J-Zip enables you to add ZIP / UNZIP capabilities to your Clarion applications, using simple-to-use code templates.
J-Zip is actually a template wrapper around the highly respected 7Zip product, which you can distribute (as a single EXE) with your own software free of charge!
J-Zip has only recently been released, so many more features will be added over the coming weeks.
How do I implement it?
All you need to do is install J-Zip, and add the “J-Zip Global Extension Template” to your Clarion APP. You can then use code templates to create or extract ZIP files from anywhere within your application! It couldn’t be easier!
Why is J-Zip so cheap?
J-Zip is cheap because it’s simply wrapping someone else’s hard work. All of the compression “magic” happens inside the 7Zip EXE, so our part in creating a template wrapper was simple in comparison.
There are other Clarion compression libraries on the market that offer a lot more flexibility than J-Zip, but then they cost a lot more, and are more complicated to work with. We use LSZip from Lindersoft in a number of our high-end commercial products, and I can highly recommend LSZip if you’re looking for something more powerful than J-Zip.
That said, J-Zip is (in my opinion) the easiest compression available for Clarion – one code template to create a ZIP, one code template to extract a ZIP, no hand-coding required whatsoever! And J-Zip uses 7Zip for the actual compression, which many regard as the best compression library available (even better than WinZIP, WinRAR, etc).
Why not try out our demo, and take a look at our J-Zip video tutorials, then make up your own mind. Or feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
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Useful Links
- Download J-Zip 1.25 (C5.5, C6.x, C7.3, C8.0)
- Download J-Zip 1.23
- Download J-Zip 1.22
- Download J-Zip 1.21
- Download Demo Application
- View Online Documentation
- View Video Tutorials
- Other products by StrategyOnline
Frequently Asked Questions
J-Zip
Question
At runtime, my application changes its current path to access different data sets. Will J-Zip be able to find its various components if I do this?
Answer
Yes, just make sure that you are using J-Zip version 1.22 or later.
Question
Can I pass the names of the files that I want to zip, and also the name of the zip file that I want to create, as variables?
Answer
Yes, absolutely. Take a look at the following example code...
Loc:Filename=’test.zip’ Loc:FilesToZip=’hello.doc,world.doc,boo.xls’ JZip_Zip(Loc:Filename,Loc:FilesToZip)
The documentation for the JZip_Zip function can be found at here
If the compression takes place very quickly (small file), then the progress window will not be displayed. The template also provides a setting whereby you can specify whether the progress window should be visible or not.
Question
When using J-Zip, I get an error window that is titled "Compression Error" and the message says "Non fatal error." What could this mean?
Answer
This could either mean that the file which you are trying to compress is currently locked (as in, open by another program). Or it could mean that you haven't copied the required files into your EXE path (as explained in the docs).
The purpose of the JZip_Zip function (or the J-Zip template which makes use of this function) is to do exactly this - it adds files into a ZIP archive.
If you specify a ZIP filename which does not exist, then the ZIP file will be created, and the specified files will be added into it. But if you specify an existing ZIP file (one which already exists), then your specified files will be added to the files already contained in that ZIP archive.
Here's an example (this can also be done using the templates directly).
JZip_Zip ('test1.doc', 'archive.zip')
That line of code will create a new ZIP archive called "archive.zip", and will add "test1.doc" into the ZIP file.
Then if we do this...
JZip_Zip ('test2.doc', 'archive.zip')
That will add "test2.doc" into the same archive. So at this point "archive.zip" will contain two files, namely "test1.doc" as well as "test2.doc".
This information is published on the Developer Tools page.
Yes. You can either use filenames with no paths, as follows...
JZIP_Zip ('test.zip', 'test.png')
...in which case J-Zip will assume that test.png is located in the same folder as your EXE, and will create test.zip in that same folder as well.
Or you can use paths, as follows...
JZIP_Zip ('c:\some folder\test.zip', 'c:\images\test.png')
Yes. For example...
JZIP_Zip ('c:\some folder\test.zip', 'c:\images\*.png')
...would create an archive that contains all PNG files in the c:\images folder.
Clarion
From Windows Vista, you may experience problems running certain Clarion accessory installers, whereby they will not be able to detect your installed versions of Clarion. Please see the following link for more information, as well as a workaround:
If you are experiencing problems compiling our example applications using Clarion 5.5.h, please take a look at the following article:
DebugView is a free application that you can download from Microsoft, which enables you to view debug output from our products. This can be very helpful in tracking down problems.
By default, our products do not generate debug messages, so you will not see anything in DebugView. To enable debug messages, simpy tick the "Send messages to DebugView" option found on each of products' Global Extension Templates, as shown below.
Once you have turned on the "Send messages to DebugView" option, recompile and run your APP. You should then see messages appearing in DebugView.
Our 3rdParty documentation is now available from within the Clarion 7 IDE.
After installing any of our Clarion 3rdParty products, you can now access our help system as follows...
From within the Clarion 7 IDE, simply click on the "Help" menu, then click on "Accessory", then "StrategyOnline". Then click on "Online Product Documentation".
