Integrating GSAP into Webflow Projects: Best Practices for Freelancers?

[JuicyDisorder]

Hello GSAP Community,

as a freelance-based Webflow web designer and developer. I'm looking to enhance my Webflow projects with GSAP animations and have several queries, especially regarding the use of my GSAP Premium membership and its implementation in live projects.
 

As I understand, GSAP Club Files are not supposed to be hosted publicly. How can I best achive hosting these files so that only accesses from my clients' domains are possible? Is there a method to limit access to the GSAP files so that only requests from specific client domains are allowed, ensuring both security and cost-efficiency?
 

I would greatly appreciate any general recommendations and best practices for integrating GSAP into Webflow projects in a freelance setting. Any tips or shared experiences are welcome.

[Rodrigo]

Hi @JuicyDisorder and welcome to the GSAP Forums!

 

First, thanks for being a Club GSAP member and supporting GSAP! 💚

 

We have a series of articles and guides in our Learning Center in order to show folks how to implement GSAP in their Webflow projects and workflows, including how to use the bonus plugins:

https://gsap.com/resources/Webflow

 

Also you should really follow @Web Bae in his social media in order to see all resources He gives to the community on this (and other Webflow) subject:

https://www.youtube.com/@webbae/videos

 

https://twitter.com/WebIsBae

 

Hopefully this helps.

Happy Tweening!

[JuicyDisorder]

Hey @Rodrigo
 

Thank you for your response and the recommended resources. I've already checked out the article in the GSAP Learning Center about Webflow.
However, I have a specific question: If I host the GSAP Club Scripts myself, won't they be publicly accessible as well? In that case, I'd need to find a way to restrict access so that it's only possible from my clients' domains, right? I just want to make sure that by hosting the scripts, I don’t violate any GSAP terms of use or guidelines.
 

I am really keen on doing everything correctly and leveraging the full capabilities of GSAP in my projects, without breaking any rules.
 

Thanks again for your help and the great resources. I'm looking forward to learning more and applying this in my work.
 

Happy Tweening!

[Rodrigo]

Hi,

 

Yeah that's a little more tricky, the only solution I can suggest is to obfuscate the entire JS and bundle it into a single file without any comments. For example minify, or take all the minified files you'll be using (GSAP Core and Plugins) and copy/paste them into a single file without any comments and after that add your custom minified code, like that you'll have a single JS file that has no indication of what it is and that most likely will be unusable in any other context than the website you're building.

 

There are other methods like adding a check for the domain in that single minified file using a regular expression and set a redirection to another page as well, you can google how to do it and test it.

 

Hopefully this helps.

Happy Tweening!

[GreenSock]

4 hours ago, JuicyDisorder said:

If I host the GSAP Club Scripts myself, won't they be publicly accessible as well? In that case, I'd need to find a way to restrict access so that it's only possible from my clients' domains, right? I just want to make sure that by hosting the scripts, I don’t violate any GSAP terms of use or guidelines.

Just to be clear, you wouldn't be violating anything by hosting the files on your server for use [exclusively] in your project(s). We don't expect you to jump through a bunch of hoops to obfuscate everything. If someone really wants to get the plugins and steal them from someone's site, they'll find a way. Just please don't put the bonus files in a public repository where people could snag them from Github, for example, or possibly get the [mistaken] impression that they're open source inside your project. But it's fine if you just put the .min.js files on your server and pull them in via <script> tags. It's very kind of you to be so protective on our behalf, though. Thank you! 💚

[Web Bae]

Hey @JuicyDisorder congrats on joining the club and @Rodrigo thanks for the shout out!

@JuicyDisorder Feel free to message me if you get stuck getting GSAP Bonus plugins into your project!