Developing proprietary apps in PHP

[Ben]

I'm new to PHP. The ease of use, power, flexibility and low overhead to run
it is amazing. I am tempted to convert my entire software to PHP but have a
few questions and concerns before heading down this path.

In short my program provides specialized web-based reporting and statistical
analysis using a variety of data sources. All of these data sources can be
converted fed to a centralized MySQL DB easily using VFP (no VFP comments
please). My major concern is this "open source" PHP philosophy being in a
very competitive and very propriety niche industry. Is it true that anyone
accessing a PHP program on the net can easily download all source? Are
there any protections for proprietary code or does that go against the very
nature of PHP?

I like PHP but can not throw this application to the wolves. I've narrowed
my decision down to PHP or VB.NET and definitely prefer PHP.

Any comments are appreciated.

- Ben

[Colin McKinnon]

Ben wrote:

please). My major concern is this "open source" PHP philosophy being in a
very competitive and very propriety niche industry. Is it true that
anyone
accessing a PHP program on the net can easily download all source?
Nope.
Are
there any protections for proprietary code or does that go against the
very nature of PHP?

Code is usually distributed as source but can be rendered totally unreadable
using encoders available from Zend, Ioncube and possibly others.

HTH

C.

[David Gillen]

An noise sounding like Colin McKinnon said:

Code is usually distributed as source but can be rendered totally unreadable
using encoders available from Zend, Ioncube and possibly others.

Stick PHP obfuscator into google and you'll get a few results.

Remember to keep a copy of your original source code though. Otherwise you'll
be just a f*$%ed. ;)

db
--

/(bb|[^b]{2})/
Trees with square roots don't have very natural logs.

[Geoff Berrow]

I noticed that Message-ID:
<sl************ *******@carbon. redbrick.dcu.ie > from David Gillen
contained the following:

Stick PHP obfuscator into google and you'll get a few results.

I write self-obfuscating code.. ;-}

--
Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/

[Ben]

"Geoff Berrow" <bl******@ckdog .co.uk> wrote in message
news:9r******** *************** *********@4ax.c om...

I noticed that Message-ID:
<sl************ *******@carbon. redbrick.dcu.ie > from David Gillen
contained the following:
So what you guys are saying is that a PHP app is basically out there for
anyone to read, copy and repackage and sell at will?

Stick PHP obfuscator into google and you'll get a few results.

I write self-obfuscating code.. ;-}

--
Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/

[Geoff Berrow]

I noticed that Message-ID: <IL************ ****@twister.rd c-kc.rr.com>
from Ben contained the following:

So what you guys are saying is that a PHP app is basically out there for
anyone to read, copy and repackage and sell at will?

It's an interpreted language, so basically, yes.

--
Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/

[Nik Coughin]

Ben wrote:

"Geoff Berrow" <bl******@ckdog .co.uk> wrote in message
news:9r******** *************** *********@4ax.c om...

I noticed that Message-ID:
<sl************ *******@carbon. redbrick.dcu.ie > from David Gillen
contained the following:

So what you guys are saying is that a PHP app is basically out there
for anyone to read, copy and repackage and sell at will?

Ben:

http://www.zend.com/store/products/zend-encoder.php

[Ben]

"Geoff Berrow" <bl******@ckdog .co.uk> wrote in message
news:kt******** *************** *********@4ax.c om...

I noticed that Message-ID: <IL************ ****@twister.rd c-kc.rr.com>
from Ben contained the following:

So what you guys are saying is that a PHP app is basically out there for
anyone to read, copy and repackage and sell at will?
It's an interpreted language, so basically, yes.

Thanks for being so up front.

Off topic: So my choices are basically limited to .NET, CGI and Perl?
Important factors to me are relative security of code (I realize any code
can be hacked), low overhead (as far as server side software) and ability to
find coders to outsource. At a cross roads now where my coding ability is
nearly obsolete. Would rather focus on design/marketing and outsource the
coding to experts like yourself instead of beginning the 1-2 year road to
master another language.

Any feedback is appreciated.

- Ben
--
Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/

[Dave Patton]

"Ben" <[e-mail]> wrote in news:IL******** ********@twiste r.rdc-kc.rr.com:

So what you guys are saying is that a PHP app is basically out there for
anyone to read, copy and repackage and sell at will?

The answer is .... it depends.

If by "app" you mean a web-based application where the
PHP scripts will be executed on your webserver and people's
interaction with the "applicatio n" will be via their browser,
then barring security issues, people will never see the
PHP code, because the webserver parses it and produces
HTML pages.

If you mean you write a 'standalone' application using
PHP, and plan to distribute it, so that people can then
install PHP and run your application, then unless you
use one of the available methods to 'hide' your PHP
code, yes, people will be able to see your PHP source code.

As for "repackage and sell at will", you can put limits
on that with how you licence your application.

--
Dave Patton
Canadian Coordinator, Degree Confluence Project
http://www.confluence.org/
My website: http://members.shaw.ca/davepatton/

[Geoff Berrow]

I noticed that Message-ID: <Pp************ *****@twister.r dc-kc.rr.com>
from Ben contained the following:

It's an interpreted language, so basically, yes.

Thanks for being so up front.

Off topic: So my choices are basically limited to .NET, CGI and Perl?

Well Perl is interpreted too and so is .NET I think. See Dave Patton's
post for a more complete answer

--
Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/