compress/archive folder using php script

Question

Is there a way to compress/archive a folder in the server using php script to .zip or .rar or to any other compressed format, so that on request we could archive the folder and then give the download link

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

PHP comes with the ZipArchive extension, which is just right for you.

Answer 2

Here is an example:

<?php

// Adding files to a .zip file, no zip file exists it creates a new ZIP file

// increase script timeout value
ini_set('max_execution_time', 5000);

// create object
$zip = new ZipArchive();

// open archive 
if ($zip->open('my-archive.zip', ZIPARCHIVE::CREATE) !== TRUE) {
    die ("Could not open archive");
}

// initialize an iterator
// pass it the directory to be processed
$iterator = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveDirectoryIterator("themes/"));

// iterate over the directory
// add each file found to the archive
foreach ($iterator as $key=>$value) {
    $zip->addFile(realpath($key), $key) or die ("ERROR: Could not add file: $key");
}

// close and save archive
$zip->close();
echo "Archive created successfully.";
?>