Well i thought about trying and/or buying the PHP-encoder, until i readed that it was an extention to be installed on the webserver.
Maybe the guys at nuspere do not understand that there are web-hosters that do not provide this option, and even do not provide
to install the extension in the first place, so that thing is complete useless to be used wide-spreaded for PHP developers.

It's a pitty, cause i was really looking for such a thing to protect my propetairy code.

maybe Bieleke you do not understand that all other solutions not based on php extensions provide no support for any real encoding and sources can be easily extracted?

True, but tell me, how you are gonna sell software whereabout you have no clue if the customer is able to install that express software to be able to run you code in the first place ? Do i miss something here ?

Imagine i have a customer that pays me 200 bucks for my software, but he has a webhoster that does not supports to install extensions, nor it is willing to install the extension for his customer, then you are out of business right ?

NuSphere Corp is very successfull with this and I see no problems why would not hosts be convinced to install it for all vhosts. Also, many hosts are providing a way to have custom php configuration that comes with dedicated Apache daemon chrooted to appropriate directory.
Finally, with next version, phpexpress will load dynamically and this already works in some extents in our preliminary tests.

This sounds pretty slick Well anyway, i think i'm going to wait for the next version then, cause otherwise my trial period will already be over, and that should be a pitty. Thanks for explaining me things anyway.

Bieleke. Nusphere makes the best products for us PHP developers.

If you take any of the other encryption systems like the Zend guard or Ioncube you need PHP extensions installed on the servers too.

But these products has been around longer than Nucoder, and that is why you do not see PHPexpress as an option anywhere.
I have talked with a few hosting companies, none of them will install PHPexpress, because they see no use for it at the moment. There are simply not enough customers asking them to install it.

I puchased nucode when it was first released, but just like you have have not used it yet, because of mainly two things.

1. There is no license generation option.
2. There is no support on vhosts out there.

But I have great trust in Nusphere to produce these features, for the next version. True I have been waiting for the license system for almost a year now, and true that I may have to release my code with Ioncube until it is supported by the vhosts, but looking at how great PHPed is I believe that it is only a matter of time before I do not have to apply to Ioncube anymore.

You're right. It should be easy to ask hosts to install not only your encoder, but any encoder. It takes almost no time or effort. Unfortunately, I have a ton of customers that host with GoDaddy, and GoDaddy will not spport ANY extension aside from Zend on their shared hosting packages. They just tell users to upgrade to a vDed or dedicated solution.

Seems like you might want to contact the 'many hosts are providing a way to have custom php configuration that comes with dedicated Apache daemon chrooted to appropriate directory'. They can configure WHM (or whatever package) to include support for your product. Currently, I have only seen IonCube as a selectable option, though they have a mechanism in place (not for the faint of heart) that allows for other customization options.

The dynamic loading of loaders is great if, as you noted, you have root access (at least that has been my experience). As you know, IonCube provides this option, but GoDaddy blocks it. Not sure whether they would block yours......

Personally, I think GoDaddy is great for purchasing domain names, but they are a terrible choice for shared hosting. Even the vDeds and dedicated servers have to send mail via proxy, and it's throttled. You can ask for an exception, but........

It looks like GoDaddy provide a way to have your very own php.ini where you can add php extensions and it works on their "Linux Shared Hosting accounts". Did you try their help center?

[quote="dmitri]
It looks like GoDaddy provide a way to have your very own php.ini where you can add php extensions and it works on their "Linux Shared Hosting accounts". Did you try their help center?[/quote]

I did. When I first talked to them, they said that shared hosting plans COULD support third-party loaders. Then I received this email from GoDaddy:
======================================================
Our support staff has responded to your request, details of which are described below:

Discussion Notes
Support Staff Response
Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for contacting Hosting Support.

Please be advised that ionCube is not currently installed on our Shared Hosting server environments. We apologize for any confusion or miscommunication in this matter. If you require ionCube, we recommend purchasing a virtual or fully dedicated server which would provide you with administrative control over the server environment, including the ability to install applications.

Please contact us if you have any further issues.
=============================================================

I took this to mean that the user did not have control over php.ini., but maybe I'm wrong. I have a dedicated server (not a vDed) with GoDaddy and another with SingleHop. Interestingly, the GoDaddy server came pre-configured with IonCube support enabled. On the SingleHop server, I used Web Host Manager (WHM has a method specifically designed for enabling IonCube) to configure the server for IonCube support. Of course, I could have installed support for NuCoder or PhpExpress on either of the servers, but I was using IonCube long before I purchased NuCoder. As I alluded to in a previous post, I'm still experimenting with NuCoder. I've written all the automation for encoding and licensing with IonCube, so switching will take me quite a bit of time.

As I've learned, GoDaddy often gives conflicting information. You may be right (and I hope you are -- it would make my life simpler), but the above mail seems to indicate that the user cannot install third-party loaders.

Thanks ~ RLR

then how to understand this info:


it's on the page where they're talking about Linux Shared Hosting accounts: http://help.godaddy.com/topic/423/article/1467

I've sent GoDaddy the following support ticket. I'll post their reponse when I receive it.

To: Support
Re: Linux Shared Hosting/Please clarify regarding Windows Shared Hostig, too.

I am receiving conflicting information from GoDaddy regarding the installation of loader files on shared hosting accounts. The first time I contacted GoDaddy about Shared Hosting support for xxxxxxx, I was told xxxxxxx could be supported. The issue seems to be addressed in your support area:

http://help.godaddy.com/topic/423/article/1467

Later, I received a follow-up email that contradicted the information I received via telephone and seems to contradict the support link provided above. You may reference the email sent by your technical support staff under Incident ID: xxxxxxx.

Please clarify the issue once and for all: Can xxxxxxx (or other loader files, for that matter) be installed on Shared Hosting accounts along with the php.ini mods necessary to make them work?

Thank you,

Lee

Also you may check if they ban dl() function. If they do not ban, you'll be able to use it to load phpexpress in run-time, like shown below:

dl('/home/myaccount/blahblahblah/phpexpress-php-4.4.so');