HTML Guardian

Know about it, have never used it, and have considered using it. It certainly looks interesting - haven't reviewed it in depth yet though.
 
I'm not so much concerned about people stealing content, although I'm battling a few people at the moment who have done just that. Where most of my work is with CSS I'd like to protect that as much as possible while staying valid..
 
So my take is that you're NOT using this now, but are considering it? Are there comparable packages out there?
 
Steve-Hostirian said:
So my take is that you're NOT using this now, but are considering it? Are there comparable packages out there?
Click to expand...

Yes & Yes. From what I've researched there's really not much you can do. And even IF I could successfully encode my CSS, there goes validation! Don't think I'd sacrifice that..
 
I’ve used it once before (Trial version) although it didn’t really offer any bonus, id potentially use something similar in php billing scripts or the likes, similar to whmcs if you have looked at the source, although a custom version of this script would be more secure in that case.
 
In my opinion, I don't think its realistic to hide/protect HTML/javascript/CSS content from visitors.
It can be made harder to steal the code, but you can't really prevent it.

For example, visit the HTML Guardian demonstration page using firefox and click on Tools > DOM Inspector.
You can view the structure of the entire page.
You can't really prevent that.

Obfuscation of javascript and CSS is doable, but a determined person would still be able to format it in order to make some sense out of it.
Just do a google search for javascript beautifier or css beautifier.
You'll find many online tools to insert spaces, tabs and newlines to make javascript and css readable again.

In the application we develop, we use YUI Compressor to compress javascript and CSS code.
The aim isn't to obfuscate the code, but to reduce the size so that pages load faster.
A side effect is that it makes it difficult to read.
We supply the original, uncompressed javascript and CSS code along with the application in case users wish to customize it.
We didn't find it necessary to prevent visitors from stealing the code.

Also, if the original javascript/CSS code is valid, I believe it will still be valid after it passes through YUI Compressor
Though you better check on that if its a requirement.

Anyway, its just my opinion - would like to hear what others have to say :)
 
Exa_Ankur said:
In my opinion, I don't think its realistic to hide/protect HTML/javascript/CSS content from visitors.
It can be made harder to steal the code, but you can't really prevent it.

For example, visit the HTML Guardian demonstration page using firefox and click on Tools > DOM Inspector.
You can view the structure of the entire page.
You can't really prevent that.

Obfuscation of javascript and CSS is doable, but a determined person would still be able to format it in order to make some sense out of it.
Just do a google search for javascript beautifier or css beautifier.
You'll find many online tools to insert spaces, tabs and newlines to make javascript and css readable again.

In the application we develop, we use YUI Compressor to compress javascript and CSS code.
The aim isn't to obfuscate the code, but to reduce the size so that pages load faster.
A side effect is that it makes it difficult to read.
We supply the original, uncompressed javascript and CSS code along with the application in case users wish to customize it.
We didn't find it necessary to prevent visitors from stealing the code.

Also, if the original javascript/CSS code is valid, I believe it will still be valid after it passes through YUI Compressor
Though you better check on that if its a requirement.

Anyway, its just my opinion - would like to hear what others have to say :)
Click to expand...

I agree with you on many points you've made. Hotlink & direct access protection via htaccess seems to be the best protection at the moment. Obviously it won't stop everyone, or anyone for that matter..

I honestly don't care if someone views my source to see "how I did it", to learn, etc. It's when someone takes the entire design that I get bothered. I guess for now the best protection from that is "my style". By that I mean, for the most part if you compare my work you'll see I generally do things a certain way, and have a certain "look".

I think if there were a true 100% theft proof protection method for html, css, & js we'd all be using it. And since we're not, I guess I'll just do my best to combat the thieves.
 
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