What are the best practices for protecting PHP source code?

To protect PHP source code, it is recommended to use techniques such as obfuscation, encryption, and server-side security measures. Obfuscation involves transforming the code to make it harder to understand, while encryption involves encoding the code and decrypting it at runtime. Server-side security measures include setting proper file permissions, using secure connections, and implementing access control.

// Example of using obfuscation to protect PHP source code
$sourceCode = file_get_contents('source.php');

function obfuscateCode($sourceCode) {
    // Implement obfuscation techniques here
    return $obfuscatedCode;
}

$obfuscatedCode = obfuscateCode($sourceCode);
eval($obfuscatedCode);