Create zip file using php

Nowadays people always archive their big files. The reasons are to save spaces perhaps in their portable hard disk or computer storage. If you are a php developer, this is a must function that a customer will always request. But is it difficult to create a zip file in php? It's actually easier than you thought!

To make things simple, this is the function to create zip files.

function create_zip($files = array(),$destination = '',$overwrite = false) { //if the zip file already exists and overwrite is false, return false if(file_exists($destination) && !$overwrite) { echo $destination; echo "Destination not valid!"; return false; } //vars $valid_files = array(); //if files were passed in... if(is_array($files)) { //cycle through each file foreach($files as $file) { //make sure the file exists if(file_exists($file)) { $valid_files[] = $file; } } } //if we have good files... if(count($valid_files)) { //create the archive $zip = new ZipArchive(); if($zip->open($destination,$overwrite ? ZIPARCHIVE::OVERWRITE : ZIPARCHIVE::CREATE) !== true) { return false; } //add the files foreach($valid_files as $file) { $zip->addFile($file,$file); } //debug //echo 'The zip archive contains ',$zip->numFiles,' files with a status of ',$zip->status; //close the zip -- done! $zip->close(); //check to make sure the file exists echo "Successfully archive zip file!"; return file_exists($destination); } else { echo "FAILED archive zip file!"; return false; } }

Note that files are array type, you can insert as many files as you want as long as it within array.
Ex.
1) single file 

$files_to_zip = array('path/to/file');

2) multiple file

$files_to_zip = array('path/to/file', 'path/to/file', 'path/to/file');

Here how to run the function:

create_zip($files_to_zip,'path/for/output');

Overwrite is set to FALSE. If you wish to have the ability to overwrite existing file, set it to TRUE.