Zip API?

i heard there was 1 but is there? an if so where can i find it?

I wrote to the WinZip support mail address asking for the same thing. They don't have anything directly, but they did give me two web sites to check out. They are:
http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/tools/zip/info-zip/

I haven't checked these out yet. Let me know if you find anything cool.

www.allapi.net has complete examples of using info-zip dll's.

You can also use the command-line interface for WinZip
by calling it with the VB Shell statement. It will compress/decompress files as well.

I don't think there are any Zip API's which are part of the standard Windows API library. You'll have to use routines from other DLLs.

ME and XP OS's support unzipping, whereas all previous microsoft OS's do not. These two platforms almost certainly have some sort of DLL that controls the unzipping...but I haven't seen any documentation on it.

If you're proficient at c++ programming, you can modify GNU source code to create a dll that can zip/unzip. I've done an uncompress dll for unix Z files, and I think that code is available for the zip compression format from GNU also.

i would use the shell thing but i dont know how to do it...:( could some one like give me a exaple because mine I THINK will shelll the program but it will not zip or unzip

Quote:

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I THINK will shelll the program but it will not zip or unzip

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Are you talking about PKZip? Just look at the documentation for it. It will tell you what command line arguments do what.

I created the following function to take care of it for me. It uses the CreateProcess API to call WinZip:

VB Code:

Public Declare Function CreateProcessA Lib "kernel32" (ByVal _
   lpApplicationName As Long, ByVal lpCommandLine As String, ByVal _
   lpProcessAttributes As Long, ByVal lpThreadAttributes As Long, _
   ByVal bInheritHandles As Long, ByVal dwCreationFlags As Long, _
   ByVal lpEnvironment As Long, ByVal lpCurrentDirectory As Long, _
   lpStartupInfo As STARTUPINFO, lpProcessInformation As _
   PROCESS_INFORMATION) As Long
 
Public Declare Function WaitForSingleObject Lib "kernel32" (ByVal _
   hHandle As Long, ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long) As Long
 
Public Const NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS = &H20&
Public Type STARTUPINFO
   cb As Long
   lpReserved As String
   lpDesktop As String
   lpTitle As String
   dwX As Long
   dwY As Long
   dwXSize As Long
   dwYSize As Long
   dwXCountChars As Long
   dwYCountChars As Long
   dwFillAttribute As Long
   dwFlags As Long
   wShowWindow As Integer
   cbReserved2 As Integer
   lpReserved2 As Long
   hStdInput As Long
   hStdOutput As Long
   hStdError As Long
End Type
 
Public Type PROCESS_INFORMATION
   hProcess As Long
   hThread As Long
   dwProcessID As Long
   dwThreadID As Long
End Type
 
Public Enum enSW
    SW_HIDE = 0
    SW_NORMAL = 1
    SW_MAXIMIZE = 3
    SW_MINIMIZE = 6
End Enum
 
Public Sub ZipFiles()
On Error GoTo errHandler
    Dim id As Long
    Dim WinZipStr As String
    Dim ZipFile As String
    Dim proc As PROCESS_INFORMATION
    Dim start As STARTUPINFO
    Dim ReturnValue As Integer
    
    ZipFile = CStr(Year(Date))
    ZipFile = ZipFile & CStr(Month(Date))
    ZipFile = ZipFile & CStr(Day(Date))
    
    WinZipStr = "C:\Program Files\WinZip\WinZip32 "
    WinZipStr = WinZipStr & "-a " & InDir & "\Backup\" & ZipFile & ".zip "
    WinZipStr = WinZipStr & InDir & "\*.dat"
    
    start.wShowWindow = enSW.SW_HIDE
        
    ReturnValue = CreateProcessA(0&, WinZipStr, 0&, 0&, 1&, _
       NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, 0&, 0&, start, proc)
 
    ' Wait for the shelled application to finish:
    Do
       ReturnValue = WaitForSingleObject(proc.hProcess, 0)
       DoEvents
    Loop Until ReturnValue <> 258
    
    Exit Sub
errHandler:
    errCnt = errCnt + 1
    errMsg = errMsg & "<TD>ZipFiles</TD>"
    errMsg = errMsg & "<TD>" & Err.Description & "</TD>"
    errMsg = errMsg & "<TD>" & CStr(Date) & " " & CStr(Time) & "</TD></TR><TR>"
    WriteError (errMsg)
End Sub

InDir is just the path to the files that I want to zip. Check out www.allapi.net for info on the CreateProcess and WaitForSingleObject API call's.

FWIW:

If you go to the WinZip site, there is a command-line interface add-on. Download it and you can call WinZip from a command line, ie, use it from VB's Shell. As I remember it's wzcline.exe

ya that is what i was going to do is use the command line bbut i could never get the files to zip up