Generate multiple files, add them to a zip and then send the zip as a file download.

Question

I have a cfm page that generates multiple spreadsheet objects, right now if i try to send the files for download, only the last generated spreadsheet file is send as a download.

Is there a way to write these files to a zip and send the zip file as a download?

This is my existing logic:

for(VARIABLES.fileNumber = 0; VARIABLES.fileNumber  < VARIABLES.maxFiles; VARIABLES.fileNumber = VARIABLES.fileNumber + 1)
{
   /* code to create Spreadsheet here */




    VARIABLES.context = getPageContext();
    VARIABLES.context.setFlushOutput(true); 

    VARIABLES.response = VARIABLES.context.getResponse().getResponse();
    VARIABLES.response.reset();
    VARIABLES.response.setContentType("application/msexcel");   
    VARIABLES.response.setContentLength(len(SpreadsheetReadBinary(VARIABLES.suppItemSpreadSheetObj)));       
    VARIABLES.response.setHeader("Content-Disposition","attachment;filename=MyComplianceStatusFile#VARIABLES.fileNumber#Of#VARIABLES.maxFiles#.xls");

    VARIABLES.out = response.getOutputStream();     
    VARIABLES.out.write(SpreadsheetReadBinary(VARIABLES.suppItemSpreadSheetObj));       


    VARIABLES.out.flush();      
    VARIABLES.out.close();  
  }

Now , this way I get only the last spreadsheet that was generated. Is there a way to get all the spreadsheets that are generated may be one by one or may be in a zip ?

As an aside, that approach for downloading a single file is more typical of .jsp. The standard (simpler) approach in CF is to use [`cfcontent`](https://learn.adobe.com/wiki/display/coldfusionen/cfcontent). If you are new to CF, I would suggest taking a look at the [tags by function](http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/9.0/CFMLRef/WSc3ff6d0ea77859461172e0811cbec17576-7ffc.html) and [functions by category](http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/9.0/CFMLRef/WSc3ff6d0ea77859461172e0811cbec1a60c-7ffc.html) views first, for questions like this. — Leigh, Jan 27 '14 at 14:36

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 27 '14 at 12:28

Yes there is: <cfzip>. There's a usage example in the docs, but I'll repro here so I don't get slapped for basically saying "RTFM":

<!--- This example shows how to zip the directory "c:\temp" into the ZIP file "e:\work\abc.zip". ---> 
<cfzip file="e:\work\abc.zip" source="c:\temp"> 

<!--- This example shows how to zip all the class files in a directory and add a subdirectory named "classes" to the JAR file entry name. ---> 
<cfzip file="e:\work\util.jar" action="zip" source="c:\src\util\" prefix="classes" filter="*.class"> 

<!---This example shows how to zip all of the log files in the ColdFusion directory and create a subdirectory called exception where zipped files are archived. 
<cfzip file="c:\zipTest\log2.zip" action="zip" source="c:\ColdFusion\" prefix="exception" filter="*.log"> 

<!--- This example shows how to overwrite all of the content of a ZIP file with the entries specified in the source. ---> 
<cfzip file="c:\currentApp.zip" source="c:\myApp\work" overwrite="yes">

I think before anyone starts to even write a single line of ColdFusion they MUST be introduced to the docs. Or better yet, Google. — Cory Fail, Jan 28 '14 at 16:53
@AdamCameron, coming back to this after a couple of years! Sorry for the silly question, I was very new to software development then. — DesTroy, May 15 '17 at 08:17

Generate multiple files, add them to a zip and then send the zip as a file download.

1 Answers1