create_sda Method

Compresses the files and creates a self-decrypting archive.

Syntax

def create_sda() -> None: ...

Remarks

Invoking CreateSDA creates the archive specified by archive_file. When the method is called, all files specified by source_directory will be compressed and written to archive_file. If recurse_subdirectories is true, all the subdirectories under source_directory and the files they contain will also be compressed and written to archive_file.

If archive_file exists when you call CreateSDA it will be overwritten.

As the files in source_directory are being compressed, the on_progress event will fire periodically to indicate how many bytes have been processed and the percentage of compression that has been completed.

To include your own custom text on the title bar of all of the self-extractor dialog boxes, set the caption_text before calling CreateSDA. Setting the optional banner_text property will cause a small dialog to pop up when the self-extractor is run. You can put in a description of the contents, instructions, or any text you like.

Example (Creating a Self-Decrypting Archive)

class.ArchiveFile = "c:\test.exe"
class.RecurseSubdirectories = true
class.SourceDirectory = "c:\foo\"
class.CaptionText = "Testing SDA"
class.BannerText = "Press continue to decompress the archive."
class.CreateSDA()

class.ArchiveFile = "c:\test.exe"
class.SourceFile = "c:\foo\bar.dat"
class.CaptionText = "Testing SDA"
class.BannerText = "Press continue to decompress the archive."
class.CreateSDA()

Note: When creating a self-decrypting archive which exceeds 4 GB or more of uncompressed data or which contains more than 64K files, the class will create a 64-bit archive.

The self-decrypting archive that is created by the SDA class is a Windows application. However, there are command line options available if you wish to batch multiple files. The options are:

For example, the following suppresses all questions and message boxes, and decompress to the current directory, use the following options:

  SDAExtractor /targetpath="." /overwrite=1 /displaymessage=0 /openfile=0 /password=pass

Note that if you run the self-decrypting archive with any command line options, the pop up message box containing the banner_text will be suppressed.