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Is there any way to protect / hide source code of forms in foxpro app?
- Thread starter MH_Rajput
- Start date
Chris Miller
Programmer
You can embed reports to disallow editing them. And Refox is the standard to protect your code.
But in the end look into this discussion: thread184-1806597.
Chriss
But in the end look into this discussion: thread184-1806597.
Chriss
Mike Lewis
Programmer
You can hide the source code within an EXE by ticking the Encrypted box in the Project Info dialogue.
Without that box ticked, if you view the EXE in a hex editor, you will see some recognisable text, including the names of your functions, procedures, classes, properties, methods, etc., plus the text of your user messages and even some of your comments. What you can't see is the actual source code.
The code is present, of course, but it is in a tokenised form. So a decompiler (or a very knowledgeable developer) would be able to retrieve it. If you want to guard against that risk, tick Encrypted. That way, none of the text or code will be visible.
But, ask yourself: why are you worried about this? Who are you trying to "protect" your application against?
Even if someone managed to extract the source code from your executable, what are they going to do with it? They would end up with just raw code, with no obvious way of putting it together; no understanding of how it works; no information about your class hierarchies or data structures; almost no comments and no documentation of any kind. They would need a great deal of skill and patience to reverse engineer an entire application - to the extent that it would probably be easier to write a new application from scratch.
I suggest that the risk of someone stealing your intellectual property in this way is virtually zero.
Mike
__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads
Without that box ticked, if you view the EXE in a hex editor, you will see some recognisable text, including the names of your functions, procedures, classes, properties, methods, etc., plus the text of your user messages and even some of your comments. What you can't see is the actual source code.
The code is present, of course, but it is in a tokenised form. So a decompiler (or a very knowledgeable developer) would be able to retrieve it. If you want to guard against that risk, tick Encrypted. That way, none of the text or code will be visible.
But, ask yourself: why are you worried about this? Who are you trying to "protect" your application against?
Even if someone managed to extract the source code from your executable, what are they going to do with it? They would end up with just raw code, with no obvious way of putting it together; no understanding of how it works; no information about your class hierarchies or data structures; almost no comments and no documentation of any kind. They would need a great deal of skill and patience to reverse engineer an entire application - to the extent that it would probably be easier to write a new application from scratch.
I suggest that the risk of someone stealing your intellectual property in this way is virtually zero.
Mike
__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads
Never tried it but might help
- Thread starter
- #5
I have used Refox to try to protect; but I had one person send me the code that he extracted from a 'protected' exe. So Refox is not 100% secure. The best would be to compile the VFP code to actual machine code and not p-code. Take a look at VFP Compiler:
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