Some PHP scripts are copy-protected ("encoded") using a system called Zend Optimizer.
These scripts aren't like normal PHP scripts. In particular, it isn't possible to look at them and see how they work. Some software authors encode their scripts this way to prevent people from copying the script "code".
These kinds of scripts require a special, nonstandard piece of software (also called "Zend Optimizer") to be installed on the server. Our servers have Zend Optimizer available for PHP, and you can enable it for your account so you can use encoded PHP scripts.
(If you try using an encoded script without enabling Zend Optimizer, you'll see a message saying "Zend Optimizer not installed". Enabling Zend Optimizer for your account will fix this.)
On this page:
Before you enable Zend Optimizer, we should explain three things:
In short: encoded scripts are more likely to have problems, and if they do, it will be difficult for you to get help with those problems.
Because of that, we actually don't recommend using encoded scripts. However, we do recognize that sometimes there is no alternative to a particular script, and we provide Zend Optimizer for such situations.
You can enable Zend Optimizer in your account management control panel:
In addition to allowing encoded PHP scripts, Zend Optimizer tries to speed up certain aspects of PHP. This is usually fine, but in some cases it can cause unusual problems. If you have trouble with PHP scripts after enabling Zend Optimizer, try adding this additional line to your php.ini file:
zend_optimizer.optimization_level=0
If you're not familiar with editing the php.ini file, we'll be glad to do this for our customers at no charge; just contact us.