Chilkat for B4X

native Chilkat classes for B4A (Android) and B4J (Windows, Linux, macOS)

B4A: Android 7.0+ (minSdkVersion 24), armeabi-v7a, arm64-v8a, x86, and x86_64 · B4J: Windows x64, Linux x86_64 / arm64 / arm (armv7l), and macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon).

Chilkat for B4X provides two libraries built from the same source: ChilkatB4A for Android and ChilkatB4J for desktop and server applications. Each Chilkat class appears in the IDE as a regular B4X type with a Chilkat prefix — ChilkatHttp, ChilkatCrypt2, ChilkatZip, ChilkatJsonObject, … — with full autocomplete and inline documentation, and the API is identical in B4A and B4J, so code moves between them unchanged. The jars are self-contained: the native Chilkat library for every supported CPU rides inside the jar, is packaged into your APK automatically on Android, and is loaded automatically on the desktop. Nothing is installed or registered on your machine: copy two files into the IDE's additional-libraries folder and go.

Download

This is the full-version Chilkat product. Chilkat libraries are fully functional for a 30-day evaluation; no separate trial build is required. One download covers both B4A and B4J, with the native libraries for every supported platform included.

Documentation & Samples

• 📖 Chilkat B4X Reference Documentation
• 💻 Chilkat B4X Sample Code — ready-to-run examples
• 📝 Release Notes on the Chilkat blog

What's in the download

Unzipping creates a chilkat-b4x directory containing both libraries:

Using Chilkat in your own project

1. Install the library. Copy the jar + xml pair into the IDE's additional libraries folder. If you haven't configured one yet, set it under Tools → Configure Paths → Additional libraries folder (B4A and B4J each have their own). Restart the IDE, or right-click the Libraries Manager and choose Refresh, and ChilkatB4A / ChilkatB4J appears in the list.
2. Check the library in the Libraries Manager tab. Every Chilkat class is now available with autocomplete: type Chilkat and the full list appears.
3. Declare and initialize. Chilkat objects are declared like any other B4X object. Classes with progress events take an event-name prefix in Initialize; the rest take no arguments:

   Sub Process_Globals
       Private glob As ChilkatGlobal
       Private crypt As ChilkatCrypt2   ' has AbortCheck / PercentDone / ProgressInfo events
   End Sub

4. Write some code. Here is a complete QuickStart: it unlocks Chilkat, AES-encrypts a string, and decrypts it again. In B4J, call it from AppStart; in B4A, from Activity_Create. The code itself is identical in both.

   Sub ChilkatQuickStart
       ' Unlock Chilkat once at application startup.
       ' Any string unlocks a fully-functional 30-day trial.
       glob.Initialize
       If glob.UnlockBundle("Anything for 30-day trial") = False Then
           Log(glob.LastErrorText)
           Return
       End If
   
       ' AES-256 in CBC mode, hex-encoded output.
       crypt.Initialize("crypt")
       crypt.CryptAlgorithm = "aes"
       crypt.CipherMode = "cbc"
       crypt.KeyLength = 256
       crypt.PaddingScheme = 0
       crypt.EncodingMode = "hex"
       crypt.SetEncodedIV("000102030405060708090A0B0C0D0E0F", "hex")
       crypt.SetEncodedKey("000102030405060708090A0B0C0D0E0F101112131415161718191A1B1C1D1E1F", "hex")
   
       Dim encStr As String = crypt.EncryptStringENC("The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.")
       Log("Encrypted: " & encStr)
       Log("Decrypted: " & crypt.DecryptStringENC(encStr))
   End Sub

5. Run it. The encrypted hex string and the decrypted text appear in the log.

Progress monitoring and aborting

All Chilkat methods are synchronous: the call returns when the work is done. Classes that perform potentially long-running work (ChilkatHttp, ChilkatSFtp, ChilkatZip, ChilkatCrypt2, ChilkatMailMan, …) raise three events during the call, so your application can show progress and offer a way out. The event-name prefix is the string you passed to Initialize.

