Today we discuss how to create a zip file from a folder of images and download it from the browser. As result, we will have all the files in a folder archived to a zip file and downloaded to our computer.
Important to realize we use built-in PHP class ZipArchive to achieve this. ZipArchive Class which allows us to create a Zip file. This class makes file creation easier.
Contents
- HTML Form & PHP
- Bootstrap
- Download
HTML & PHP
As with other tutorials on the website we use Twitter bootstrap to create scaffolding for the little application, which is easier and understandable for all people.
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<!-- Required meta tags -->
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<!-- Bootstrap CSS -->
<link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" integrity="sha384-1BmE4kWBq78iYhFldvKuhfTAU6auU8tT94WrHftjDbrCEXSU1oBoqyl2QvZ6jIW3" crossorigin="anonymous">
<title>Hello, world!</title>
</head>
<body>
<div class="col-5 mx-auto">
<h1>Download Zip File from a folder</h1>
<h3>Files in the folders</h3>
<?php $files = scandir('./images');
foreach($files as $file) {
if($file == '.' || $file == '..') continue;
print "<img src='./images/".$file."' width='100' class='mb-4'>";
print "<br>";
}
?>
<form action="download.php" method="post">
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-info">Download Zip</button>
</form>
</div>
<!-- Optional JavaScript; choose one of the two! -->
<!-- Option 1: Bootstrap Bundle with Popper -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/js/bootstrap.bundle.min.js" integrity="sha384-ka7Sk0Gln4gmtz2MlQnikT1wXgYsOg+OMhuP+IlRH9sENBO0LRn5q+8nbTov4+1p" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
</body>
</html>Create and download the Zip file
When the beautiful form submits, it triggers the download.php file and as a first step, it creates the zip file, and then with the help of PHP force download headers, it will download the file to your computer.
<?php
$zipFile = "images.zip";
// Initializing PHP class
$zip = new ZipArchive();
$zip->open($zipFile, ZipArchive::CREATE | ZipArchive::OVERWRITE);
$files = scandir('./images');
foreach($files as $file) {
if($file == '.' || $file == '..') continue;
$zip->addFile('./images/'.$file, $file);
}
$zip->close();
//Force download a file in php
if (file_exists($zipFile)) {
header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . basename($zipFile) . '"');
header('Expires: 0');
header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
header('Pragma: public');
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($zipFile));
readfile($zipFile);
exit;
}
?>
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