Making and Using Encrypted Templates

Sometimes you will want to give someone else a WebDNA template without letting them see your "source code" in the file. For example, if you create a WebDNA solution that is for sale, you may not want others to be able to read the templates and make modifications or see your proprietary algorithms.

To create an encrypted template, you must first design and debug the template as you normally would. Then use the [Encrypt] context with a seed of "TEMPLATE" (all upper case) to create the encrypted version of the original template. Note that you may not use the seed "TEMPLATE" with the [decrypt] context so your encrypted templates are safe from prying eyes. After the templates have been encrypted, a special tag must be added to the top of the file so it can be recognized as an encrypted file.

Use the following WebDNA to automatically encrypt your template. Note that you may put any text, copyright information for example, before the header tag. The encrypted WebDNA must start on the line after the <!--HAS_WEBDNA_TAGS header tag. For example, in order to use WebDNA to automatically convert your template (FileToBeEncrypted.tpl) to an encypted template (newfile.tpl) you would execute the following:

[writefile file=newfile.tpl&secure=F]Copyright ©2000 Smith Micro Software
http://isd.smithmicro.com
<!--HAS_WEBDNA_TAGS[!]Interrupt[/!]_ENCRYPTED-->
[encrypt seed=TEMPLATE][include file=FileToBeEncrypted.tpl&raw=T][/encrypt][/writefile]

After using the above template, your hard disk will contain a file called "newfile.tpl" which you can give to other users, confident that they cannot read or modify it. Using the template is easy -- it works just like any other template.

Note: [!]Interrupt[/!] is a special trick to fool WebCatalog into thinking this page is not an encrypted page, and should be treated like a normal template. The [!]Interrupt[/!] is essentially removed during processing, which causes the resulting template to contain the now-correct tag that indicates it is encrypted.

The following header tag is valid for recognizing encrypted files:

HAS_WEBDNA_TAGS_ENCRYPTED - WebCatalog, Typhoon

Use a web browser to link to an encrypted page and WebCatalog will automatically decrypt and processes the page. In order to prevent someone from displaying or accessing the decrypted templates, the following precautions have been made: