SDA Class

Properties   Methods   Events   Config Settings   Errors  

The SDA class can be used to create a self-decrypting archive which will run natively on Windows platforms.

Class Name

IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA

Procedural Interface

 ipworksopenpgp_sda_open();
 ipworksopenpgp_sda_close($res);
 ipworksopenpgp_sda_register_callback($res, $id, $function);
 ipworksopenpgp_sda_get_last_error($res);
 ipworksopenpgp_sda_get_last_error_code($res);
 ipworksopenpgp_sda_set($res, $id, $index, $value);
 ipworksopenpgp_sda_get($res, $id, $index);
 ipworksopenpgp_sda_do_config($res, $configurationstring);
 ipworksopenpgp_sda_do_createsda($res);
 ipworksopenpgp_sda_do_reset($res);

Remarks

The class uses the Deflate algorithm specified in RFC 1951 for compression, and then creates a self-decrypting executable archive. This exe will bring up a dialog that will allow the user to select the target directory in which to decompress the files. There is also an optional splash screen that may be displayed before decompression. The text for this splash screen may be set with the BannerText property. You can also set the text that appears on the title bar of each dialog box using the CaptionText property.

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 BannerText will be suppressed.

Property List

---

The following is the full list of the properties of the class with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

Method List

---

The following is the full list of the methods of the class with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

Event List

---

The following is the full list of the events fired by the class with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

Config Settings

---

The following is a list of config settings for the class with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

ArchiveFile Property (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

The name of the self-decrypting archive to create.

Object Oriented Interface

public function getArchiveFile();
public function setArchiveFile($value);

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_get($res, 1 );
ipworksopenpgp_sda_set($res, 1, $value );

Default Value

''

Remarks

This property specifies the name of the archive to be written when CreateSDA is called. Any pre-existing archive file will be overwritten.

The filename may be specified with or without a path. Paths may be relative or absolute, and should be specified in the format native to the host operating system. The filename should be specified with the appropriate ".exe" extension. An extension will not automatically be appended by the class.

If the file cannot be written a trappable error will be generated.

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.

Data Type

String

BannerText Property (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

Optional banner text to show before the self-extraction starts.

Object Oriented Interface

public function getBannerText();
public function setBannerText($value);

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_get($res, 2 );
ipworksopenpgp_sda_set($res, 2, $value );

Default Value

''

Remarks

If this property is set, a dialog box will pop up displaying the contents of this property as soon as the SDA executable is run. If this property is set to an empty string (default) no banner dialog will be displayed.

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()

Data Type

String

CaptionText Property (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

Optional caption (title) text for the self-extractor dialogs.

Object Oriented Interface

public function getCaptionText();
public function setCaptionText($value);

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_get($res, 3 );
ipworksopenpgp_sda_set($res, 3, $value );

Default Value

''

Remarks

This property contains the text which will appear on the title bar of the dialog boxes that appear when running the SDA executable file. If this property is not set, "IPWorks PG Self Extractor - www.nsoftware.com" will appear in the title bar.

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()

Data Type

String

CompressionLevel Property (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

The compression level to use.

Object Oriented Interface

public function getCompressionLevel();
public function setCompressionLevel($value);

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_get($res, 4 );
ipworksopenpgp_sda_set($res, 4, $value );

Default Value

4

Remarks

This property specifies the level of compression to be used, between 0 and 6. Higher values will cause the class to compress better; lower values will cause the class to compress faster. A value of 0 will store the file without compression.

Data Type

Integer

ExtractToPath Property (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

Optional target directory for the self-extractor.

Object Oriented Interface

public function getExtractToPath();
public function setExtractToPath($value);

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_get($res, 5 );
ipworksopenpgp_sda_set($res, 5, $value );

Default Value

''

Remarks

If set to empty string (default), the self-extractor will attempt to extract files into a subdirectory of the directory it is being executed from.

The name of the subdirectory is derived from the name of the self-decrypting archive by removing its extension.

Data Type

String

FileToExecute Property (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

Optional file to execute (open) after the archive is extracted.

Object Oriented Interface

public function getFileToExecute();
public function setFileToExecute($value);

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_get($res, 6 );
ipworksopenpgp_sda_set($res, 6, $value );

Default Value

'.'

Remarks

This property specifies an executable file which will be run after the archive has completed decompressing. This must be a relative path to a file located within ExtractToPath. If this property is set to ".", the folder to which the archive has been decompressed will open in Windows Explorer. If this property is set to "" (empty string), the extractor will close and take no action.

Data Type

String

Password Property (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

An optional password for the self-decrypting archive.

Object Oriented Interface

public function getPassword();
public function setPassword($value);

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_get($res, 7 );
ipworksopenpgp_sda_set($res, 7, $value );

Default Value

''

Remarks

This property specifies a case-sensitive password used to encrypt or decrypt the archive. If set to an empty string (default), no encryption is used.

The maximum supported length of the password is 128 characters.

