{"id":128050,"date":"2022-09-12T14:07:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T14:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phppot.com\/?p=19297"},"modified":"2022-09-12T14:07:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T14:07:41","slug":"how-to-create-zip-files-using-php-ziparchive-and-download","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/09\/12\/how-to-create-zip-files-using-php-ziparchive-and-download\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create Zip Files using PHP ZipArchive and Download"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Vincy<\/a>. Last modified on September 12th, 2022.<\/div>\n

Creating a zip from a folder full of files can be done in PHP using the ZipArchive class. This class instance creates a handle to read or write files to a compressed archive.<\/p>\n

This class includes several properties and methods to zip file archives.<\/p>\n

In this article, we will see an example of,<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. How to create a zip archive file.<\/li>\n
  2. How to download the compressed zip file.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you want to know how to compress more than one image in PHP<\/a> image compression refer to this earlier article.<\/p>\n

    How to create a zip archive file<\/h2>\n

    This file parses the input directory and compresses its files into a zip file. It proceeds with the following steps to create the zip file of a directory.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Create a PHP ZipArchive class instance.<\/li>\n
    2. Open a zip file archive with the instance. It accepts the output zip file name and the mode to open the archive.<\/li>\n
    3. Apply a recursive parsing in the input directory.<\/li>\n
    4. If the directory includes a file, then it adds to the zip archive using addFile()<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      It handles the use cases of getting the possibilities of being unable to read or archive the directory. Once the zip is created, it displays a message to the browser.<\/p>\n

      create-zip-file.php<\/p>\n

      <?php\n\/\/ Important: You should have read and write permissions to read\n\/\/ the folder and write the zip file\n$zipArchive = new ZipArchive();\n$zipFile = \".\/example-zip-file.zip\";\nif ($zipArchive->open($zipFile, ZipArchive::CREATE) !== TRUE) { exit(\"Unable to open file.\");\n}\n$folder = 'example-folder\/';\ncreateZip($zipArchive, $folder);\n$zipArchive->close();\necho 'Zip file created.'; function createZip($zipArchive, $folder)\n{ if (is_dir($folder)) { if ($f = opendir($folder)) { while (($file = readdir($f)) !== false) { if (is_file($folder . $file)) { if ($file != '' && $file != '.' && $file != '..') { $zipArchive->addFile($folder . $file); } } else { if (is_dir($folder . $file)) { if ($file != '' && $file != '.' && $file != '..') { $zipArchive->addEmptyDir($folder . $file); $folder = $folder . $file . '\/'; createZip($zipArchive, $folder); } } } } closedir($f); } else { exit(\"Unable to open directory \" . $folder); } } else { exit($folder . \" is not a directory.\"); }\n}\n?>\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
      Output<\/h3>\n
      \/\/If succeeded it returns Zip file created. \/\/If failed it returns Unable to open directory example-folder.\n[or] \"example-folder is not a director.\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
      \"php<\/p>\n
      How to download the compressed zip file<\/h2>\n
      In the last step, the zip file is created using the PHP ZipArchive class. That zip file can be downloaded by using the PHP code below.<\/p>\n
      It follows the below steps to download the zip file created.<\/p>\n
        \n
      1. Get the absolute path of the zip file.<\/li>\n
      2. Set the header parameters like,\n