ionCube on 1and1 shared hosting

…I needed to use ionCube for Auction 2 Post but it takes an odd combination of files to get it working so heres how to get ionCube loaders to work on 1 and 1 shared hosting (spoon fed):

1. Use getcwd to find the working directory (make a new .php file with two lines “echo getcwd().’<br />’;” and “phpinfo();”, ftp this to the root of your domain on 1and1 shared hosting and then navigate your browser to the url and leave this open in a tab/write it down)

2. Download Linux (x86) .zip archived ionCube loader files from here (http://www.ioncube.com/loaders.php)

3. Upload ionCube folder to the absolute root of your hosting (this is so you don’t have to maintain a copy per website later if you have multiple sites) – I called the folder ioncube

4. Open up notepad and add a line “zend_extension = /homepages/**/**********/htdocs/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so” – where the **** will be letters/numbers you will be able to find these out from step 1 – save this as php.ini on your desktop or similar (unless you already have a php.ini for this website/subfolders of this website at which point you will want to make a copy of them and add this line then re-upload)

5. Upload php.ini to the domain’s root folder (where you require ionCube to be loaded)

6. Revisit your original .php file and search the page – you should now find “ionCube” under additional modules

Notes:

• If  you are using something like auction2post you may need to copy this php.ini into any subfolders which have .php files in that may need ionCube, this seems to be a slight bug in the 1and1 php.ini system
• There is a 1and1 guide for doing this, however its not particularly helpful (http://faq.oneandone.com/miscellaneous/24.html)
• You might wan’t to make 1and1 run php5 before you do this, depending on what you are using it for – this will mean adding “AddType x-mapp-php5 .php” to the domains .htaccess file