Example (compressing an SDA archive):

class.ArchiveFile = "c:\test.exe" class.RecurseSubdirectories = true class.SourceDirectory = "c:\foo" class.Password = "nsoftware" class.CreateSDA()

Data Type

String

RecurseSubdirectories Property (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

Whether or not to recurse into subdirectories during archive creation.

Object Oriented Interface

public function getRecurseSubdirectories();
public function setRecurseSubdirectories($value);

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_get($res, 8 );
ipworksopenpgp_sda_set($res, 8, $value );

Default Value

true

Remarks

If this property is set to true, when calling CreateSDA the class will recurse into all the subdirectories under SourceDirectory and include them in the self extracting archive. If this property is false, only the files in SourceDirectory will be included in the archive.

Data Type

Boolean

SourceDirectory Property (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

Directory to be compressed into a self-decrypting archive.

Object Oriented Interface

public function getSourceDirectory();
public function setSourceDirectory($value);

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_get($res, 9 );
ipworksopenpgp_sda_set($res, 9, $value );

Default Value

''

Remarks

This property specifies the name of the directory containing the files to be compressed. This may be a local or absolute path. If the RecurseSubdirectories property is true, all the subdirectories under SourceDirectory will be recursed into, and those files will also be compressed.

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()

Data Type

String

SourceFile Property (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

File to be compressed into a self-decrypting archive.

Object Oriented Interface

public function getSourceFile();
public function setSourceFile($value);

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_get($res, 10 );
ipworksopenpgp_sda_set($res, 10, $value );

Default Value

''

Remarks

This property specifies the name of a single file to be compressed. When both SourceFile and SourceDirectory are set, only SourceDirectory is used.

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()

Data Type

String

Config Method (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

Sets or retrieves a configuration setting.

Object Oriented Interface

public function doConfig($configurationstring);

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_do_config($res, $configurationstring);

Remarks

Config is a generic method available in every class. It is used to set and retrieve configuration settings for the class.

These settings are similar in functionality to properties, but they are rarely used. In order to avoid "polluting" the property namespace of the class, access to these internal properties is provided through the Config method.

To set a configuration setting named PROPERTY, you must call Config("PROPERTY=VALUE"), where VALUE is the value of the setting expressed as a string. For boolean values, use the strings "True", "False", "0", "1", "Yes", or "No" (case does not matter).

To read (query) the value of a configuration setting, you must call Config("PROPERTY"). The value will be returned as a string.

CreateSDA Method (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

Compresses the files and creates a self-decrypting archive.

Object Oriented Interface

public function doCreateSDA();

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_do_createsda($res);

Remarks

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

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

As the files in SourceDirectory are being compressed, the 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 CaptionText before calling CreateSDA. Setting the optional BannerText 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 BannerText will be suppressed.

Reset Method (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

Resets the class.

Object Oriented Interface

public function doReset();

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_do_reset($res);

Remarks

Reset resets the state of the class. All properties will be set to their default values, and any files open will be closed.

Error Event (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

Information about non-fatal errors.

Object Oriented Interface

public function fireError($param);

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_register_callback($res, 1, array($this, 'fireError'));

Parameter List

 'description'
 'errorcode'
 'index'
 'filename'
 'ignore'

Remarks

The Error event is fired when non-fatal errors occur during compression or decompression. Note that if this event is fired during decompression this may indicate that the archive is corrupt.

By default these errors will cause the component to fail with an exception. The exception may be overridden by setting Ignore to true. This will cause the error to be ignored, the file will be skipped if necessary, and the class will continue operation.

ErrorCode will correspond to one of the following errors:

Description contains a textual description of the error. Index and Filename contain the array index (where appropriate) and filename of the file being processed at the time of the error.

Progress Event (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

Fired as progress is made.

Object Oriented Interface

public function fireProgress($param);

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_register_callback($res, 2, array($this, 'fireProgress'));

Parameter List

 'filename'
 'bytesprocessed'
 'percentprocessed'

Remarks

The Progress event is automatically fired as compression is performed.

Filename contains the name of the file being written.

BytesProcessed contains the total number of uncompressed bytes processed.

PercentProcessed contains the percent of uncompressed bytes processed, corresponding roughly to the running time of the operation.

Status Event (IPWorksOpenPGP_SDA Class)

Shows the progress of the operation.

Object Oriented Interface

public function fireStatus($param);

Procedural Interface

ipworksopenpgp_sda_register_callback($res, 3, array($this, 'fireStatus'));

Parameter List

 'message'

Remarks

The event is fired for informational and logging purposes only. It may be used to track the progress of an operation.

The level of detail is controlled by the LogLevel setting.

Config Settings (SDA Class)

The class accepts one or more of the following configuration settings. Configuration settings are similar in functionality to properties, but they are rarely used. In order to avoid "polluting" the property namespace of the class, access to these internal properties is provided through the Config method.

SDA Config Settings

Base Config Settings

Trappable Errors (SDA Class)

Errors

The following errors may be generated by the class. Note that frequently the error message will contain more specific information than what is listed here.

Note that some non-fatal errors may be trapped and explicitly ignored in the Error event. This will allow the class to continue operation even in case of error.

SDA Errors