19.7.2 PHP EncodersThis is NOT the latest copy of this book; click here for the latest version.
At the time of writing there are two popular PHP encoders, Zend Safeguard Suite (ZSS) and IonCube Encoder (IE), both of which are commercial pieces of software. The concept behind both these encoders is that you run them on a PHP script, or a whole project of scripts, and they literally turn the code into seeming garbage that still executes the same as an unencoded script.
To allow encoded scripts to execute like unencoded scripts, a special script loader is required - this sits inside PHP itself, and so is a seamless process. Zend's loader is cleverly integrated into their free Zend Optimizer program, whereas IonCube's loader is a separate download that people who use your encoded scripts need to download and install.
Both IE and ZSS support advanced functionality such as limiting scripts to running on just a certain computer or computers, making files expire after a certain date, etc - they give you a lot of flexibility in your encoding choices.
At the time of writing IE was a great deal cheaper than ZSS, but offered slightly fewer features - you should check both companies, at www.zend.com and www.ioncube.com, to see the latest prices and feature lists.
|
Want to see this stuff in print? PHP in a Nutshell takes the core topics covered here, adds in thousands of edits from the editorial team and myself, and combines them to make an unbeatable reference for PHP programmers at all levels.
My latest book has hundreds more tips on how to use PHP, Apache, and MySQL, plus Perl, Python, shell scripts, performance tuning, and more!
|
