I’m developing a custom WordPress theme for a company, and I’d like to keep some of the source code private (the client is okay with this).
The theme only contains a handful of code that I’d like to protect. (The vast majority of the theme is constructed like any other WP theme –nothing to hide.)
I have considered encrypting some of this source code in question with something like ionCube, but I’d rather not go that route, unless of course it’s the only route that I can realistically go.
My question is, is there a way that I can host these source files on my server, and remotely send the theme data to their WordPress installation, perhaps via another plugin or API? My goal is to ensure that only I have access to certain parts of the source code.
I really have no idea where to begin with something like this, so I am open to all suggestions. I’ve tagged the post with a few different tags that I think may be relevant.
Thank you for any guidance.
When doing this you have two solutions:
1st: Host the entire site, then nobody will be able to access to the code.
2nd: Serve the “private” content from your own server, you can do it with javascript (aka Ajax), or with PHP curl. You can even go through a html5 web socket.
Nevertheless, remember that when you create a work for someone, that code is for them … and hiding code this way is not well seen.
Regards!
You do realize that WordPress is GPL right? This also applies to any themes, which means any php or html code that intermingles with WordPress code is also subject to GPL. You might very well be jeopardizing your relationship with the client by not understanding how the licensing of open source works.
It is not only hard to imagine a case of somehow creating a theme that interacts with WordPress without breaking the license terms, but why anyone one would want to do this for a legitimate or a professional reason.
http://drupal.org/licensing/faq/
http://wordpress.org/news/2009/07/themes-are-gpl-too/