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    SXAzip  (c) 2000-2006 Octatec Ltd
   
SXAzip is an easy-to-use program that creates Self eXtracting Archives. A compressed archive is created and embedded in a WIN32  executable. Files are then extracted by simply double-clicking the archive file.SXAzip is ideal for distributing software, and is specifically designed to work with InstallScript (If you purchase InstallScript, SXAzip is included free of charge, however SXAzip is also available for purchase separately) SXAzip can be used for either personal backups or system backups, and has a Script Driven interface and an ActiveX Automation Interface.

Contents

Keywords: Self Extracting Archive, File Compression, Decompress,  Personal Backup, Script Driven Backup, Software Installation, Software Distribution, ActiveX Automation.

Summary: SXAzip enables you to create Self Extracting Archives for use in distributing software or for personal or system backups.

Typical Uses For SXAzip

SXAzip is typically used for the following purposes....
  • To distribute software via internet download (or on floppy disk or CD) in the form of a single executable file.
  • To backup infrequently used files into a compressed archive, thus saving disk space.
  • To backup files for safety and security

Features Of SXAzip

The SXAzip archive has the following features

Software Installation / Self Extraction

First and foremost, SXAzip is designed to produce Self eXtracting Archive used for software distribution and installation. Archives can be created so that when they are extracted, a user defined program contained in the archive is executed - this is usually setup.exe, but need not be. NOTE: the user who extracts the archive is always told that the setup program is about to execute, and given the option not to execute it.

Script File Processing

SXAzip interprets a very simple script files that allows system or personal backups to be easily repeated, with the archive written to date stamped files. If SXAzip is started with a single command line argument, that argument is expected to be the name of a script file - script files executed in this way  do so silently, without a window, however a date stamped error log is produced. The script-processing functionality also makes the production of a setup archive easy by recording all the files and options required. To run an SXAzip from the command line, issue the command "SXAzip <path-of-script-file>".

Disk Spanning

If you are creating an archive on a floppy disk, the archive can span multiple disks. The archive creator is automatically prompted to insert the next (formatted) disk, and the archive extractor is automatically asked to provide the next disk in the archive. Their are no problems self-extracting multiple volume floppy archives, but, as with all SXAzip archives, you have the choice of self-extracting them or using the SXAzip application to browse and/or extract them.

The disk spanning feature is designed to work with floppy disks, and their are problems self-extracting archives that spans Zip drives. The problem is, that the operating system treats large removable drives more like fixed drives than floppies, and will occasionally access the disk image of running executables. If the archive requires a 2nd disk, you will remove the disk that contains the executable! When this happens and the operating system decides it needs the disk, it will put up a blue screen prompting for the disk. Although this is not very elegant, in fact, if you insert the original disk in the drive and hit return (twice) the system continues OK. HOWEVER, this is not recommended. If you have multiple ZIP disk  archives, you should not use the self-extraction functionality, and instated use the File/Extract-Browse option from the SXAzip application

Development Project Backup

This feature allows a Project Backup mode to be selected from the menu. In this mode all VisualC++ Generated project files are ignored, this includes files with the following extensions
 
exe obj res tlb pdb sbr bsc ilk ncb opt plg aps idb pch 

Note: this list of extensions is configurable by editing the 'exclusion string' displayed in the Edit/Preferences menu. The string is a colon separated list of file extensions, and is, by default, "exe:obj:res:tlb:pdb:sbr:bsc:ilk:ncb:opt:plg:aps:idb:pch". It is stored in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHILE\SOFTWARE\Octatec\SXAzip\1.00\IgnoreFiles.

Optional Compression

Under normal operation, all files added to the archive are compressed, however, this feature can be disabled from the menu. You might want to do this if the files being added to the archive are already compressed.

Data Verification

Optionally, after creating an archive, it can automatically be read and verified. By default, archives are always verified.

Extract Files to Alternative Locations.

When extracting files from an archive you have 3 choices as to where to put them
  1. The absolute location as specified on the archive - any directories that do not exist will be created.
  2. A directory of you choice. The pathnames specified on the archive are created bellow the directory into which you are extracting.
  3. Flatten the archive hierarchy. All files on the archive are extracted into the specified directory regardless of the pathname on the archive

Password Protection and Encryption

The archive can be optionally protected with a password and encrypted. The encryption is not particularly strong,  it is sufficient however, to stop most people from  viewing your archive, but it isn't suitable for protecting valuable company secrets. A word of warning, however - if you forget your password and your archive is encrypted, you have effectively lost your data! Note: the encryption algorithm increases the size of the data, and for this reason if you decide to encrypt your archive, it is automatically  compressed as well.

Automation Interface

SXAzip exposes a simple automation interface allowing other applications to create and extract archives, see bellow for the description of the Automation interface supported.

Multiple Ways Of Adding Files To Archives

SXAzip allows files and directories to be added to an archive in any of the following ways
  • Add  directories from a directory selection dialog box - this dialog allows you to add files with either the full pathname or the relative pathname
  • Add one or more files from a file selection dialog
  • Add files and directories from a script file
  • Drag and Drop (or Paste) files and directories onto an archive
Note: when dropping, if no archive exists you will be prompted for one - you can switch this behaviour off, such that dropping onto the application when no archive is open  is an error, this is done using the Edit/Preferences menu. Further note: if you drop a file onto the SXAzip desktop icon, SXAzip will interpret this as a script to run, this is because the Windows Shell is passing the dropped file on the command line to SXAzip - SXAzip expects script-files to be passed on the command line. Note: you cannot add the same pathname to an archive more than once.

Activity Log and Error Log File

Whenever SXAzip is used, an activity log file named SXAzip.log is create in %TEMP%. If %TEMP% is not set %TMP% is used instead, if %TMP% is not set the log file is created in C:\TEMP, if there is no C:\TEMP directory, no log file will be created. Also, if processing a script file passed on the command line serious errors are written to a  date-stamped file SXAzip_DDMMYYYY.err located in the same directory - the error log is maintained instead of displaying errors on the screen. Note: the activity log can be disabled using the Edit/Preferences menu.

The User Interface

SXAzip presents a standard WINDOWS user interface. Archives are created and extracted using the File Menu. and Options are set using the Options menu. These are the only menus of any real importance.

Archive Manipulation

Archives are created (and optionally viewed and extracted)  by using the File menu displayed below.. Hopefully, the menu items are self explanatory. Note: all archives are self extracting, but as an alternative to using the self extraction capability, archives can be view and extracted using the "Extract/Browse Archive" option.


 

Option Selection

Options are set, not surprisingly, set using the options menu. Some options cannot be set set once an archive has been created, and these are greyed out accordingly.
The options should be mostly self explanatory. It should be noted that the "Quit" option is only available while files are being added to the archive, and selecting it will quit from the current file addition operation.


 

Creation of a Setup Archive

If the "Generate Installation/Setup Archive" option is selected, the following dialog is displayed. NB: this option becomes greyed out once an archive has been created with New Archive menu option; this is because SXAzip needs to know that you are going to create an Installation archive before your actually create it. This option arranges for a SETUP program to be run automatically after an archive has be self-extracted. Note, however, if you are creating a setup archive, it is probably more efficient to record this information in a script file together with all the files required by the setup. When a setup archive is created you will probably find it easier writing the actual SETUP program if the files are  added to the archive without any path-information using the Flatten Folder Hierarchy option  (+F when scripting). When the setup archive is 'executed' the files are extracted into a temporary directory and SXAzip runs the  named SETUP program. After the SETUP program has completed, the temporary directory and all files in it are removed. There is, however, one complicating the factor: the SETUP program might run another program to do the actual work and exit. If this is the case you can use the Advanced button to specify an alternative program to wait for, rather than the one that is executed by the archive. The setup program that Install Shield uses works this way. If you are unsure, you can use the Advanced button to disable the automatic clean-up facility; if you do this, the files extracted from the archive will be left on the system in a temporary directory named __SXA_tmp_N__.(Note: this is not a problem if you use InstallScript as the setup program)

The Advanced button displays the following dialog.

Note: if you are using a script to create the setup archive, the above information can be entered using the :  directive.

Tip: if you are planing to create a setup archive, use InstallScript to quickly and easily produce an installation script. SXAzip and InstallScript where designed from the start to work together.

Archive Browse and Extraction

Whether the archive is being self extracted or if the SXAzip program itself is being used to browse / extract an archive, the following dialog is displayed. There is, however, one exception to this,  a somewhat different dialog is displayed if the archive is a Setup Archive and a SETUP program is going to run - this dialog is shown in the next section. By default, the files are extracted to the same location as on the archive. However, you can extract then to any location, and the file hierarchy will be created in that location - alternatively, you can choose to flatten the hierarchy and extract the files, excluding the path information. Right clicking on a selected file allows it to be viewed or extracted.


