The archives

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Overview
Handling the archives
Type of archives
Examples

WINDEV

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The archives

Overview

WINDEV, WEBDEV and WINDEV Mobile propose several WLanguage functions allowing you to compress and merge your files into archives.

An archive is a physical file:

whose type is ".WDZ" for a WINDEV, WEBDEV or WINDEV Mobile archive.
whose type is ".ZIP" for a WinZip or PKZip archive.
whose type is ".CAB" for a "Cabinet Files" archive.
whose type is ".RAR".
Versions 18 and later
whose type is ".7z".
New in version 18
whose type is ".7z".
whose type is ".7z".
Versions 21 and later
whose type is ".tar" or ".tgz" (".tar.gz").
New in version 21
whose type is ".tar" or ".tgz" (".tar.gz").
whose type is ".tar" or ".tgz" (".tar.gz").

This file groups all types of files (".pdf", ".fic", ".mmo", ...) automatically compressed.

For example, the archives allow you to:

save your files on a regular basis while reducing the storage space,
simplify the transmission of your files on Internet/Intranet,
create self-extracting archives,
...

An optimized compression allows your files to occupy less disk space and be easily transmitted on different media (CD, Internet, etc.).

Two types of archives are available:

single-part archive: the archive includes a single file.
multi-part archive: the archive includes several files (or sub-archives).

Handling the archives

To manage your archives, WINDEV, WEBDEV and WINDEV Mobile propose several WLanguage functions. These functions are used to:

handle the archives: creation, opening, closing.
handle the files found in the archive: add and compress files (single file or set of files in a directory), extract and decompress a file, delete files from an archive.
get various information about the archives and about the compressed files: size before and after compression, ...
split and/or merge archive volumes.
create self-extracting archives.

Type of archives

The ".WDZ" archives are available in WINDEV (32-bit and 64-bit executable) and WEBDEV.
The ".ZIP" archives (WinZip or PKZip) are available in WINDEV (32-bit and 64-bit executable), WEBDEV, WINDEV Mobile, Java and Linux.
The ".CAB" archives ("Cabinet files") are available in WINDEV (32-bit executable only) and WEBDEV.
The ".RAR" archives are available in WINDEV, WEBDEV and WINDEV Mobile.
Versions 18 and later
The ".7z" archives are available in WINDEV (32-bit and 64-bit executable) and WEBDEV.
New in version 18
The ".7z" archives are available in WINDEV (32-bit and 64-bit executable) and WEBDEV.
The ".7z" archives are available in WINDEV (32-bit and 64-bit executable) and WEBDEV.
Versions 21 and later
The ".tar" or ".tgz" archives (".tar.gz") are available in WINDEV (32-bit executable only) and WEBDEV.
New in version 21
The ".tar" or ".tgz" archives (".tar.gz") are available in WINDEV (32-bit executable only) and WEBDEV.
The ".tar" or ".tgz" archives (".tar.gz") are available in WINDEV (32-bit executable only) and WEBDEV.

Remarks:

The size of the ".WDZ" archives cannot exceed 4 GB.
The archives in".CAB" format are necessarily single-part archives.

Examples

To save the database of your customer, your program creates a backup archive. The files to save are compressed into the archive.

To store this archive on diskettes: the archive is divided into several parts. This allows you to easily transmit this archive!

To simplify the use of backup files: create a self-extracting archive. All you have to do is run the archive to automatically decompress all the files.

Related Examples:

Unit examples (WINDEV): The ZIP functions

[ + ] Using the compression/decompression functions of WINDEV:
- Create an archive
- Add files into an archive
- Read the content of an archive
- Extract files from an archive

Mobile (WINDEV Mobile): Pocket ZIP

[ + ] This example presents the use of the archiving WLanguage functions with compression.
The following topics are presented in this example:
1/ How do I compress files and uncompress archives?
2/ Managing the display of a table and menu in a Pocket PC application
3/ Managing a popup menu for the last documents opened
Summary of the example supplied with WINDEV Mobile:
This example allows you to create and read archives compressed in ZIP format. This feature can be very useful to manage the automatic backups.
How do I compress files and uncompress archives?
Several WLanguage functions allow you to:
- Handle an archive
- Handle the files to compress
- Manage the single-part archives and the multi-part archives
- Retrieve information about the archiving
All the archiving functions of WINDEV Mobile are prefixed by zip

Complete examples (WINDEV): WD Zip

[ + ] This example presents the use of archiving WLanguage functions with compression.
The following topics are presented in this example:
1/ How to create an archive?
2/ How to compress and uncompress files?
3/ How to manage Drag&Drop from the file explorer of Windows to a TreeView control?
Summary of the example supplied with WINDEV:
This example allows you to create and read compressed archives in WDZ, ZIP, CAB and RAR format (in read-only). This feature can be very useful to manage the automatic backups. Furthermore, the example allows you to create multi-volume archives.

Android (WINDEV Mobile): Android ZIP

[ + ] This example is used to browse the folder of the Android device while searching for ZIP archives.
The archives can be browsed and extracted into a directory of the device.
The folders and the files found in the archive can be extracted individually.