Auto PHP Licenser 1.3 is a feature-focused release that brings significant improvements to both admin and user modules for ultimate PHP code protection.
Two months have passed since the last update of our PHP license manager. What happened during this time? Obviously, many people enjoyed their summer vacation. Meanwhile, phpmillion team worked day and night to bring you the biggest update yet – Auto PHP Licenser 1.3. The new release introduces changes not only to admin module, but also significantly improves user module. Just in case you forgot… You use admin module to setup clients and issue licenses. Then you integrate user module into your scripts for continuous protection.
The full changelog is available as usually, but before you study it… Let’s cover the most important changes first.
License verification module forces additional check of core settings, license data, and user data before connecting to licensing server;
Auto PHP Licenser has well-documented functions to quickly inspect if core settings and license data are valid. In other words, it can validate not only license, but also check protection settings configured by author. This feature offers two serious advantages. First, it ensures programmer didn’t make any mistakes. Second, it prevents someone from overwriting protection settings. However, we found some coders not to reap benefits of these features in their scripts. Hence, we changed the way main license verification module works! As a result, it forces all these tests before proceeding with actual license verification.
To summarize, you don’t need to call core settings and data verification functions in your code for extra security anymore. Therefore, it’s completely safe and highly recommended to remove them from protected scripts. In that case, you will avoid duplicated tests that could slightly reduce overall performance. Sounds good? Let’s jump to another enhancement.
License signature is only generated and/or verified when licensing server’s IP can be validated;
In case protected script can’t connect to your licensing server, Auto PHP Licenser 1.3 won’t even proceed with further tests. The outcome? Some hacker will have even harder time trying to find out how protection algorithm works.
Important notes before you upgrade.
Since many changes are included in user module, you will need to update your code as well. Don’t panic yet, the procedure is super-easy! First, download the full package of Auto PHP Licenser. Now go to /SCRIPT directory and copy included apl_core_functions.php file (overwrite old one) to your program. Don’t worry, your custom settings and data will remain! Once done, open the main config file of Auto PHP Licenser in your script. Add this line at the bottom of //———–BASIC SETTINGS———–// section:
//Notification to be displayed when license could not be verified because license is not installed yet or corrupted.
define(“APL_NOTIFICATION_LICENSE_CORRUPTED”, “License is not installed yet or corrupted.”);
Send the modified program to your clients. And… this is it!
As always, you can update admin module right now. All you have to do is open the Software Updates section and confirm this upgrade. However, be aware that admin module now requires PHP version 5.5 or higher. But what if you run Auto PHP Licenser 1.3 on older version of PHP? All protection features will be available and existing scripts will continue operating, but some parts of administration interface may not work properly. However, PHP 5.5 is available since 2013; therefore, a vast majority of servers run this (or newer) version by default today. For this reason, you shouldn’t experience any issues at all.
But that’s not all. We have more good news for you. If you update admin module to version 1.3, protected scripts based on version 1.0, 1.1 or 1.2 will operate as usually. This way, you don’t need to rush and start delivering updates to your clients right now. Take your time and do it whenever you are ready. How cool is that!?
A special thanks…
Our special thanks for user module enhancements goes to programmer _d3nny. He thoroughly examined PHP license script code and offered some great suggestions on how to increase the effectiveness of PHP code protection. Thank you!