Gzip VB.NET Reference Documentation

Gzip

Current Version: 11.4.0

This class provides functionality for working with GZIP compression in both file-based and in-memory scenarios. It supports compressing and decompressing:

  • Files (.gz, .tar.gz)
  • Strings (with charset conversion)
  • Binary data (byte[], BinData)
  • Encoded data (Base64, Hex, etc.)

It also allows embedding metadata such as filenames, timestamps, and comments within the GZIP format.

For an extended overview, see Gzip Class Overview.

Object Creation

Dim obj As New Chilkat.Gzip()

Properties

AbortCurrent
AbortCurrent As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

Set this property to True to request that the currently running operation be aborted. This is useful for long-running operations such as large file compression or decompression. Methods that complete quickly are generally not affected.

If no method is currently running, the property is automatically reset to False when the next method begins. After an abort occurs, it is also reset to False. Both synchronous and asynchronous operations can be aborted. For synchronous calls, another thread must set this property.

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Comment
Comment As String

An optional comment to embed in the Gzip file when a Compress* method is called.

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CompressionLevel
CompressionLevel As Integer
Introduced in version 9.5.0.50

Controls the compression level used when creating Gzip data. The value can range from 0 to 9.

  • 0 = no compression
  • 9 = maximum compression

The default value is 6, which is a typical balance between compression size and speed. Higher levels may take significantly more CPU time while producing only slightly smaller output, depending on the data.

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DebugLogFilePath
DebugLogFilePath As String

If set to a file path, this property logs the LastErrorText of each Chilkat method or property call to the specified file. This logging helps identify the context and history of Chilkat calls leading up to any crash or hang, aiding in debugging.

Enabling the VerboseLogging property provides more detailed information. This property is mainly used for debugging rare instances where a Chilkat method call causes a hang or crash, which should generally not happen.

Possible causes of hangs include:

  • A timeout property set to 0, indicating an infinite timeout.
  • A hang occurring within an event callback in the application code.
  • An internal bug in the Chilkat code causing the hang.

More Information and Examples
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ExtraData
ExtraData As Byte()

Optional binary data to include in the Gzip header when a Compress* method is called.

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Filename
Filename As String

The filename to embed in the Gzip file when a Compress* method is called. Some Gzip extraction tools use this embedded filename as the default output filename.

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HeartbeatMs
HeartbeatMs As Integer

Specifies the interval, in milliseconds, between AbortCheck event callbacks. These callbacks allow an application to cancel certain long-running operations before they finish.

The default value is 0, which means no AbortCheck callbacks are triggered.

More Information and Examples
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LastErrorHtml
LastErrorHtml As String (ReadOnly)

Provides HTML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorText
LastErrorText As String (ReadOnly)

Provides plain text information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorXml
LastErrorXml As String (ReadOnly)

Provides XML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastMethodSuccess
LastMethodSuccess As Boolean

Indicates the success or failure of the most recent method call: True means success, False means failure. This property remains unchanged by property setters or getters. This method is present to address challenges in checking for null or Nothing returns in certain programming languages. Note: This property does not apply to methods that return integer values or to boolean-returning methods where the boolean does not indicate success or failure.

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LastModStr
LastModStr As String

Specifies the last-modified date/time to embed in the Gzip file when a Compress* method is called.

The value must be provided as an RFC 822 formatted date/time string.

Example:

Tue, 15 Nov 1994 12:45:26 GMT

If this property is not set, the current system date/time is used automatically.

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UseCurrentDate
UseCurrentDate As Boolean

Controls the last-modified date/time assigned to files created by Uncompress* methods.

When set to True, the extracted file uses the current date/time instead of the date/time stored in the Gzip data.

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VerboseLogging
VerboseLogging As Boolean

If set to True, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is False. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

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Version
Version As String (ReadOnly)

Version of the component/library, such as "10.1.0"

More Information and Examples
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Methods

CompressBd
Function CompressBd(ByVal binDat As BinData) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Compresses the contents of a BinData object in place, replacing the original data with Gzip-compressed data.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

More Information and Examples
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CompressBdAsync (1)
Function CompressBdAsync(ByVal binDat As BinData) As Task
Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressBd method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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CompressFile
Function CompressFile(ByVal srcPath As String, ByVal destPath As String) As Boolean

Compresses a file and writes the result as a Gzip file, typically with a .gz extension.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

More Information and Examples
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CompressFileAsync (1)
Function CompressFileAsync(ByVal srcPath As String, ByVal destPath As String) As Task

Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressFile method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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CompressFile2
Function CompressFile2(ByVal srcPath As String, ByVal embeddedFilename As String, ByVal destPath As String) As Boolean

Compresses a file and writes the result as a Gzip file, while allowing a different filename to be embedded inside the Gzip data.

