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in the Snapshot Pro documentation it talks about two type

Hi in the Snapshot Pro documentation it talks about two type of zip files, ziparchive and Pclzip. The documentation does not explain the benefits or the reason to use one over the other.

Could explain why to use one over the other.

Thanks.

Sat, 2 May 2015 10:14:17
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  • Adam
    • Support Gorilla

    Hey Hudson,

    I hope you’re having a great day!

    Both compression types use ZIP compression so the difference is not that significant. Basic information is given on Snapshot’s “Settings” page as follows:

    ZipArchive – In most cases ZipArchive is built into PHP and generally faster than PclZIP. This library primarily uses files instead of memory for temporary storage when compressing large files.

    PclZip – is part of the WordPress core libraries. It will be slower than built-in PHP functions like ZipArchive. This library uses memory instead of files for temporary storage when compressing large files.

    According to the documentation the main advantage of PclZip over “classic” ZIP is that PclZip “gives you the ability to manipulate zip formatted archives”. For example it lets you list archive’s content directly from the PHP level without unpacking it. That’s the handy feature that might be used for example by the WP plugin manager.

    Other than this there’s really not that big difference, however there’s a slight chance that on some servers one of those compression types (most likely PclZip) won’t work. That’s vary rare condition though, so I wouldn’t worry about it :slight_smile:

    I hope that helped!

    Cheers,

    Adam

  • Adam
    • Support Gorilla

    Hello Hudson,

    The choice between ZIP and PclZip from the users point of view really doesn’t make a big difference. The ability to select a method might become useful a bit in some configurations/with some content included (e.g. if there’s a lot of small images or a few big images etc.) but if Snapshot works faster with Zip or PclZip in a particular environment – that has to be determined by trials and errors on that particular WordPress install.

    “…archive’s content directly from the PHP level without unpacking it. That’s the handy feature that might be used for example by the WP plugin manager.”

    Again, it’s not of much use from the user’s point of view, apart that those scripts that use PclZip might for example be sometimes a bit faster when it comes to delivering a listing of archive content.

    I hope that helps!

    Regards,

    Adam