4.8. Miscellaneous Settings
Target file options
The Loader will prevent execution of encoded scripts if unrecognised extensions are installed. This behaviour can be turned off by checking the Allow encoded files to run with unrecognised server extensions installed box. Leave this checked for maximum compatibility with servers that have some popular opensource extensions installed.
The Encoder will set the modified time on target files to be the same as the modified time on the source files if Apply source file timestamps to target files is checked.
Files can be encoded in either ASCII or binary mode. Binary mode files are slightly smaller in size, however some FTP clients and compression tools may corrupt files by performing CR/LF (linebreak) conversion when transferring between or unpacking files on different operating systems. For this reason it is strongly recommended to select ASCII mode encoding.
Target file permissions
The Encoder will apply the same permissions of the source files and folders to the target if Copy from source is selected.
Language options
Files starting with the conventional <?php tag are recognised as PHP files. To also recognise the short open tag <? check the corresponding option.
To display warnings where source code has violated PHP strict language usage guidelines or where it uses deprecated features, check the Strict language usage and/or Deprecated warnings options.
The Encoder can preserve any PHP 5 Documentation Comments such that these are available for reading programatically. Storage of any PHP 5 doc comments can be disabled by checking the Suppress doc comments box.
The Custom Auto Globals field allows you to specify variables that should be treated as globals when used inside a function even if no global keyword has been used. The use of any globals in software should be kept to a minimum for maintainability, reliability and ease of understanding, but if your application uses any custom extensions that define autoglobals that your application relies upon, you can tell the Encoder about them via this field.
Loader options
From time to time new features may be added to the ionCube Loader such as new Loader API functions. If an
encoded script requires such features, it may be desirable to specify the minimum version of the Loader compatible with the scripts.
For example, enter 3.1.2 in the Minimum Loader version to prevent the encoded files from running with a Loader whose version is less than 3.1.2, or 3.2 to prevent the files from functioning with a Loader version prior to 3.2.
Logging
A log file can be created containing messages generated during the Encoding process. Enter the path to use when saving the log file in the Log file field.
ionCube Package Foundry integration
The ionCube Package Foundry (IPF) is a tool for producing installers for your PHP applications. IPF is a seperate tool
to the Encoder, and can be integrated with the Encoder GUI. IPF uses a script to configure options such as the name of the product and
properties related to deployment, and to enable the integration it is necessary to enter the path to an existing or new .pfs script.
IPF can also be run as a standalone application from the Windows Start Menu, and the IPF documentation should be consulted for more information.
Post-encoding step
After the Encoder has successfully completed, an external shell command can be triggered automatically as specified in the Run command field. This field supports environment variable subtitutions. As an example, the following command would open the target folder after encoding is complete:
C:\WINDOWS\explorer "{TARGET_DIR}"