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Compress Files with Windows PowerShell then package a Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget

  • 02/12/2007

Somedays I feel like the Windows PowerShell Evangelist. Anyway, Johnny Halife and I were working on a script that would package up the files for a windows sidebar gadget as a post build event. Turns out you can do this with Windows PowerShell (surprise, surprise).

Once we got this working, I thought it would be cool to turn them into functions and add them to my profile so they are always available.

Being short of time (as always) I figured if I could:

1. Create a New Zip

 function New-Zip
{
  param([string]$zipfilename)
 set-content $zipfilename ("PK" + [char]5 + [char]6 + ("$([char]0)" * 18))
   (dir $zipfilename).IsReadOnly = $false
}

 usage: new-zip c:\demo\myzip.zip

2. Add files to a zip via a pipeline

 function Add-Zip
{
  param([string]$zipfilename)

 if(-not (test-path($zipfilename)))
  {
       set-content $zipfilename ("PK" + [char]5 + [char]6 + ("$([char]0)" * 18))
       (dir $zipfilename).IsReadOnly = $false  
    }
   
    $shellApplication = new-object -com shell.application
   $zipPackage = $shellApplication.NameSpace($zipfilename)
 
    foreach($file in $input) 
   { 
            $zipPackage.CopyHere($file.FullName)
            Start-sleep -milliseconds 500
 }
}

 usage: dir c:\demo\files\*.* -Recurse | add-Zip c:\demo\myzip.zip

3. List the files in a zip

 function Get-Zip
{
   param([string]$zipfilename)
 if(test-path($zipfilename))
 {
       $shellApplication = new-object -com shell.application
       $zipPackage = $shellApplication.NameSpace($zipfilename)
     $zipPackage.Items() | Select Path
   }
}

 usage: Get-Zip c:\demo\myzip.zip

4. Extract the files form the zip

 function Extract-Zip
{
 param([string]$zipfilename, [string] $destination)

  if(test-path($zipfilename))
 {   
        $shellApplication = new-object -com shell.application
       $zipPackage = $shellApplication.NameSpace($zipfilename)
     $destinationFolder = $shellApplication.NameSpace($destination)
      $destinationFolder.CopyHere($zipPackage.Items())
    }
}

 usage: extract-zip c:\demo\myzip.zip c:\demo\destination

So, how do we package the Vista Sidebar Gadget?

 dir <path_to_gadget_files | add-Zip <path_to_gadget_zip>
Rename-Item <path_to_gadget_zip> <path_to_gadget_zip>.Gadget

Job Done.

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