Question

I’m about to release my script ,, But i want to make sure that i’m doing it the right way ..
I’ll IONCUBE the script to reserve my rights or use fopo.com.ar to obfuscate the script ( btw, what is your opinion about fopo , is is better than asking customers to install IONCUBE?) ..

is it enough to call my website from within the script and returning TRUE if it exists in my DB and is a real customer or else don’t run the script !? or I’m missing something here. ?

Answer 1

Above all, don’t do your “let’s check on my website if this script is registered”. Just don’t. Because of a lot of reason :

• Your customer server might forbid these kind of functions (fopen, etc.) in the php.ini
• Your customer’s website might be in an intranet, so offline.
• Your site might be down
• Your site might be long to respond
• /* Insert here zillions of other good reasons */

This said, let’s continue with ionCUBE. It looks like a good idea, as ionCUBE is really simple and easy to install on a dedicated/private server. Forget about selling your script to customer that have only a shared server : they have no control over php.ini, and even less about copying/adding file on the server.

Last of all, obfuscating your code. Works on every configuration, but less restrictive action. Basically you just prevent people from understanding your code, not using it. If you use this solution, you have to be sure to have a robust, well-documented, almost bug free code, as your customer will not give you good log of encountered bugs, due to the obfuscation.