NB: if you choose to jus 'get the selected files' SXAzip will display the filenames of ignored files as it passes them by - do not worry, it is not extracting those files, it will only extract the files you have a selected!

NOTE: if you want to search for a particular file, just press F3, you can then enter part of a file name or the whole file name, and the list will be searched for it.

Execution Of a Setup Archive

After executing a setup archive, you will see the following dialog. You may browse the archive, but you may not extract the files from the browse menu. The only way to extract the files is to select the Yes button.


 

Preferences

The preferences dialog box can be accessed from the Edit Menu. Mostly, you will not want to change any of the preferences, and if you don't understand a preference, leave the default, as displayed below.

Enable Activity log
This preference is self explanatory, it simply permits an application log to be maintained.

Enable archive creation on drop
With this preference set, if you drop a file or directory onto a running SXAzip, if there is no archive open, you will be prompted for one. Without this preference set, dropping files onto the application when their is no open archive generates an error.

Detect End-Of-Media in software
This preference causes SXAzip to count the bytes added to an archive, the alternative is to rely on interpreting a hardware error generated when the application attempts to write passed the end of the disk. With a normal floppy drive, both methods work fine, however, with a Zip drive, hardware detection was found to be less reliable than software detection. For this reason Software detection is preferred.

Block size for removable media i/o
This preference gives you the flexibility to set your own block size, the defaults are 1024 for floppy disks and 10240 for larger devices such as ZIP drives. The larger the block size, the faster the archive will be written, however, more space is wasted, In the worst case, one whole block will be wasted.

Project mode exclusion list.
This preference specifies file-types that are ignored when operating in Project Mode. It is a colon-separated list of file extensions. In addition to files with a particular extension, you can specify filenames that end in a particular character, e.g. some development environments create frequent backups of files, all the backups are marked by a trailing ~ character. You may want to exclude such files, you can do this by adding  *~ to the list of extensions to exclude. NB currently only the last character is processed, so constructs like *bkp will not work.
 

Script File Format

SXAzip has the ability to process simple script files, simplifying the task of backing up specific files and directories and creating Setup archives.

The first character of a script file is the command character. Any line that does not start with a command character is assumed to be the name of a file or directory.
Script files can only be used for creating archives, not extracting them.

The following are the valid command characters

#                                    comment, lines starting with this character are ignored
*password                   set password protection  and use the string after the * as the password.
                                      NOTE the * command MUST appear before the archive is created.
:company                   set the company name for 'setup' archives
:product                   set the product name for 'setup' archives
:description       set the product description for 'setup' archives
:setup_prog.exe      set the setup executable  to run after the archive has been extracted.
:wait_for_exe           this will normally be the same as the setup_prog.exe above.
                                      NOTE: these 5 commands must be in the correct order and must appear before the archive is created.
                                      This information is the same as that entered into the setup dialog if you are creating a setup archive from the GUI
+option_string      turn on the specified options
-option_string          turn off the specified options
@directory                  change  directory, you may use the wildcard drive specifier?:\ in the directory name
                                      then all drives are checked for the specified directory, the first matching path is chosen.
!?message                  prompt the user with a message, maybe to insert a floppy disk in the drive. You can embed new lines in the 
                                      message by using \n
!!command         execute the named command/batch file via the C system() function
!$command         schedule the named command/batch file for execution after the archive is closed (via the C system() function)
!#message         ensure the message is displayed when the archive is successfully closed. You can embed new lines in the 
                                      message by using \n
!(any text                ensure the feedback dialog is diaplyed
~string           Set the list of ignored file extensions to  string,  where string is the same format as used in the preferences dialog. 
                                      This command overrides the settings in the preferences dialog. 
                                      NB this directive will automatically set the P option (project backup mode).
>pathname.exe          create an archive in the named EXE file, you may use the wildcard drive specifier ?:\, in which case
                                      the drive containing the windows directory is used.
pathname                     add the directory or file specified by the pathname, you may use the wildcard drive specifier ?:\, 
                  then all drives are checked for the specified pathname, the first matching path is chosen.

The  !( Directive
If you are running a script from the command line, SXAzip will be completely silent. You can display messages using !? and !#. You can also activate the ‘feedback’ AVI display by using this command. The text after !( will be displayed as the title of the feedback dialog. If you are not running the script from the command line, this directive is ignored.

