A couple of months ago, I wrote about NuSphere’s PhpDock; a deployment platform that allowed PHP developers to package up their scripts and have them run as desktop applications. For PHP developers like me, this seemed to be the key that could open up a whole host of new possibilities. Unfortunately, any source code deployed would have been easily accessible unless some form of code obfuscation was employed e.g. CodeLock.
I’ve just found out from NuSphere that they’ve released Nu-Coder, a PHP encoder that converts source code into compiled PHP bytecodes. Whilst it can be used as a standalone encoder, it promises to address one of the key issues that put me off looking into PhpDock to any great extent. So on it’s own, it’s yet another encoder, but teamed up with it’s sibling, PhpDock, it offers three major benefits:
- PHP source code is no longer plain text and so unreadable.
- Compiled code is less likely to be reverse engineered than code that’s been obfuscated.
- Compiled bytecode should execute faster than plaintext source code because it’s closer to a form that the PHP engine can understand. No compiling on the fly required.
There is one drawback in that any compiled code you distribute also requires a companion application that can make use of the bytecode, but this isn’t so much of an issue when it’s all packaged up as a desktop application and it’s not so different from existing practices making use of either Zend Optimizer or ionCube.
A ‘feature’ which may put some people off is Nu-Coder’s command line interface (CLI) although PhpEd users will be able to benefit from a version early in the new year with seamless integration into their editing environment. If the CLI is such a great feature, why work on a version to take it away? 
Technorati Tags: Desktop PHP Applications, PHP Scripts, NuSphere, Nu-Coder, PhpDock, Zend, ionCube
I’m in the middle of debugging an app using phpdock, which I’ve been wanting to write for a couple of years now, but which I avoided doing before.Why? Because although I’m an OK vb coder, I didn’t want the support headaches that come with writing VB apps.
PHPdock has got me up and running in about 2 weeks or so. I’ve coupled it with:
– Sqlite for a database
– NSIS setup for an installation app (more flexible than innosetup)
– A php obfuscator (I’m not using nucoder, although they asked me to a beta tester) for security, and
– phpaudit.com’s licensing app to help prevent theft and also to help promote the software via a feature-limited trial.
Result? I’ve got a nice little bit of software coming soon, great for anyone doing business online.
Nusphere rock!
Andy
Hi Andrew,
Great to have a live user’s opinion and it would be great to stay informed about your progress with it as a deployment platform.
With regards to the obfuscator, what did you use and why did you decide not to use Nu-Coder?
Hi Will,
I’m using codelock as well, since I’ve already bought it. No point in spending extra money on nucoder. Also, I’d not actually heard of nucoder till last week.
Andy
Has anyone tried DWebPro? It seems to offer similar, if not more, functionality to PhpDock as well as being free for non-commercial use.
Hi Will,
our product DWebPro provides a lot of features that PhpDock and other similar products don’t have.
For instance it supports almost all the server side languages and databases normally used for web application development. It supports all the PHP encoders available on the market and includes its own ASP Classic and PHP encoder.
By the way, if anyone’s looking for an easy way to put together an installation package with NSIS I heartily recommend checking out HM NIS Edit.
If your serious about putting php on the desktop and want an extensive open source solution. then you should check out http://gtk.php.net/ for the gtk project developed by php community developers this binds the gtk c language GUI library for use with php to create proper GUI applications on any x window platform like windows, Linux or mac.
this is truly powerful and will allow you to create complex GUI apps which you wont be able to produce in a web browse that process on the users pc and can communicate with local and external databases and web services. this can do anything php can do so you can use pear library as well to add more functionality as well.
You can even speed up development and deployment with free solutions from http://www.gnope.org/ and http://www.priadoblender.com they both allow for secure deployments and http://www.priadoblender.com even lets you create and exe file to deploy your php gtk desktop application.
i thought i would just add these as these solutions are way more powerful and also more economical than any of the solutions described on this page.
Michael
http://gtk.php.net/, http://www.priadoblender.com and http://www.gnope.org/ if you are serious about making Proper Desktop GUI applications for any platform with secure deployment with php as the engine. Note this solutions and all open source and are all way more powerful than any links described on this page.
Michael,
Thanks for sharing that info.
Looks like a bit of steep learning curve to get into it. Have you done much with it yourself?