How do I compress multiple files into a single archive with Delphi

Question

I need to compress multiple files into a single archive using Delphi. I'd prefer to use freeware components or open-source components because I am very very cheap :-)

My primary requirements are:

1. Possible to encrypt the archive
2. Can create common archives that can be opened by anyone with a copy of WinZip

Does anyone have suggestions with components that they have used? Please feel free to suggest free as well as commercial components/libraries.

Answer 1

Perhaps DelphiZip is what you are looking for, it seems to support encryption, too, and is WinZip compatible. It is released under LGPL.

Answer 2

KaZip is an open-source ZIP archiver. Here is its description:

KAZIP is fast, simple ZIP archiver and dearchiver which uses most popular ZIP format.Inflate - Deflate zip compression format (no encryption support and no multidisk support).KAZip is totaly based on Delphi VCL - no DLL, ActiveX or other external libraries.KAZip is totaly stream oriented so you can deal with data only in memory without creating temporary files, etc. If you need to add zip-unzip functionality to your application,KAZIP is the right solution. Additional ZipListView and ZipTreeView components for easy visualisation.Functionality:Zip-Unzip using Inflate-DeflateBZip2 unzipping trough usage of BZIP2 units from Edison Mera Menndez.Functions:Adding Files, Folders, Streams; Selecting, Deselecting, Checking;Extracting to files and streams;Delete and Rename filesCreate, Delete and Rename foldersTest, RepairMany new properties and methods, improved speed.A very complex Zip Browser demo application is included

It is not compatible with Delphi 2009 yet, but with some minor changes in the source code, you can make it work in Delphi 2009 too. Actually, that's what I did.

Regards