The C# Zip File Library
using IronZip;
// Create an empty ZIP
using (var archive = new IronZipArchive())
{
// Add files to the ZIP
archive.Add("./assets/image1.jpg");
archive.Add("./assets/image2.jpg");
archive.Add("./assets/image3.jpg");
// Export the ZIP
archive.SaveAs("output.zip");
}
Install-Package IronZip
.NET MAUI, or .NET Multi-platform App UI, is a framework for building cross-platform applications. It allows developers to create applications with a single codebase that runs on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and or any other device. Similar to react native, but works with C# instead of JavaScript.
.NET MAUI allows C# developers to build hassle-free mobile applications, desktop apps, from a single environment. Microsoft .NET MAUI provides full-fledged documentation and resources, to help developers ease and optimize the app development process.
In this article, we'll explore the integration of IronZIP, a powerful C# ZIP Archive Library, with .NET MAUI for data extraction purposes.
IronZIP is a comprehensive C# ZIP archive library designed for creating, reading, and extracting archives in .NET. It supports a wide range of archive formats, including ZIP, TAR, GZIP, and BZIP2. IronZIP is compatible with various .NET versions, such as .NET 7, 6, 5, Core, Standard, and Framework.
It is cross-platform, making it suitable for C#, F#, and VB.NET applications running on Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, Docker, Azure, and AWS.
Key Features of IronZIP include:
Before getting started, ensure that you have the following prerequisites:
Select the .NET MAUI App project template and click Next.
Configure Project Settings, Project Name, and Location. Click Next.
From Additional Information, select the right .NET Framework. IronZIP supports the latest version of .NET Framework so you can choose that.
To integrate IronZIP into your .NET MAUI project, follow these steps:
Open Solution Explorer from View.
Select "Manage NuGet Packages for Solution."
In the NuGet browse tab, Search for "IronZIP" and install the package for your project.
Now then, everything is installed and set up, let's move to the Data extraction task of creating a Zip Extractor in .NET MAUI.
In this section, we'll focus on designing the user interface for your .NET MAUI application. Open the MainPage.xaml file in your project folder and add the necessary XAML code to create a user-friendly interface.
Here, we'll need two buttons, one for creating zip files and a second for extracting zip files. A few labels are also required to give appropriate messages. The following code example shows the xaml code of the design:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<ContentPage xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/dotnet/2021/maui"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
x:Class="MauiAppDataExtraction.MainPage">
<ScrollView>
<VerticalStackLayout
Spacing="25"
Padding="30,0"
VerticalOptions="Center">
<Label
Text="IronZIP - A Zip Library to Create and Extract Zip Content!"
SemanticProperties.HeadingLevel="Level1"
FontSize="32"
HorizontalOptions="Center" />
<Label
Text="Welcome to .NET Multi-platform App UI"
SemanticProperties.HeadingLevel="Level2"
SemanticProperties.Description="Welcome to dot net Multi platform App U I"
FontSize="18"
HorizontalOptions="Center" />
<Button
x:Name="OpenFileBtn"
Text="Extract Zip File"
SemanticProperties.Hint="Opens the File Picker"
Clicked="OnSelectFileButtonClicked"
HorizontalOptions="Center" />
<Button
x:Name="OpenFilesBtn"
Text="Create Zip"
SemanticProperties.Hint="Opens the File Picker"
Clicked="OnSelectFilesButtonClicked"
HorizontalOptions="Center" />
</VerticalStackLayout>
</ScrollView>
</ContentPage>
Run the application, and you'll see the output as regular Windows forms on the screen.
Open the MainPage.xaml.cs file and create the "Create Zip" functionality. Implement the OnSelectFilesButtonClicked method to allow opening the FilePicker and selecting multiple files of any type for creating a zip file.
Then create a list of all the paths from selected files. Finally, pass it to the CreateZip method where IronZIP will create a zip file using all the file paths seamlessly within a second.
