Zend Optomizer

Ok, I am confused about this Zend thingy.  It was recommended to me the other day to install Zend Optomizer (conversation was about php accelerators), but I already have Zend Optomizer installed. I thought it was needed in order to run one of the older versions of Dolphin, but never knew what it was for or did.

So, could someone give me a brief explanation of how Zend Optomizer affects Dolphin sites, if it is something that is needed, and what - if any - secutrity features it has that I can use with my doilphin sites.

As always, Thanks in advance.

Zend Optimizer is an application that runs the files encoded using Zend Guard.

Zend Guard is a tool to encrypt PHP files so that one can not see the source code.

What you would want is a PHP accelerator if you are not already running one on your server.

So, since php coding is not viewable anyways, and you cant encrypt the html output cause browsers wont be able to decode it, then there is no need for ZendGuard?

So, since php coding is not viewable anyways,
Wrong actually. You can see it. Your missing the point.

Normally it is not needed. Lets put it this way. It's common use is by PHP script developers to encrypt their code to prevent people who buy it from altering it such as an attempt to remove licensing.

However. Zend is extremely expensive. Most developers here in the market that encrypt their modules for licensing reasons normally use IonCube instead of zend.

ZendGuard is for php application developers that want to hide their source code.  If you have a ZendGuard application, it won't run without the decrypt part; and this of course has to take a slight hit on speed even if it is almost zilch.  Dolphin's php code is not encrypted; there is no need for anything to do with ZendGuard.