The inFilename parameter is the actual file on disk. The srcPath parameter is the filename stored in the Gzip header and may be used by extraction tools as the output filename.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

More Information and Examples
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CompressFile2Async (1)
Function CompressFile2Async(ByVal srcPath As String, ByVal embeddedFilename As String, ByVal destPath As String) As Task

Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressFile2 method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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CompressFileBd
Function CompressFileBd(ByVal filePath As String, ByVal bd As BinData) As Boolean
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Compresses a file and stores the resulting Gzip data in a BinData object.

The compressed output is held in memory. The maximum compressed size is 4 GB.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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CompressFileBdAsync (1)
Function CompressFileBdAsync(ByVal filePath As String, ByVal bd As BinData) As Task
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressFileBd method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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CompressFileToMem
Function CompressFileToMem(ByVal inFilename As String) As Byte()

Compresses a file and returns the resulting Gzip data as a byte array.

The compressed output is held in memory and has a maximum size limit of 4 GB.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

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CompressFileToMemAsync (1)
Function CompressFileToMemAsync(ByVal inFilename As String) As Task

Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressFileToMem method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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CompressMemory
Function CompressMemory(ByVal inData As Byte()) As Byte()

Compresses a byte array and returns the result as an in-memory Gzip image.

The uncompressed input data must not exceed 4 GB.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

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CompressMemoryAsync (1)
Function CompressMemoryAsync(ByVal inData As Byte()) As Task

Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressMemory method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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CompressMemToFile
Function CompressMemToFile(ByVal inData As Byte(), ByVal destPath As String) As Boolean

Compresses a byte array and writes the resulting Gzip data to a file.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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CompressMemToFileAsync (1)
Function CompressMemToFileAsync(ByVal inData As Byte(), ByVal destPath As String) As Task

Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressMemToFile method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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CompressSb
Function CompressSb(ByVal sb As StringBuilder, ByVal charset As String, ByVal bd As BinData) As Boolean
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Compresses the text contained in a StringBuilder and writes the Gzip-compressed result to a BinData object.

Before compression, the string is converted to bytes using the specified character set, such as utf-8, iso-8859-1, or shift_JIS.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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CompressSbAsync (1)
Function CompressSbAsync(ByVal sb As StringBuilder, ByVal charset As String, ByVal bd As BinData) As Task
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressSb method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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CompressString
Function CompressString(ByVal inStr As String, ByVal destCharset As String) As Byte()

Compresses a string and returns the Gzip-compressed data as a byte array.

The string is first converted to bytes using the character set specified by destCharset. Common values include utf-8, iso-8859-1, and shift_JIS.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

More Information and Examples
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CompressStringAsync (1)
Function CompressStringAsync(ByVal inStr As String, ByVal destCharset As String) As Task

Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressString method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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CompressStringENC
Function CompressStringENC(ByVal inStr As String, ByVal charset As String, ByVal encoding As String) As String

Compresses a string and returns the Gzip-compressed data as an encoded string.

The input string is first converted to bytes using the specified character set. The compressed binary data is then encoded using the requested encoding, such as base64, hex, url, base32, or quoted-printable.

Returns Nothing on failure

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CompressStringToFile
Function CompressStringToFile(ByVal inStr As String, ByVal destCharset As String, ByVal destPath As String) As Boolean

Compresses a string and writes the resulting Gzip data to a file.

The string is first converted to bytes using the character set specified by destCharset.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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CompressStringToFileAsync (1)
Function CompressStringToFileAsync(ByVal inStr As String, ByVal destCharset As String, ByVal destPath As String) As Task

Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressStringToFile method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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ExamineFile
Function ExamineFile(ByVal filePath As String) As Boolean

Checks whether the specified file contains Gzip-formatted data.

Returns True if the file is in Gzip format, or False otherwise.

More Information and Examples
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ExamineMemory
Function ExamineMemory(ByVal inGzData As Byte()) As Boolean

Checks whether the provided byte array contains Gzip-formatted data.

