ASP encryption

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HTML Guardian provides two encryption methods for .ASP files - Standard and Enhanced.
You can choose which one to use from the General Settings configuration window.

The table below shows all the differences between the Standard and Enhanced ASP encryption.
[ Note: HTML Guardian treats includes (files included in .asp files with the  or  statements) in a slightly different way than other asp files, as explained here. That's why the features available for includes are separated from the features available for files that are not used as includes) ]

ASP Encryption Type:	Standard	Enhanced
Features available:
ASP source encryption	Partial - by default, only the server-side parts of the code (enclosed within <% ... %>) are encrypted. Client-side html & script code remains un-encrypted. It is possible to encrypt predefined pieces of pure client-side code - this requires small modifications of the original asp source.	Full - the source code is encrypted entirely - no portion of the code remains unencrypted. Modification of the original source code is not needed.
Using the additional protection options for .asp files	Yes *	Yes *
Encryption of includes	Partial - only the server-side parts of the code (enclosed within <% ... %>) are encrypted. Client-side html & script code remains un-encrypted.	Full - includes are encrypted entirely - no portion of the code remains unencrypted.
Using the additional protection options for includes	No	Yes **
Encrypting ASP server response (the code that the server generates and sends back to the requesting browser)	It is possible to encrypt predefined pieces of pure client-side code in the server's response - this requires small modifications to the original asp source. The parts of the code dynamically generated by the server can not be encrypted in the server's response.	All the client-side code will be encrypted in the server's response. Modification of the original source code is not needed. The parts of the code dynamically generated by the server can not be encrypted in the server's response.
Encrypting ASP server response for includes	No	Yes
ASP code compression	No	Yes ***

Note that the Enhanced ASP encryption is fully functional only in the Enterprise edition of HTML Guardian. A complete comparison between HTML Guardian Personal, Professional and Enterprise editions you can see here.

* The password protection option is not available. All other protection options - disable right click, printing etc. are available. If any additional protection option is used, the 'Disable offline use' protection will be automatically applied - this means the server's response can't be saved as .html file for later offline viewing. But if no additional protection options are specified, 'Disable offline use' will not be automatically applied.

*** Compression of asp files is automatically done before the encryption. It is not possible only to compress the asp source code without encrypting it.

Encrypting client-side html / script code

If Enhanced encryption is used, all the client-side code in the asp source will be encrypted entirely. You can hide asp source code entirely - both client and server parts.
To encrypt the client-side code in the response which the server generates and sends back to the browser (this is what your visitors will see after clicking View-->Source), check the 'Encrypt server response' box in the ASP section of the the General Settings window.
Note that the code dynamically generated by the server will not be encrypted in the response.

Note that this feature works in a different way in Standard encryption mode.

Encrypting includes

It is a common practice to use includes if you want to insert the same piece of code in many files. Normally you can include any .asp file in any other.
But to ensure proper encryption, HTML Guardian needs to know whether the asp file being encrypted will be used as an include in other files or not.
To mark an .asp file as an include, insert this comment somewhere in it (like at the end of the file):

ASP files encrypted as includes can't be used as standalone files. ASP files encrypted as standalone files can't be used as includes. If you have a file used both as a standalone and as an include, you should make a second copy of it - then encrypt one copy as an include(with the above comment tag inserted) and the other as a standalone file.
Files with .inc extension are always treated as includes, you do not have to insert this tag in them.
Files with extensions different than .asp and .inc will not be recognized as asp files and will not be encrypted.

ASP encryption limitations and troubleshooting

Only encrypted .asp files can use encrypted includes. A non-encrypted .asp file that uses an encrypted include will most likely not work. An encrypted .asp file may use either encrypted or non-encrypted includes.

HTML Guardian needs to know whether the asp file being encrypted will be used as an include in other files or not.
To mark an .asp file as an include, insert this comment somewhere in it (like at the end of the file):

Make sure the tag looks exactly as above, with 1 space before -->
Files encrypted without this tag being present in the original source and then used as includes in other files will not work.

If you are using the Standard encryption method, please read the Standard ASP encryption section of the Help. There are some additional requirements if the Standard method is used.

Image Guardian will not protect images used in asp files.

** Please do not use the same additional protection options for the main asp file and for the include(s) it uses - this may cause problems. If for example the file main.asp is protected with the 'Disable page printing' option, any includes main.asp uses should be encrypted without 'Disable page printing' option. If any of the includes is protected with this option, main.asp and the rest of the includes it uses should be encrypted without it.

Support
In case of any problems in regard to asp files encryption you are always welcome to contact our support team.
To be able to solve any problem, we need to reproduce it first. So please *zip*! and send us all the files(unencrypted) needed to reproduce the problem.

Please DO NOT send us files which we can't test, like for example asp files which connect to databases, or require whatever that might not be present on another computer.

Please only send us files which are completely ready for testing. All the relative paths used in the files should be correct, there should not be  statements, references to files which are not available, or anything else that may cause problems when the files are tested on another computer. We strongly recommend that you test the files on another computer yourself before sending them to us, to be sure the original files will work correctly when we test them - without that, we will not be able to find why the encrypted files cause problems and help you.

Please DO NOT send us URL's where the problematic files can be viewed online - send us the files instead.

Please DO NOT send us encrypted files (unless we request them) - we can't do anything with them. We can only view them as everybody else can, but we can't analyze the asp encryption (encrypted asp source). We can't use encrypted files for debugging and identifying your problem.