Make our product licensed

[waqasahmed996]

i want that my product should be a licensed product. if i ll give code to a person than that person should not be able to sell it further advance. i really have no idea how can i do this.please guide me

i have my product on a server. Is it possible every time script should compare date from that database.please guide me from first step

i ll be vary thankful to you

[nathj]

As this is in the PHP forum I'll assume it's a PHP product.

The trouble is that PHP is not a compiled language so if your clients host the source on their servers or on servers they have total access to then they could steal the code and you would not necessarily know about it.

You can compile PHP, but I've never done it.

The other option is to host the system yourself for people as part of the package never giving them access to your precious files. I know a number of companies who do this and it can be spun as a great bonus to the client - less hassle for them.

As for product registration etc you can use license keys that need to be submitted. Each key is allowed to be used so many times, or each key gives access to some many people (subtly different) and the key is registered against a particular company name. So if your client tries to sell the product on they won't have a key to give out or they give out their key which is bad for them and bad for the person they are selling it to.

Either way you should get a lawyer involved to put together a good contract for you.

I know that's not a very techy answer but hopefully there are some ideas to get you thinking about this. Whatever you decide let us know and if you need more help/advice post back. Working together we may come up with a great solution for everyone.

nathj

[dlite922]

@waqasahmed996
We get this alot, in fact a client of mine is trying to obfuscate and encode the code before handing it out, making it very difficult to crack, but still able to distribute as there is no licensing feature. However, there are many companies that offer products that allow you to license PHP application.

Or like the reply above, you could make .exe file, in other words compile it (quick google will help you).

Here are some links:
PADL - PHP Application Distribution License System

NuSphere Nu-Coder: Protect PHP files with Nu-Coder's License Manager

I trust NuSphere and use their PHPED IDE. Although not free, but it may be worth it for you.

This is a huge topic and with so many different solutions, everyone must take the one best suited to them.

Good luck,





Dan

[waqasahmed996]

Thanks for reply
Is it possible that i have a database and file in my own server. i entered a key in database of my own server. when i will sell this code then when code is run first time ( on whatever server) then database of my own server (if a file of my own server is included in original script ) will be updated and add their server name against key. now whenever application will run first time then it will be checked from my own server that key and server name is correct.

But the problem which i am facing that ajax (if information is send through ajax in php) is not sending information on another domain name in firefox and advanced IE versions

Please give me some idea about this

[nathj]

I'm not sure there is an issue here. You should be able to connect to the database on your server from the clients server. This should then enable you to run the update you suggest. The one issue I see with this is that if your client changes their host they will need to let you know. You can build this into the checking routine. If the check fails then simply display a message on screen, email yourself and your client and then you can follow up more personally to see what has happened.

I think your idea is workable.
nathj

[waqasahmed996]

thanks again for your reply

yes i am able to connect database of my own server from clients server. i am also able to send clients server and key information (for checking purpose) to the file(which i have my own server). i can compare information which is received from clients server and which is in my own database.

But which thing i can not do is that after check if server name and key is matched, me should send 1 (any output) to client side and if information is not matched then me should send 0 (any output) to client side.

Because i want to stop him from further unauthorized use. Now i am unable to send information back to client side.


what firefox and advanced versions of IE not allowed is that

var url="http://www.example.php"
url=url+"?m="+m
url=url+"&sid="+Math.random()

now value of "m" cannot be send to www.example.php

[nathj]

Okay, it's the return that's the issue. Perhaps the query string in the wrong place to make the return.

Surely the processing of this check is done on your clients server. This should mean that everything you need from the DB is accessible on the clients box. Therefore, you could throw stuff into the session if the query string is out of bounds.

Got meetings all day but I'll give this some proper thought later
nathj

[waqasahmed996]

hello again

Session is not working if page domain name is changed

[nathj]

So are you sending the information to be checked from your clients server to your server and then doing the checking on your own server? I guess that makes sense as if you have the checking code on the clients server they could see how to fudge it.

Obviously session wont work across domains - my bad. I think then what you need to do is something a bit clever.

sounds like you need some sort API to do this so that the client server calls your API which runs the check and then returns XML for you to process on the clients server. I suggest this because I have integrated with a number of third parties using this methodology and it works a charm. However, I've never built an API and unfortunately don't have the time at present to look into that for you - I would love to but I'm just starting a new project at work and it's the early days flourish of activity at present.

Sorry I've been a bit pants.

Cheers
nathj