names are valid and in already-mapped format, you
           might be fooled by different Unicode normalization forms (for example, some
           environments might automatically convert your data to NFD, which breaks IDNA).

       DEPRECATED/COMPATIBILITY

       These modules are only maintained in order to not break applications that might rely on
       them

       Encode::Punycode
           provides an Encode plugin for Punycode. As Punycode is not a general-purpose encoding,
           there are limited applications.

       IDNA::Punycode
           has an API depending on global variables. Don't use this module.

   DISTRIBUTIONS
       Net-IDN-Encode
           is the main distribution covering the most common cases for converting domain names
           between ASCII and Unicode.

           The author tries to keep the dependency chain as small as possible; currently this
           distribution only depends on perl 5.8.5 (including the core module Unicode::Normalize
           ).

       Net-IDN-IDNA2003
           provides the Net::IDN::IDNA2003 module. This is separate because it has an dependency
           on Unicode::Stringprep (through Net::IDN::Nameprep).

       Encode-Punycode
       IDNA-Punycode
           are separate because they are of limited use to the average user/perl programmer.

AUTHOR

       Claus Faerber <CFAERBER@cpan.org>