how to make sure a link cannot be removed from source code?

Originally Posted by wvb Ok, whatever you say, you're going to remake php. Congrats. Call mom for a kiss

Kissing down a phone line would be physically impossible, thanks though. Maybe I should stop now.

I'm so sorry

Well, seems you have free time I will ask you something:

To the above poster, if you misunderstood what he was asking, fair enough, else try to learn what include actually does

Who asked you to evaluate if my suggestion was valid or not? Is one like another, and can be valid as other.

Originally Posted by wvb Who asked you to evaluate if my suggestion was valid or not? Is one like another, and can be valid as other.

I'll write this patronisingly because I'm fed up of you trying to defend your answer via technicalities: Welcome to TalkFreelance. The software we are using to post these comments is called vBulletin. It's a discussion forum, therefore the idea is that it's a forum (a public meeting or assembly for open discussion) for people to discuss (To converse or debate concerning a particular topic) things in.

Therefore, by posting here you performed an action similar to that of someone appearing on a political talk show - you presented your ideas for discussion by an audience. I made the post following yours, which meant that you were the poster above my first post in this thread, hence why I referred to you as such.

In your next post you seemed to be hacked off at me for pointing out that include wasn't what he was looking for. The fact that you've as of yet not bothered to defend your argument and instead have just tried to have a go at me for pointing it out almost proves that you, although you do appear to be in a rather severe state of denial, know your answer wasn't relevant too.

If you wish to explain why include would be useful for the OP, I would (and I'm sure he/she would too) be interested in hearing it.

Sources for definitions:

• forum: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=forum
• discuss: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/discuss

First, I think you dont catched it: buddhi225 asked how to make links not removable form source code, not to discuss if include() can be useful or is or not a PHP function.

So what the hell are you talking about technicalities?? I just purposed the include() function as a possible way to do it.
I have not offended or insulted you, so be respectful and use the nick of people. I'm not an object. And is not a ego question. I don't need to feel i'm the best one. I just want respect, and this way to refer me is disrespectful.
And my nick is shorter than "to the above bla bla", so better use it instead of "the above" phrase.

I just proposed include() as one of the way to take the objective, not to discuss about if include is valid or not.

So lets make clear some points:

• I suggested include() as one of the solutions.
• I DO NOT asked for any review or anything. So if you have something to say about buddhi225's question, answer him, if not, avoid it.

So you started to dispute my answer and that is what led us to this discussion.

So next time please avoid to comment other people solutions (or in any case do it via PM to avoid offtopic content) and make your proposals (if you have any).

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And about include() as useful way to resolve the main question:

I propose use it to include some remote file.
This way, the owners of the websites that buddhi225 created will not be able to edit the link directly.
Of course if the have the source code, they will be able to edit anything, included the include(), but the link directly will not be able to be edited.

And buddhi225 can also add some type of license prohibiting modify the part of the include().

Originally Posted by wvb And about include() as useful way to resolve the main question: I propose use it to include some remote file. This way, the owners of the websites that buddhi225 created will not be able to edit the link directly. Of course if the have the source code, they will be able to edit anything, included the include(), but the link directly will not be able to be edited. And buddhi225 can also add some type of license prohibiting modify the part of the include().

My god! Thankyou! An actual reason. It only took god knows how many posts. There we are then, sorted.

You want answers? Get answers! Graphic and all!

What's to stop anyone just removing the include call? To be fair, it is a very poor "solution" if one can call it such.

As for better alternatives, there a number of technologies out there which might help but I think you might be approaching the problem wrongly. If you really, really don't want people to be able to edit the source then make it a hosted solution. If that is not possible, then you'll have to jump through hoops (think Zend encoder, ioncube and such like) or just submit to the open-source philosophy and ask that the links remain in the source.

There is no way to "force' content on an open source script (open source means the source can be modified). There are services like ioncube that will make your PHP code unreadable and therefore unmodifiable, but I'm sure there are ways past that. Otherwise stick to .NET or another compiled language (although .net and any programming language can be reverse engineered).

It comes down to this: Processors do whatever the hell programs tell them to do, and they only accept commands in a uniform way. With that said, it is possible to reverse engineer a program because they are commanding the processor in this uniform manor. So no program is can for certain place anything anywhere if you are dealing with technical people.

edit:
As for WVB's solution, it will not work. As Sal pointed out, there is nothing stopping the user from simply removing the inculde. Any validation would require placing a known value in memory (aka a variable), which can be easily forged on the client's end by even a semi-competent programmer. If a file can be included, the source can be grabbed from it. So embedding a few curtail functions on your side would prove useless.

They can also remove encoded PHP (and includes) if we are talking about people who gets the source code.

So establish a license that prohibits modify some part of the code could be the solution (assuming that buddhi225 can not host the files, and therefore he can't control them directly).