What is IonCube Loader?
IonCube Loader is a common 3rd party application that is used to run encoded PHP files. It is pre-installed on most web servers.
The SubscriptionBoss plugin is encoded and hence it can only run on web servers that have IonCube Loader installed
Is IonCube Loader Installed on My WebServer?
If you are on a shared server or on a VPS then you will probably already have this installed. But if your site is on a dedicated server or on a cloud server then you may or may not have to install it.
The easiest way to find out if IonCube is installed is to ask the provider your web server.
If you know how to run a phpinfo() command on your website then you can find out if IonCube Loader is installed. See How can I tell if IonCube Loader is already installed?
What Version Of IonCube Loader Is Required?
The current version of IonCube Loader is v6.1.0.
SubscriptionBoss v1.45 and later versions will only work with IonCube Loader v6.0 or later versions. This is to allow the support of PHP 7.0 and later versions
SubscriptionBoss v1.43 and v1.44 versions will only work with IonCube Loader v4.4 or later versions. This is to allow the support of PHP 5.5 and PHP 5.6
Versions of SubscriptionBoss earlier than v1.43 will work with versions of IonCube Loader v3.x and v4.x
How Do I Install IonCube Loader?
If you don’t already have IonCube Loader installed on your server my recommendation is that you ask your host provider to install IonCube Loader for you; this is what I did for my RackSpace dedicated server.
If you do want to do the installation yourself then IonCube provide a loader wizard that guides you through the installation process. Running the loader wizard will tell you which IonCube package to install – the package to choose is based on whether you have Windows, Linux, Unix or MAC OSX, and whether you have 32 bit or 64 bit versions.
Download the package indicated and following the instructions given by the loader wizard.
IonCube Manual Installation Using Local Php.ini File
If your host require you to install Ioncube locally to your site you may need to create a php.ini file (or a php5.ini file).
If so you may have to install a copy of php.ini in 3 locations:
- wordpress root
- wordpress root/wp-admin
- wordpress root/wp-content/plugins/subscriptionboss
The first of these is required when the plugin is running during normal order processing; the second is for plugin activation and administration, and the third is required when PayPal IPNs are being processed.