ZCompress Component

Properties   Methods   Events   Config Settings   Errors  

The ZCompress component implements an LZC compressor and decompressor. It is compatible with the UNIX compress utility.

Syntax

TipzZCompress

Remarks

The LZC file format is used only to archive a single file. Accordingly, the operation of the component is simpler than that of the other components.

To compress with the component, set ArchiveFile to the name of the LZC compressed file to be created, and FileDecompressedName to the name of the file to be compressed. Finally, invoke Compress. To extract the file, first set ArchiveFile. FileDecompressedName may then be set; if not, it will automatically be set based on the ArchiveFile name. Finally, invoke the Extract method.

Example (Creating an LZC File)

ZipControl.ArchiveFile = "c:\test.Z" ZipControl.FileDecompressedName = "c:\test.txt" ZipControl.Compress() Example (Extracting from an LZC File)

ZipControl.ArchiveFile = "c:\test.Z" ZipControl.FileDecompressedName = "c:\test.txt" ZipControl.Extract()

Property List

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

Method List

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

Event List

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

Config Settings

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

ArchiveFile Property (ZCompress Component)

The name of the zip, gzip, tar, or jar archive.

Syntax

property ArchiveFile: String read get_ArchiveFile write set_ArchiveFile;

Default Value

''

Remarks

This property specifies the name of the archive to be read or written. This property is required when extracting files.

When Scan, Extract, or ExtractAll is invoked, the file specified by ArchiveFile will be opened for read. If the file does not exist, a trappable error will be generated.

When Compress is called, the file named by ArchiveFile will be written; if a file of this name already exists the Overwrite event will be fired. If ArchiveFile is set to the empty string (''), the archive will not be written to disk, and will be provided only through the Progress event.

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 extension (such as 'zip'); an extension will not automatically be appended by the component.

If the file cannot be read, or written, as appropriate, a trappable error will be generated.

Example (Creating an Archive)

ZipControl.ArchiveFile = "c:\test.zip" ZipControl.RecurseSubdirectories = true ZipControl.IncludeFiles("c:\foo\*") ZipControl.Compress()

Note: an archive already open for read may be closed by setting ArchiveFile to the empty string ('').

FileDecompressedName Property (ZCompress Component)

File name to decompress to, or compress from.

Syntax

property FileDecompressedName: String read get_FileDecompressedName write set_FileDecompressedName;

Default Value

''

Remarks

FileDecompressedName contains the name of the file in the archive, as stored on the file system, outside the archive.

When compressing a file and SetFileInputStream has not been called with a valid input stream, this property should be specified with a path, if necessary, to allow the file to be found by the component. If the file cannot be found when Compress is called, a trappable error will be generated, and the archive will not be correctly written.

When decompressing files, this property may be set prior to calling Extract. If this property is set to the empty string when Extract is called, Extract will automatically set this property to an appropriate value.

Paths on the local file system should be specified in the format native to the host operating system. They may also be specified in standard (UNIX) format, in which case they will be immediately converted.

FileInputData Property (ZCompress Component)

The data of the file to be compressed.

Syntax

property FileInputData: String read get_FileInputData write set_FileInputData;
property FileInputDataB: TBytes read get_FileInputDataB write set_FileInputDataB;

Default Value

''

Remarks

When this property is set, the component will read in the data from this property instead of reading from the file contained in the FileDecompressedName property.

This property is not available at design time.

ZCompressData Property (ZCompress Component)

(Decompression only) The LZC compressed file contents as a byte array.

Syntax

property ZCompressData: String write set_ZCompressData;
property ZCompressDataB: TBytes write set_ZCompressDataB;

Default Value

''

Remarks

Normally you should set ArchiveFile before invoking Extract. If you prefer to read the LZC compressed file from memory you may set ZCompressData instead. ZCompressData should be set to the entire contents of the LZC compressed file; this will allow you to read from the archive without writing any temporary files to disk.

If you would like to extract data from the archive without ever writing to disk you should also set WriteToProgressEvent to true, and you should set the value of FileDecompressedName to an empty string. Then, when you invoke Extract the data will be provided in the Progress event.

This property is write-only. Note that modifying a LZC compressed file stored in ZCompressData is not supported.

This property is write-only and not available at design time.

Abort Method (ZCompress Component)

Aborts the current operation.

Syntax

procedure Abort();

Remarks

Abort may be used to immediately interrupt compression or decompression. Any files partially written by the component will be deleted.

Compress Method (ZCompress Component)

Creates the compressed archive.

Syntax

procedure Compress();

Remarks

Invoking Compress creates the archive specified by ArchiveFile. When the method is called, the file specified by FileDecompressedName will be opened, and the file specified by ArchiveFile will contain the compressed output.

Config Method (ZCompress Component)

Sets or retrieves a configuration setting.

