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A bit off topic, but I lament that these reserved domains are becoming less and less useful for testing web applications. I don't think you can acquire regular
by themacguffinman 6y ago
A bit off topic, but I lament that these reserved domains are becoming less and less useful for testing web applications. I don't think you can acquire regular SSL certificates for reserved TLDs like "test.", yet an increasing number of browser features only work in "Secure Contexts" (ie. HTTPS only).
Chrome treats "localhost." as a Secure Context by default, a nice convenience, but for the other reserved TLDs you have to either self-sign (a fairly complex and laborious process that doesn't necessarily work on locked down devices) or register a non-reserved domain with a regular SSL certificate that points to a test IP.
- CydeWeys 6y agoYeah, because of SSL, you really do need to own at least one real domain name that you use solely for testing. You can hang a bunch of subdomains off it and run separate applications on each one, but you are gonna want a real domain name. Fortunately domains are super cheap all things considered. A .dev domain (my preference, but admittedly I'm biased) is a buck a month. If you really want to penny-pinch there's much cheaper still.
- themacguffinman 6y agoFor me the cost isn't the main concern, it's the name collisions. I can easily obtain a short, memorable, and descriptive domain in a reserved TLD, but I probably have to find some obscure *.dev domain name because I'm competing with the entire world. Not the end of the world, I know, but I think it kind of defeats the purpose of reserved TLDs.
- CydeWeys 6y agoYou'd be surprised how many short, memorable domains are still available on new gTLDs. E.g. there are several times more possible 4 letter strings than total .dev registrations that even exist. And if you're willing to use numbers this gets higher, let alone 5 characters or more.