Renaming files as they appear on the archive

There is a way to rename a file when it goes onto the archive, the syntax to achieve this is as follows...
(pathname-stored-on-archive)=pathname-of-actual-file
E.G. if you want to store a file called c:\testprog1\version_2.exe as c:\application\program.exe on the archive, just add the following line, but note: spaces are not allowed around any of the  ( ) = characters.
(c:\application\program.exe)=c:\testprog1\version_2.exe
Note: this only works with single files, and not directories. There is no facility to give files a different name on the archive except when processing scripts as described here - you cannot do it from the user interface.

This facility is of most use if you are flattening the pathnames when you save them onto the archive, and have more than one filename that is the same. Note: ISbuilder (the InstallScript Wizard) uses this technique to ensure files of the the same name do not overwrite each other when extracted from a flattened archive).

Archive pathname Interpretation

The > command  interprets the following characters in a pathname in a special way
        $        US format date (MMDDYYYY)
        #       UK format date (DDMMYYYY)
    ~       general date format  (YYYYMMDD)
        %     The current system time (HHMM)
        @      The Computer name
        *        The current user name

The purpose of this is so that SXAzip can run the same script, once a day or once a week, and produce differently named archives, perhaps backing up to a central server. E.G., a 'create command' like this  >\\server\bkp_dir\@-#-%.exe  could be used.

Option Specification

You can switch on or off the following options. Note: these are the same options available from the Options menu. You can switch options on or off at any time in the script file. Options are controlled by a single letter in an option string. option strings that start with a + switch options on, options strings that start with a - switch options off. E.G. the following string switch off verification mode and compression -vz, and this string switches on Project Backup mode +p. The following table show the letter that controls the option. (the letter can be upper or lower case)
 
Z Compression Mode S Setup Mode 
D Follow all Sub directories V Verify the archive
P Project Backup Mode F Flatten folder hierarchy
E Encrypt Archive (a password is also required) M Minimize archive size
To set password protection without encryption, just set a password using the * command.

A Note On Setup Mode (option S)

Selecting this mode allows a setup program to be automatically executed after the archive has been extracted. If the mode is selected from the menu, you will be prompted for the required information when the archive is created. If you are using a script, you must use the : directive 5 times to set the company, product, description,setup program and wait-for program.

A Note On Flatten folder hierarchy mode (option F)

This mode is available when creating and extracting archives. If this mode is selected when creating an archive, files are stored on the archive without their full pathname, i.e. the filename only is stored. (Beware, if 2 files have the same filename, but different pathnames, SXAzip will see them as the same file, and not let you add the second to the archive (it is not permitted to have 2 files with the same pathname on an archive). To avoid this, you may rename the file as it appears on the archive - when the file is extracted it will then have this new name ). If an archive is stored without flattening the hierarchy, the hierarchy can still be flattened during the extraction (by checking the flatten box on the browse dialog), in which case all files will be created in the specified directory regardless of the pathname on the archive. NB: flattening files during extract is not an option for setup archives since the setup program must know in advance where all files will be located - you may find it easiest to write a setup program if the files are extracted to a single directory and the setup program can then place the files in their correct location - you can use the Flatten mode on archive creation to ensure this happens. See the setup example script bellow.

A Note on Minimize Mode (option M)

Minimize the size of the output archive. This is done by reducing the functionality of the User Interface that is embedded in the output archive. If you are producing setup archives you will certainly want to do this, as the User interface is not greatly used in such archives. For other archives, you can choose. This option saves about 40K in the size of the archive at the cost of a slightly reduced user interface - you don't get popup menus (a double click will view the current item and F3 will initiate a search), there is no file-system browse facility, and you only get the file-name displayed in the list window.

Automation Interface

Object Name:    SXAzip.Archive

Method Specification:

    [id(1)]  boolean CreateArchive(BSTR outputPath);
   [id(2)]  boolean AddDirectory(BSTR path);
   [id(3)]  boolean AddFile(BSTR path);
   [id(4)]  boolean ProcessScript(BSTR scriptFile);
   [id(5)]  boolean ExtractArchive(BSTR archiveFile);
   [id(6)]  void SetOptions(BSTR optionString);
   [id(7)]  boolean CloseArchive();
   [id(8)]  boolean AbortArchive();
   [id(9)]  boolean SetPassword(LPCTSTR passwd);
   [id(10)] boolean SetExtractionOverwriteMode(long mode);
   [id(11)] void SetIgnorableFileExtensions(BSTR files);
 

The function of methods should be self explanatory. NB: the SetOptions() method accepts the same format string as used in the script file, i.e. a string starting with + or - followed by a set of single-letter option flags. A type library is also included in the installation. The SetPassword() method has a dual function: when creating an archive is sets the password protection/encryption mode, and when extracting password protected archives, it sets the password to use. The password must be at least 4 characters long.

