ZipSFX Class

Properties Methods Events Configuration Settings Errors

The ZipSFX component implements a PKZip-compatible Zip compressor to create a self-extracting archive which will run natively on Windows platforms.

Syntax

ZipSFX

Remarks

The class uses the Deflate algorithm specified in RFC 1951 for compression, and then creates a self-extracting 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-Extracting Archive)

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

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

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


Option Name	Description
targetpath	Path to decompress the archive to. This overrides the ExtractToPath. "." indicates the current directory (if no ExtractToPath was specified and no targetpath is given, the archive is decompressed to the current directory).
overwrite	If set to true, the archive will automatically overwrite existing files (thus suppressing the message box asking you to overwrite or not)
displaymessage	If set to false, it will suppress the display of the "Extraction Complete" message after the archive has finished (this may also be accomplished by setting the CompleteMessage config setting to "").
openfile	If set to false, this option will override opening the file indicated by FileToExecute. (Alternatively, set FileToExecute to "").
password	The password used to decrypt the archive. If the archive is not encrypted this option is ignored. However if the archive is encrypted and no password is supplied, decompression will fail.

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

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

Note that if you run the self-extracting 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.


ArchiveFile	The name of the self-extracting zip archive to create.
BannerText	Optional banner text to show before the self-extraction starts.
CaptionText	Optional caption (title) text for the self-extractor dialogs.
CompressionLevel	The compression level to use.
ExtractToPath	Optional target directory for the self-extractor.
FileToExecute	Optional file to execute (open) after the archive is extracted.
Password	An optional password for the self-extracting archive.
RecurseSubdirectories	Whether or not to recurse into subdirectories during archive creation.
SourceDirectory	Directory to be compressed into a self-extracting archive.

Method List

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


Config	Sets or retrieves a configuration setting .
CreateSFX	Compresses the files and creates a self-extracting archive.
Reset	Resets the component.

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.


Error	Information about non-fatal errors.
Progress	Fired as progress is made.

Configuration Settings

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


CompleteMessage	Message to notify user that extraction has finished normally.
ExtractorStub	Path to optional self-extractor executable stub.
FileToExecuteParams	List of parameters to pass to FileToExecute.
InstallationMode	This setting will install to ExtractToPath, run FileToExecute, and then remove the extracted files.
RequireAdminPrivs	Specifies whether the created executable requires Administrator privileges.
SilentExtraction	Specifies whether the archive should hide all UI interaction while extracting.
CodePage	The system code page used for Unicode to Multibyte translations.