Syntax

function Config(ConfigurationString: String): String;

Remarks

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

These settings are similar in functionality to properties, but they are rarely used. In order to avoid "polluting" the property namespace of the component, 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.

Extract Method (ZCompress Component)

Extracts the compressed file from the archive.

Syntax

procedure Extract();

Remarks

Invoking Extract decompresses the archive specified by ArchiveFile. The compressed file will be extracted, and written to disk.

If FileDecompressedName is set to a nonempty string the file will be written there. Otherwise the component will automatically set FileDecompressedName to an appropriate value:

If FileDecompressedName is empty and ArchiveFile ends in '.Z', this filename, less the '.Z' extension will be used. Otherwise the extension '.uncompressed' will be appended to the file name.

Reset Method (ZCompress Component)

Resets the component.

Syntax

procedure Reset();

Remarks

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

SetArchiveInputStream Method (ZCompress Component)

The stream to read the zip, tar, jar, or gzip archive from.

Syntax

procedure SetArchiveInputStream(ArchiveStream: TStream);

Remarks

This method should be set when the archive is to be read from a stream when Extract is called.

By default, and when this is set to null, the component will read from the file specified by ArchiveFile. However, when this is a valid stream, the data will be read from the stream.

SetArchiveOutputStream Method (ZCompress Component)

The stream to write the zip, tar, jar, or gzip archive to.

Syntax

procedure SetArchiveOutputStream(ArchiveStream: TStream);

Remarks

This method should be set when the archive is to be written to a stream when Compress is called.

By default, and when this is set to null, the component will write to the file specified by ArchiveFile. However, when this is a valid stream, the data will be written to the stream.

BeginFile Event (ZCompress Component)

Fired before a file is processed.

Syntax

type TBeginFileEvent = procedure (
  Sender: TObject;
  Index: Integer;
  var Skip: Boolean
) of Object;

property OnBeginFile: TBeginFileEvent read FOnBeginFile write FOnBeginFile;

Remarks

BeginFile is fired before compression or decompression begins. Index will contain 0.

You may use the Skip parameter to tell the component to skip the file when compressing or decompressing.

EndFile Event (ZCompress Component)

Fired after a file is processed.

Syntax

type TEndFileEvent = procedure (
  Sender: TObject;
  Index: Integer
) of Object;

property OnEndFile: TEndFileEvent read FOnEndFile write FOnEndFile;

Remarks

EndFile is fired when compression or decompression finishes. Index will contain 0.

Error Event (ZCompress Component)

Information about non-fatal errors.

Syntax

type TErrorEvent = procedure (
  Sender: TObject;
  const Description: String;
  ErrorCode: Integer;
  Index: Integer;
  const Filename: String;
  var Ignore: Boolean
) of Object;

property OnError: TErrorEvent read FOnError write FOnError;

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 component 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.

Overwrite Event (ZCompress Component)

Fired whenever a file exists and may be overwritten.

Syntax

type TOverwriteEvent = procedure (
  Sender: TObject;
  var Filename: String;
  var Overwrite: Boolean
) of Object;

property OnOverwrite: TOverwriteEvent read FOnOverwrite write FOnOverwrite;

Remarks

Overwrite is fired when a file is about to be overwritten, and would overwrite an existing file. The event is fired during decompression.

Filename contains the full name of the file, specified with its pathname.

Overwrite specifies whether or not the file will be overwritten. For Zip, Jar, and Tar, this is equal by default to the value of the OverwriteFiles property. For Gzip, this value defaults to true.

Either of the parameters may be changed when the event is fired. Changing the value of Overwrite will override the default behavior of the component, and cause the file to be overwritten or not overwritten, depending on the value set. If Filename is changed, the value of Overwrite will be ignored, and the file will be written with the specified name. If a file of the new name also exists this file will be silently overwritten.

Progress Event (ZCompress Component)

Fired as progress is made.

Syntax

type TProgressEvent = procedure (
  Sender: TObject;
  const Data: String;
  const DataB: TBytes;
  const Filename: String;
  BytesProcessed: Int64;
  PercentProcessed: Integer
) of Object;

property OnProgress: TProgressEvent read FOnProgress write FOnProgress;

Remarks

The Progress event is automatically fired as compression or decompression is performed. When WriteToProgressEvent is true, the output data is provided through the Data parameter, allowing for it to be streamed out.

Filename contains the name of the file being written. If no file is being written, Filename will contain an empty string, and the output data will be provided exclusively through this event.

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.

For Gzip extraction only, BytesProcessed and PercentProcessed will reflect the number of compressed bytes extracted, as it is generally impossible to predetermine the total uncompressed size.

If WriteToProgressEvent is false, Data will contain null.

Config Settings (ZCompress Component)

The component 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 component, access to these internal properties is provided through the Config method.

ZCompress Config Settings

Base Config Settings

Trappable Errors (ZCompress Component)

Errors

The following errors may be generated by the component. 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 component to continue operation even in case of error.

ZCompress Errors