Filtering is the way the request XML packet indicates the object to which the operation will be applied. The request XML packet filters data using a special <filter> section. A single filter can specify multiple DNS records, all specified either by ID, site ID or host IP address.

Parameters, nested in the filter node are called filtering rule. A filter contains as many different filtering rule types as the number of different parameters nested in the XML presentation of the filter node. A single operation can use only parameters of the same type in the filtering rule.

A packet that retrieves information about the primary DNS server for site with ID 3 can look as follows:

<packet>
    <dns>
        <get_master_server>
            <filter>
                <site-id>3</site-id>
            </filter>
        </get_master_server>
    </dns>
</packet>

The filter-id node is nested in a response packet of the get_master_server operation. It returns the filtering rule parameter. If one of the following values was set as a filter rule parameter, it is returned in the filter-id node of the response packet.

• Site ID
• DNS Record ID
• Site alias ID

It is done to trace the request parameters in case of error. Data type: anySimpleType.

If the filter node is left blank (<filter/>), the filter-id parameter will hold the ID of the object. The blank filter means that all records are matched by this rule.

There are three kinds of filters, specified by different types:

• aclFilter
• simpleFilter
• dnsSelectionFilter