Here is a complete example that demonstrates all three events. It builds a zip in memory from string entries and writes it to a ChilkatBinData — the compression happens inside WriteBd, and that call raises the zip_* events below while it runs:

Sub Process_Globals
    Private zip As ChilkatZip
    Private bd As ChilkatBinData
End Sub

Sub ZipWithProgress
    zip.Initialize("zip")     ' "zip" is the event-name prefix for the Subs below
    zip.HeartbeatMs = 100     ' raise zip_AbortCheck every 100 ms during Chilkat calls

    zip.NewZip("demo.zip")    ' begins a new zip; nothing is written until a Write* call

    ' Add entries from strings.  Entries accumulate in the zip object;
    ' no compression happens yet.
    Dim big As StringBuilder
    big.Initialize
    For i = 1 To 2000
        big.Append("Line ").Append(i).Append(": The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.").Append(CRLF)
    Next
    zip.AddString("readme.txt", "Hello from Chilkat for B4X!", "utf-8")
    zip.AddString("data/big.txt", big.ToString, "utf-8")

    ' Write the zip to an in-memory BinData.  This is where the entries are
    ' compressed, and this call raises the zip_* events while it runs.
    bd.Initialize
    If zip.WriteBd(bd) = False Then
        Log(zip.LastErrorText)
        Return
    End If
    Log("Zip created in memory: " & bd.NumBytes & " bytes")
End Sub

Sub zip_AbortCheck As Boolean
    Log("AbortCheck")
    Return False   ' return True to abort the write
End Sub

Sub zip_PercentDone (PctDone As Int) As Boolean
    Log("PercentDone: " & PctDone & "%")
    Return False   ' return True to abort
End Sub

Sub zip_ProgressInfo (Name As String, Value As String)
    Log("ProgressInfo: " & Name & " = " & Value)
End Sub

AbortCheck fires at regular intervals controlled by the object's HeartbeatMs property (0, the default, disables it); PercentDone fires when an operation's completion percentage is known and can also abort; ProgressInfo delivers named progress values. Implement only the Subs you need — the events are skipped entirely when no matching Sub exists.

If you run a Chilkat call on a separate thread (e.g. with the Threading library), its events are automatically queued to the main thread. Events raised that way can't abort by return value; set the object's AbortCurrent property to True instead.

How the native library is loaded

The Chilkat classes are thin wrappers over a native Chilkat library, and the loading is automatic on both platforms:

Platform notes

B4A (Android)

Chilkat requires Android 7.0 or later: set minSdkVersion to 24 or higher in the project's manifest editor. All four ABIs are included, so apps run on every current Android device and on the Android emulator (x86 / x86_64). The 64-bit libraries support 16 KB memory pages, meeting Google Play's requirement for apps targeting Android 15+. The usual Android rules apply to your app's code: network operations need the INTERNET permission, and file paths should come from File.DirInternal / scoped storage rather than hard-coded locations.

B4J (Windows, Linux, macOS)

Six platforms are supported: Windows x64, Linux x86_64, Linux arm64, Linux arm (32-bit hard-float, e.g. Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit), macOS Apple Silicon, and macOS Intel. The Java version bundled with current B4J works as-is; any Java 8+ runtime matching the platform's CPU also works.

The Linux libraries require glibc 2.27 or newer — in practice, any Linux distribution released around mid-2018 or later (Ubuntu 18.04+, Debian 10+, RHEL/CentOS 8+, Fedora 28+, and equivalents). To check a system, run ldd --version; the first line reports the glibc version.

The macOS native libraries are signed with Chilkat's Developer ID. They are extracted from the jar at runtime, so they never carry the browser-download quarantine attribute and Gatekeeper does not block them.

Deploying your application

There is no separate runtime to install on target machines:

Next Steps

Browse the B4X examples for working code covering HTTP/REST, JSON, XML, email (SMTP/POP3/IMAP), FTP, SFTP/SSH, Zip, PDF, digital signatures, encryption, and much more. For questions, see the reference documentation or contact Chilkat support.

B4A, B4J, and B4X are products of Anywhere Software.