IonCube Loader is a tool, that's necessary to run files that are encoded with ionCube PHP Encoder. The latter is an application which is used to make PHP code human unreadable, so as to protect it from reverse engineering and illegal usage. A number of script-driven applications, particularly discussion forums, cms and electronic commerce solutions are encoded with ionCube PHP Encoder, therefore when you get a script and you notice that ionCube is on the list of website hosting environment prerequisites, you have to ensure that your hosting server has the tool pre-installed. Although it's not that hard to install it when you have your own server, it is close to impossible to do that on a shared hosting server since the PHP environment shall have to be precompiled and all of the clients on the server will be affected.
IonCube in Shared Hosting
IonCube Loader is supplied with every single Linux shared hosting that we supply and you'll be able to activate it at any time with just a couple of clicks, so you can use script apps which need it. You'll be able to do this through the PHP Configuration area of the Hepsia Control Panel and all it takes to enable or deactivate ionCube is to click a single button. The change will take effect within a minute, therefore you'll be able to proceed and install the app that you need without delay. The very same section allows you to switch the PHP version that is active for your account, because we support a variety of releases on our cutting-edge cloud hosting platform. If you switch to a version that you've never used so far, you'll have to activate ionCube Loader once again. Experienced users will be able to use a php.ini file in a specific domain folder in order to set a PHP release different from the one for the entire account or enable/disable ionCube Loader.
IonCube in Semi-dedicated Servers
IonCube Loader is available with all Linux semi-dedicated servers that we supply, which means that you will not experience any problems if you'd like to set up and work with a script app that requires the tool in order to function properly. Activating it is as easy as clicking a button inside the Advanced section of the Hepsia Control Panel that comes with all the semi-dedicated accounts and the change shall take effect in a minute, therefore you're able to proceed with the app installation without any delays. Due to the fact that we use an avant-garde custom-made platform and we support a number of versions of PHP simultaneously, you will need to activate ionCube every time you switch to a version that you have not used before. Additionally, you have the option to enable ionCube loader or even to set a PHP version different from the one in the account as a whole by generating a php.ini file in a separate domain or subdomain folder and adding several lines of program code inside it.