Encrypt my framework and code

Question

hi, i am creating my own CMS frame work, because many of the clients i have, the have same requirements, like news module, newsletter module, etc.

now i am doing it fine, the only thing that is bothering me, is if a client wants to move from my server he would ask me to gibe him his files, and of course if i do so the new person who will take it he will see all my code, use it and benefit from i, and this is so bad for me that i spend all this time on creating my system and any one can easily see the code, plus he will see all the logic for my system, and he can easily know how other clients of mine sites are working, and that is a threat to me, finally i am using third party controls that i have paid for their license, and i don't want him to take it on a golden plate.

now what is the best way to solve this ? i thought it is encrypting, but how can i do that and how efficient is it ?

-should i merge all my CS files and Dlls in bin folder to one Dll and encrypt it, and how can i do that ?

i totally appreciate all the help on this matter as it is really crucial for me.

Answer 1

You'll need to precompile your site and obfuscate dlls. Visual Studio has something like Dotfuscator Community Edition shipped with it. You could give it a try.

Of course, HTML output, CSS declarations, database structure and stored procedures code cannot be encrypted.

You can however try to compress CSS which will also reduce its readbility by humans.

Check here: The best approach to scramble CSS definitions to a human-unreadable state throughout an ASP.NET application

One other idea would be to use a frame in your HTML and put the most of the site pages inside of it. This way, it will not be visible when doing "View source".

Or just state it clearly that you offer whatever you're doing as a service and do not provide source codes of your work. I somehow doubt salesforce would be willing to give their sources to anyone who asks.

Answer 2

you should read this

Best .NET obfuscation tools/strategy

How effective is obfuscation?

Answer 3

In my experience, this is rarely worth the effort. Lots of companies who provide libraries like this don't bother obfuscating their code (Telerik, etc).

Especially considering what you are writing (CMSes are everywhere), you'd likely see more benefit from your time spent implementing features that put your product/implementation in a competitive advantage and make companies see that the software you are capable of writing has value, rather than the code itself.

In the end, you want to ensure you are a key factor in making software work for a company, not the DLLs you give them.