Unzipping a zip file

RE: Unzipping a zip file

Mike Schmitt — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 15:17:00 GMT

[quote userid="3520" url="~/discussions/f/best-practices/22694/unzipping-a-zip-file/88743#88743"]I would absolutely use a database table column to track the status of the unzip process.[/quote]

That sounds like a good approach too, though a bit of an extra up-front dev cost.

RE: Unzipping a zip file

Stewart Burchell — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 15:07:45 GMT

Apologies if you inferred that as the recommended solution. I would absolutely use a database table column to track the status of the unzip process. I'd set it to "unzipping" (or equivalent) when the process was started (e.g.. just before the unzip smart service was reached) and then to "unzipped (or equivalent) just after the said smart service, and point the refresh variable at this table/column. Typically such an unzip is then followed by some individual processing, so this could also be reflected in the table (e.g. you could have a progress bar, if we were able to write and update a count of items processed against a total number extracted from the zip file) etc etc

RE: Unzipping a zip file

Mike Schmitt — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 15:00:04 GMT

[quote userid="3520" url="~/discussions/f/best-practices/22694/unzipping-a-zip-file/88734#88734"]Note: you can auto-refresh an Appian SAIL interface so you don't have to rely on a User hitting a refresh icon.[/quote]

Are you confident of this? In my experience (though I haven't tried for a while), auto-refresh behavior on a user user input task SAIL form will not pick up changed PV data. Unless you were thinking of suggesting the user do a queryProcessAnalytics call from the form, which ups the complexty by a considerable factor...

RE: Unzipping a zip file

Gopalakrishnan G — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 12:56:47 GMT

Noted Stewart. Thanks for your input.

RE: Unzipping a zip file

Stewart Burchell — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 12:47:16 GMT

Whilst you can upload a zip file to Appian you cannot unzip directly from a User Interface.

Note: you can auto-refresh an Appian SAIL interface so you don't have to rely on a User hitting a refresh icon.

RE: Unzipping a zip file

Gopalakrishnan G — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 12:42:08 GMT

yes, now we have the same design where user will have to refresh in interface to check whether unzip has completed or not.

Another ques --- If we upload a zip file into any folder using Appian designer, it's auto-extracting properly (performance also not that bad), by any chance, can we do the same from interface?

RE: Unzipping a zip file

Stewart Burchell — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 12:35:57 GMT

Hi - I've had exactly the same experience - the first plug-in seems to just stop processing the zip file after either a pre-defined time or a pre-defined size but either way fails to complete the unzip process correctly.

I resorted to using the second plug-in and also have had the same experience - taking a very long time to unzip a package. Taking a long time isn't a problem in its own right, but if there is a need to provide the correct User Experience you'll have to provide something that communicates to the User that the unzip is "In Progress" and a method to refresh the interface periodically so that when the unzip is complete the User is made aware.