phpHarden

A source code is the equivalent of a genetic structure, thus responsible for how each video game, application or website looks and behaves. By knowing and possessing this code, programmers can create updates or completely alter content of the source application. This can also lead to theft and this is where phpHarden comes in handy by making the code virtually unreadable by man or machine, process known as obfuscation.

All features are kept in a compact main window, fitted with a few tabs so you don't feel overwhelmed, not that there are too many menus or settings to configure. Accommodation is done in a jiffy, especially because of the helpful tooltips and examples attached to most requirement fields.

The process is simple and requires incredibly little effort on your behalf, which is reduced to picking source and destination folders, with additional options at your disposal for careful tweaking. You can also provide an obfuscation key which is used as a template for randomly generating characters to replace the actual code. This doesn't affect the program's functionality, but only makes the code unreadable.

Depending on the level of security you want to add to your projects, switching to the advanced tab puts a few options at your disposal. By default, the application attempts to hide everything from prying eyes, but you can manually write down variables, functions and classes to be excluded from the process. On the other hand, an easier method is to check corresponding boxes for variable, function and class names to leave them visible.

All that stands between your obfuscated PHP project and the original is the “Harden It!” button. Pressing it takes little of your time, with the destination folder brought up when done. Sadly, there's no built-in preview for the code so you need external tools to analyze it.

On an ending note, phpHarden is a neat application PHP developers might want to keep around in order to prevent theft, given the Internet is not the safest place. It's packed only with the tools you need to pick target and destination, as well as a few options related to the code itself and even though there's no preview section, we shouldn't forget programmers are the target public, which are sure to have such utilities lying around.