The SetExtractionOverwriteMode() method will accept 3 values...

  • 1 - Always overwrite existing files
  • 2 - Never overwrite existing files
  • 3 - Overwrite existing files only if the file on the archive is newer


Setup Archive Example

The following script is the one actually used to build the archive used to distribute SXAzip itself. It uses InstallScript (also available from Octatec) to do the actual installation. The script is highly commented, but don't let that make you think SXAzip scripts are complex, they aren't, they are little more than a list of files.
NOTE: If you are using InstallScript, you don't actually need to worry  about creating the SXAzip script, the InstallScript Wizard (ISBuilder) will do that for you.
 
# SXAzip Setup Archive - FULL VERSION
# This archive contains all the files needed by the SXAzip application
#
####################
# Setup Information
#
#    describe the app and where it comes from, the order is fixed as
#    VENDOR,APP-NAME,APP-DESCRIPTION,SETUP-PROG,WAITFOR-PROG
#
:Octatec Ltd
:SXAzip - Self eXtracting Archive
:Allows easy backups and software distribution
:setup.exe
:setup.exe
#
#############
# SXA options
#    The F is quite important here, it flattens the archive so that no paths are
#    restored, only the files, which, I think, makes copying them from within
#    the InstallScript easier - however you will have a problem if there are 2 files
#    of the same name, then you must rename the file as it appears on the archive.
#    NOTE: you should always try and use  the +F option or the system will have
#    difficulty finding the InstallScript
#
+FZS
#
#################################
# Name the archive to be produced
# (archives always have the type 'exe' since they are self-extracting)
#
>C:\Home\InstallScripts\SXA_full\SXA_V1_full.exe
#
#
###########################################################
# A D D    F I L E S    T O    T H E    A R C H I V E . . .
#
##############################
# the SXA application programs
#
C:\Home\Work\SXAzip\Release\SXAzip.exe
C:\Home\Work\SXAdat\Release\SXAzip.dat
#
###################################
# the SXA application documentation
#
C:\Home\WWW\Site_Mirror\SXA_document.htm
C:\Home\WWW\Site_Mirror\sxa_title.gif
C:\Home\WWW\Site_Mirror\bkg_blu2.jpg
C:\Home\WWW\Site_Mirror\sxa-advanced-dlg.jpg
C:\Home\WWW\Site_Mirror\sxa-setup-create-dlg.jpg
C:\Home\WWW\Site_Mirror\sxa-setup-dlg.jpg
C:\Home\WWW\Site_Mirror\sxa-browse.jpg
C:\Home\WWW\Site_Mirror\sxa-create.jpg
C:\Home\WWW\Site_Mirror\sxa-menu-1.jpg
C:\Home\WWW\Site_Mirror\sxa-menu-2.jpg
#
##############################################
# the SXA license file, displayed during setup
#
C:\Home\InstallScripts\SXA_full\license.txt
#
###########################
# InstallScript executables
#
#    These 3 EXEs are required to automatically Install the application, as you
#    will see from the above ':' directive, setup.exe is the program that runs
#    to perform the setup, but InstallScript.exe and unsetup.exe are both required
#    NB: on your system the EXEs will be found where you installed the InstallScript
#    system
#
C:\Home\Work\setup\Release\setup.exe
C:\Home\Work\IS\Release\InstallScript.exe
C:\Home\Work\unsetup\Release\unsetup.exe
#
###################
# the InstallScript
#
#    This is the script that actually does the work of performing the installation,
#    it should always be called "install.txt"
#
C:\Home\InstallScripts\SXA_full\install.txt
#    To read more information about InstallScript, click here
#
###################################
# proprietary Key validation program
#
#    This is OCTATEC's own key-validation program - it is used by InstallScript
#    to check that the users key is valid - you will have to provide your own
#    key-validation program if you wish to have such a feature
#
C:\Home\Work\ValidateKeyIS\Release\ValidateKeyIS.exe
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