I was wondering if i need some special software to be able to host encoded php code from the PhpED encoder? I just want to know because I am planning to release a product in about 6-12 months and I don't want poeple to be able to easily copy my source code but not want to but a major hassle on the customer. I would assume i would(or how else would it be able to read it) but can i including it in im product download easily.

This is really a question for the Nu-Coder Forum. This is at the bottom of the Nu-Coder product page: http://www.nusphere.com/products/nucoder.htm



All of the encoding solutions I've seen need a decoding PHP extension installed on the server. I would love someone to prove me wrong as this is what's held me back from distributing my closed-source code in PHP format.

How else would it work? Unless the functionality is built into the server, there has to be an extra step to decode the files before passing them onto PHP. At least until PHP itself supports encoding/compiling in some fashion.

There is no decoder for encoded files needed. All you need is a loader that will let php execute bytecodes from the encoded file. Honestly, I'd prefer to call them "pre-compiled" files rather than "encoded" as it reflects the things more accurately.
In case of NuCoder you need PhpExpress (+free+) product running on the server. It plays two roles: executes pre-compiled files and accelerates execution for all the files, including pre-compiled and not pre-compiled.

So any loader that allows execution of bytecode should work with Nu-coder files?

Unfortunately I can't tell everyone that wants to use my pre-compiled Nu-coder files to just download and install PHPExpress as many of them will be in shared environments without access to the php config file. However, many servers nowadays have some kind loader installed, so that would expand the number of users that could use the code.

I'm also assuming that Nu-coder files won't work for CGI installations of PHP? Or am I wrong there as well?

no. Pre-compiled files produced by nucoder can be loaded by PhpExpress and only by it.


They will.
CGI may only affect PhpExpress's accelerator part, nothing else. It will still able to load pre-compiled files and run them.