ionCube Loader - Running existing encoded files on future PHP versions
ionCube Loader is the runtime partner to ionCube Encoder which actually runs your encoded files on deployment machines. One useful feature of the Loader is that it includes runtime compatibility support which allows existing encoded files to run on future PHP versions where technically possible. This capability helps software vendors adopt newer PHP releases with greater flexibility as they won’t always need to re-encode and redistribute code in order to support new PHP versions.