The following code example shows how to achieve this task.
private async void OnSelectFilesButtonClicked(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
var status = await Permissions.RequestAsync<Permissions.StorageRead>();
if (status != PermissionStatus.Granted)
{
await DisplayAlert("Alert!", "Storage Access Denied", "Ok");
return;
}
// Select Multiple files of any type
var results = await FilePicker.PickMultipleAsync();
if (results != null)
{
var selectedFilePaths = new List<string>();
foreach (var file in results)
{
// Add File Full Path to the list one by one
selectedFilePaths.Add(file.FullPath);
}
CreateZip(selectedFilePaths);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Error: {ex.Message}");
}
}private async void OnSelectFilesButtonClicked(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
var status = await Permissions.RequestAsync<Permissions.StorageRead>();
if (status != PermissionStatus.Granted)
{
await DisplayAlert("Alert!", "Storage Access Denied", "Ok");
return;
}
// Select Multiple files of any type
var results = await FilePicker.PickMultipleAsync();
if (results != null)
{
var selectedFilePaths = new List<string>();
foreach (var file in results)
{
// Add File Full Path to the list one by one
selectedFilePaths.Add(file.FullPath);
}
CreateZip(selectedFilePaths);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Error: {ex.Message}");
}
}Private Async Sub OnSelectFilesButtonClicked(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
Try
Dim status = Await Permissions.RequestAsync(Of Permissions.StorageRead)()
If status <> PermissionStatus.Granted Then
Await DisplayAlert("Alert!", "Storage Access Denied", "Ok")
Return
End If
' Select Multiple files of any type
Dim results = Await FilePicker.PickMultipleAsync()
If results IsNot Nothing Then
Dim selectedFilePaths = New List(Of String)()
For Each file In results
' Add File Full Path to the list one by one
selectedFilePaths.Add(file.FullPath)
Next file
CreateZip(selectedFilePaths)
End If
Catch ex As Exception
Console.WriteLine($"Error: {ex.Message}")
End Try
End SubNow, let's implement the CreateZip method, where IronZIP's IronArchive class takes the path of the zip filename to be created. Looping through each selected file path, it is added to the zip file by the Add method.
When the files are added, a confirmation message is displayed using DisplayAlert.
private async void CreateZip(List<string> selectedFilePaths)
{
var path = "E:\\output.zip";
// Create a Zip
using (var archive = new IronArchive(path))
{
// Add files to the ZIP
foreach (var file in selectedFilePaths)
{
archive.Add(file);
}
}
await DisplayAlert("Congratulations", "All files add to the " + path, "Ok");
}
private async void CreateZip(List<string> selectedFilePaths)
{
var path = "E:\\output.zip";
// Create a Zip
using (var archive = new IronArchive(path))
{
// Add files to the ZIP
foreach (var file in selectedFilePaths)
{
archive.Add(file);
}
}
await DisplayAlert("Congratulations", "All files add to the " + path, "Ok");
}
IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.comFor more detailed information on how to create, add files to existing zip and extract zip, please visit this tutorial page.
Now, we'll create the "Extract Zip" functionality. Again, in the MainPage.xaml.cs file, implement the OnSelectFileButtonClicked method to allow opening the FilePicker and selecting a single zip file for extraction.
