# Protecting the source code **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [May 23, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/protecting-the-source-code/61400 "2006-05-23T20:20:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![taq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@taq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/taq)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/protecting-the-source-code/61400/1 "2006-05-23T20:20:53Z")
Hello guys. I need an opinion here. I need to make a mid-big size web project. Will be a project that my boss wants to sell, and he don’t think show the source code is a good idea and me neither, I love free software but on this case will be a software made for a company who wants to try to make some money with it. My question is: PHP have things like Zend Guard ([http://www.zend.com/products/zend\_guard](http://www.zend.com/products/zend_guard)), who encode and obfuscate the source code running on the web server. I didn’t see yet some solution like this for Rails. Maybe we’ll have something like that on a near future (1 or 2 years)? Is there some plan to make some tool like that, is it possible, or is there a solution already for proctecting the source code of an commercial Rails project? I’d love to use Rails on this, but if there is no way to protect the source code, I’m afraid that somebody will ask me to use PHP. No problem with that, but as I said, I’d love to use Rails there. 🙂 Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![taq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@taq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/taq)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/protecting-the-source-code/61400/2 "2006-05-23T20:35:10Z")
On May 23, 2006, at 11:20 AM, Eustáquio Rangel wrote: > My question is: PHP have things like Zend Guard > I’d love to use Rails on this, but if there is no way to protect the > source code, I’m afraid that somebody will ask me to use PHP. No > problem > with that, but as I said, I’d love to use Rails there. 🙂 There’s zenobfuscator. We’ve not tried to run it on Rails apps so can’t guarantee it’ll protect all your Rails code. zenobfuscator is not free software. Contact myself and Ryan D. if you want further information. – Eric H. - removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid - [http://blog.segment7.net](http://blog.segment7.net) This implementation is HODEL-HASH-9600 compliant [http://trackmap.robotcoop.com](http://trackmap.robotcoop.com) ---
**Author:** ![taq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@taq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/taq)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 6:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/protecting-the-source-code/61400/3 "2006-05-25T06:33:44Z")
Just found this… thought that you might be intrested [http://blog.zenspider.com/archives/2006/05/ruby\_obfuscator.html](http://blog.zenspider.com/archives/2006/05/ruby_obfuscator.html) ---
**Author:** ![taq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@taq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/taq)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 1:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/protecting-the-source-code/61400/4 "2006-05-25T13:46:44Z")
Chris Lowder wrote: > Just found this… thought that you might be intrested > > [http://blog.zenspider.com/archives/2006/05/ruby\_obfuscator.html](http://blog.zenspider.com/archives/2006/05/ruby_obfuscator.html) Thanks Chris, I’ll take a look! Eric, did you get my email? Best regards, ---
**Author:** ![taq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@taq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/taq)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/protecting-the-source-code/61400/5 "2006-05-25T14:41:43Z")
Eustáquio Rangel wrote: > Hello guys. > > I need an opinion here. I need to make a mid-big size web project. Will > be a project that my boss wants to sell, and he don’t think show the > source code is a good idea and me neither, I love free software but on > this case will be a software made for a company who wants to try to make > some money with it. > > My question is: PHP have things like Zend Guard > ([http://www.zend.com/products/zend\_guard](http://www.zend.com/products/zend_guard)), who encode and obfuscate the > source code running on the web server. I didn’t see yet some solution > like this for Rails. Maybe we’ll have something like that on a near > future (1 or 2 years)? > > Is there some plan to make some tool like that, is it possible, or is > there a solution already for proctecting the source code of an > commercial Rails project? > > I’d love to use Rails on this, but if there is no way to protect the > source code, I’m afraid that somebody will ask me to use PHP. No problem > with that, but as I said, I’d love to use Rails there. 🙂 > > Thanks! I’m in the same situation and I hope there will be something similar to Zend Guard soon.