What are some common PHP libraries for creating ZIP files on-the-fly and what are their advantages and limitations?

When working with PHP, there are several libraries available for creating ZIP files on-the-fly. These libraries provide an easy way to compress multiple files into a single ZIP archive, which can be useful for tasks such as creating backups or packaging files for download. Some common PHP libraries for creating ZIP files include ZipArchive, PclZip, and PHPZip. 

// Using ZipArchive to create a ZIP file on-the-fly
$zip = new ZipArchive();
$zipFileName = 'example.zip';

if ($zip->open($zipFileName, ZipArchive::CREATE) === TRUE) {
    $files = ['file1.txt', 'file2.txt', 'file3.txt'];

    foreach ($files as $file) {
        $zip->addFile($file);
    }

    $zip->close();

    // Download the ZIP file
    header('Content-Type: application/zip');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . $zipFileName . '"');
    readfile($zipFileName);

    // Delete the ZIP file after download
    unlink($zipFileName);
} else {
    echo 'Failed to create ZIP file';
}

Keywords

PHP ZIP libraries advantages limitations

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