The selected file's full path is set to a string variable and sent to the ExtractZip method where IronZIP performs extraction. The code goes as follows:
private async void OnSelectFileButtonClicked(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
var status = await Permissions.RequestAsync<Permissions.StorageRead>();
if (status != PermissionStatus.Granted)
{
await DisplayAlert("Alert!", "Storage Access Denied", "Ok");
return;
}
// Select Multiple files of any type
var result = await FilePicker.PickAsync();
if (result != null)
{
// Add File Full Path to the list one by one
var selectedFile = result.FullPath;
ExtractZip(selectedFile);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Error: {ex.Message}");
}
}private async void OnSelectFileButtonClicked(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
var status = await Permissions.RequestAsync<Permissions.StorageRead>();
if (status != PermissionStatus.Granted)
{
await DisplayAlert("Alert!", "Storage Access Denied", "Ok");
return;
}
// Select Multiple files of any type
var result = await FilePicker.PickAsync();
if (result != null)
{
// Add File Full Path to the list one by one
var selectedFile = result.FullPath;
ExtractZip(selectedFile);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Error: {ex.Message}");
}
}Private Async Sub OnSelectFileButtonClicked(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
Try
Dim status = Await Permissions.RequestAsync(Of Permissions.StorageRead)()
If status <> PermissionStatus.Granted Then
Await DisplayAlert("Alert!", "Storage Access Denied", "Ok")
Return
End If
' Select Multiple files of any type
Dim result = Await FilePicker.PickAsync()
If result IsNot Nothing Then
' Add File Full Path to the list one by one
Dim selectedFile = result.FullPath
ExtractZip(selectedFile)
End If
Catch ex As Exception
Console.WriteLine($"Error: {ex.Message}")
End Try
End SubNow, let's create the ExtractZip method. In this method, set the path to the output folder where you want to extract the files.
Using IronZIP's ExtractArchiveToDirectory method, pass the selected file path and output path. This method seamlessly converts and transfers all the files in the zip to the output folder. Finally, a confirmation message is shown on successful extraction.
The code goes as follows:
private async void ExtractZip(string selectedFilePath)
{
var path = "E:\\Extracted Files";
IronArchive.ExtractArchiveToDirectory(selectedFilePath, path);
await DisplayAlert("Congratulations", "All files extracted to the " + path, "Ok");
}private async void ExtractZip(string selectedFilePath)
{
var path = "E:\\Extracted Files";
IronArchive.ExtractArchiveToDirectory(selectedFilePath, path);
await DisplayAlert("Congratulations", "All files extracted to the " + path, "Ok");
}Private Async Sub ExtractZip(ByVal selectedFilePath As String)
Dim path = "E:\Extracted Files"
IronArchive.ExtractArchiveToDirectory(selectedFilePath, path)
Await DisplayAlert("Congratulations", "All files extracted to the " & path, "Ok")
End SubAfter successfully integrating the code along with IronZIP, build and run the application to perform data extraction tasks. Test the functionality by creating a zip file and extracting files from a zip file.
Verify the results by checking the output and extracted files in the specified directories.
Let's first try to create a zip file. Click on the Create Zip button and it will present you with a file dialog. You can choose multiple or a single file to add to the zip.
Click Open and a confirmation message will appear that the files have been successfully added to output.zip.
If we navigate to the output.zip file and view its contents, we'll see all the files that we added.
Let's now extract a zip file. Click on the Extract Zip button and a File dialog will appear. Choose a zip file that you want to extract and click open.
Once the data capture from the zip file is done and extracted to the desired folder, it shows the confirmation message.
Now, navigate to the "Extracted Files" folder and you'll see the files extracted from the zip we chose.
In conclusion, integrating IronZIP with .NET MAUI provides a powerful solution for creating, reading, and extracting archives in cross-platform applications.
The provided example demonstrates how to use IronZIP for selecting multiple files, generating a zip archive, and extracting files from a zip archive within .NET MAUI.
This combination of technologies offers developers a seamless experience in managing and manipulating archives across various platforms.
For more detailed information and code examples, please visit this documentation page.
IronZIP offers a free trial. You can download the library from here and give it a try.
Install-Package IronZip
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Your trial key should be in the email.
If it is not, please contact
support@ironsoftware.com
Get started for FREE
No credit card required
Test in production without watermarks.
Works wherever you need it to.
Get 30 days of fully functional product.
Have it up and running in minutes.
Full access to our support engineering team during your product trial
Licenses from $749. Have a question? Get in touch.
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