{"id":89,"date":"2010-12-08T22:42:55","date_gmt":"2010-12-08T14:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techcoil.com\/blog\/?p=89"},"modified":"2018-09-02T11:32:41","modified_gmt":"2018-09-02T03:32:41","slug":"handy-vbscript-functions-for-dealing-with-zip-files-and-folders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techcoil.com\/blog\/handy-vbscript-functions-for-dealing-with-zip-files-and-folders\/","title":{"rendered":"Handy vbscript functions for dealing with zip files and folders."},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to task automation in the windows environment, vbscript is a very good scripting language to use. This post documents some useful functions that I had included in my scripts to deal with zip files and create folders .<\/p>\n

Create folders recursively<\/h3>\n

Although there is a CreateFolder<\/code> function provided by the FileSystemObject, there are times when we need to create folders within folders recursively. The CreateFolder<\/code> function provided by the FileSystemObject does not create parent folders of the folder that you want to create. For example, if you supply \"a\\b\\c\" as a parameter to the CreateFolder<\/code> function , vbscript will throw an error when folder a or folder b does not exist. The following vbscript function will create parent folders if they do not already exist.<\/p>\n

\r\nDim fso\r\nSet fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")\r\n\r\nSub CreateFolder(folderUrl)\r\n\r\n    folderUrl = fso.GetAbsolutePathName(folderUrl)\r\n    If (Not fso.folderExists(fso.GetParentFolderName(folderUrl))) then\r\n\t' Call CreateFolder recursively to create the parent folder\r\n\tCreateFolder(fso.GetParentFolderName(folderUrl))\r\n    End If\r\n\r\n    ' Create the current folder if the parent exists\r\n    fso.CreateFolder(folderUrl)\r\n\r\nEnd Sub\r\n<\/pre>\n
Sample usage:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\r\nCreateFolder("a\\b\\c\\d\\e\\f")\r\n<\/pre>\n
Delete folder<\/h3>\n
When you have automated tasks creating folders, you will want to delete them when you no longer need them. The following vbscript function will do just that.<\/p>\n
\r\nSub DeleteFolder(folderUrl)\r\n    Dim fso\r\n    Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")\r\n    folderUrl = fso.GetAbsolutePathName(folderUrl)\r\n    If (fso.FolderExists(folderUrl)) Then\r\n        fso.DeleteFolder(folderUrl)\r\n    End If\r\nEnd Sub\r\n<\/pre>\n
Sample usage:<\/p>\n
\r\nDeleteFolder("a")\r\n<\/pre>\n
Create a zip file<\/h3>\n
Most of the time, results are generated by the automated tasks and we want to be able to gather them at a single location for analysis. By creating a zip file of the results, we can prevent code change at the consumer task which will analyse the results.<\/p>\n
I did some modification to the following vbscript functions that I got from a forum posting by Cheeso<\/a> at stackoverflow.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\r\nSub NewZip(pathToZipFile)\r\n\r\n   'WScript.Echo "Newing up a zip file (" & pathToZipFile & ") "\r\n\r\n   Dim fso\r\n   Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")\r\n   Dim file\r\n   Set file = fso.CreateTextFile(pathToZipFile)\r\n\r\n   file.Write Chr(80) & Chr(75) & Chr(5) & Chr(6) & String(18, 0)\r\n\r\n   file.Close\r\n   Set fso = Nothing\r\n   Set file = Nothing\r\n\r\n   WScript.Sleep 500\r\n\r\nEnd Sub\r\n\r\nSub CreateZip(pathToZipFile, dirToZip)\r\n\r\n   'WScript.Echo "Creating zip  (" & pathToZipFile & ") from (" & dirToZip & ")"\r\n\r\n   Dim fso\r\n   Set fso= Wscript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")\r\n\r\n   pathToZipFile = fso.GetAbsolutePathName(pathToZipFile)\r\n   dirToZip = fso.GetAbsolutePathName(dirToZip)\r\n\r\n   If fso.FileExists(pathToZipFile) Then\r\n       'WScript.Echo "That zip file already exists - deleting it."\r\n       fso.DeleteFile pathToZipFile\r\n   End If\r\n\r\n   If Not fso.FolderExists(dirToZip) Then\r\n       'WScript.Echo "The directory to zip does not exist."\r\n       Exit Sub\r\n   End If\r\n\r\n   NewZip pathToZipFile\r\n\r\n   dim sa\r\n   set sa = CreateObject("Shell.Application")\r\n\r\n   Dim zip\r\n   Set zip = sa.NameSpace(pathToZipFile)\r\n\r\n   'WScript.Echo "opening dir  (" & dirToZip & ")"\r\n\r\n   Dim d\r\n   Set d = sa.NameSpace(dirToZip)\r\n\r\n   ' Look at http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/bb787866(VS.85).aspx\r\n   ' for more information about the CopyHere function.\r\n   zip.CopyHere d.items, 4\r\n\r\n   Do Until d.Items.Count <= zip.Items.Count\r\n       Wscript.Sleep(200)\r\n   Loop\r\n\r\nEnd Sub\r\n<\/pre>\n
Sample usage, assuming that the results folder had been created:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\r\n'Zip up the files in the results folder into a file named as results.zip\r\nCreateZip "results.zip", "results"\r\n<\/pre>\n
Extract files from a zip file<\/h3>\n
The reason for a function to extract files from a zip file is coherent with the reason to create a zip file. To extract files from a zip file, the following vbscript function reverse the process of creating one.<\/p>\n
\r\nSub ExtractFilesFromZip(pathToZipFile, dirToExtractFiles)\r\n\r\n    Dim fso\r\n    Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")\r\n\r\n    pathToZipFile = fso.GetAbsolutePathName(pathToZipFile)\r\n    dirToExtractFiles = fso.GetAbsolutePathName(dirToExtractFiles)\r\n\r\n    If (Not fso.FileExists(pathToZipFile)) Then\r\n        WScript.Echo "Zip file does not exist: " & pathToZipFile\r\n        Exit Sub\r\n    End If\r\n\r\n    If Not fso.FolderExists(dirToExtractFiles) Then\r\n        WScript.Echo "Directory does not exist: " & dirToExtractFiles\r\n        Exit Sub\r\n    End If\r\n\r\n    dim sa\r\n    set sa = CreateObject("Shell.Application")\r\n\r\n    Dim zip\r\n    Set zip = sa.NameSpace(pathToZipFile)\r\n\r\n    Dim d\r\n    Set d = sa.NameSpace(dirToExtractFiles)\r\n\r\n    ' Look at http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/bb787866(VS.85).aspx\r\n    ' for more information about the CopyHere function.\r\n    d.CopyHere zip.items, 4\r\n\r\n    Do Until zip.Items.Count <= d.Items.Count\r\n        Wscript.Sleep(200)\r\n    Loop\r\n\r\nEnd Sub\r\n<\/pre>\n
Sample usage, assuming results.zip is a valid zip file:<\/p>\n
\r\n'Extract files from results.zip to the current directory\r\nExtractFilesFromZip "results.zip", "."\r\n<\/pre>\n
Related posts<\/h3>\n