Returns True if the data is in Gzip format, or False otherwise.

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IsGzip
Function IsGzip(ByVal bd As BinData) As Boolean
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Checks whether the data contained in a BinData object is in Gzip format.

Returns True if the data is Gzip-formatted, or False otherwise.

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LoadTaskCaller
Function LoadTaskCaller(ByVal task As Task) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.80

Loads the caller of the task's async method.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SetDt
Function SetDt(ByVal dt As CkDateTime) As Boolean

Sets the last-modified date/time to embed in the Gzip file when a Compress* method is called.

If no date/time is explicitly set, the current system date/time is used.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SetExtraData
Function SetExtraData(ByVal encodedData As String, ByVal encoding As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Sets optional extra binary data to include in the Gzip header when a Compress* method is called.

The data is passed as an encoded string. Supported encodings include base64, hex, ascii, and many others.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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UncompressBd
Function UncompressBd(ByVal binDat As BinData) As Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Decompresses Gzip data contained in a BinData object in place, replacing the compressed data with the uncompressed data.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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UncompressBdAsync (1)
Function UncompressBdAsync(ByVal binDat As BinData) As Task
Introduced in version 9.5.0.67

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UncompressBd method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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UncompressBdToFile
Function UncompressBdToFile(ByVal bd As BinData, ByVal filePath As String) As Boolean
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Decompresses Gzip data stored in a BinData object and writes the result to a file.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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UncompressBdToFileAsync (1)
Function UncompressBdToFileAsync(ByVal bd As BinData, ByVal filePath As String) As Task
Introduced in version 11.0.0

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UncompressBdToFile method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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UncompressFile
Function UncompressFile(ByVal srcPath As String, ByVal destPath As String) As Boolean

Decompresses a Gzip file and writes the result to the specified output path.

The output filename is provided by the caller. The filename embedded in the Gzip data is not used.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

More Information and Examples
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UncompressFileAsync (1)
Function UncompressFileAsync(ByVal srcPath As String, ByVal destPath As String) As Task

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UncompressFile method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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UncompressFileToMem
Function UncompressFileToMem(ByVal srcPath As String) As Byte()

Decompresses a Gzip file and returns the uncompressed data as a byte array.

The uncompressed output is held in memory and must not exceed 4 GB.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

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UncompressFileToMemAsync (1)
Function UncompressFileToMemAsync(ByVal srcPath As String) As Task

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UncompressFileToMem method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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UncompressFileToString
Function UncompressFileToString(ByVal srcPath As String, ByVal charset As String) As String

Decompresses a Gzip file that contains text and returns the uncompressed text as a string.

The charset parameter specifies the character encoding of the uncompressed text, such as utf-8, iso-8859-1, windows-1252, shift_JIS, big5, etc.

Returns Nothing on failure

More Information and Examples
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UncompressFileToStringAsync (1)
Function UncompressFileToStringAsync(ByVal srcPath As String, ByVal charset As String) As Task

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UncompressFileToString method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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UncompressMemory
Function UncompressMemory(ByVal inData As Byte()) As Byte()

Decompresses an in-memory Gzip image and returns the uncompressed data as a byte array.

The uncompressed output is held in memory and must not exceed 4 GB.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

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UncompressMemoryAsync (1)
Function UncompressMemoryAsync(ByVal inData As Byte()) As Task

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UncompressMemory method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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UncompressMemToFile
Function UncompressMemToFile(ByVal inData As Byte(), ByVal destPath As String) As Boolean

Decompresses an in-memory Gzip image and writes the uncompressed data to a file.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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UncompressMemToFileAsync (1)
Function UncompressMemToFileAsync(ByVal inData As Byte(), ByVal destPath As String) As Task

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UncompressMemToFile method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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UncompressString
Function UncompressString(ByVal inData As Byte(), ByVal inCharset As String) As String

Decompresses Gzip-compressed data and returns the result as a string.

After decompression, the result is raw binary data (a sequence of bytes). These bytes are then interpreted as text using the specified character set (such as utf-8, iso-8859-1, etc.) to produce the final string.

Internally, Chilkat converts the byte sequence to a string by interpreting the bytes according to the specified character set. For example, if utf-8 is specified, the bytes are treated as the UTF-8 byte representation of text and decoded into the internal string format used by the programming language.

It is important that the character set matches the one originally used when the data was compressed. If the wrong character set is used, the byte-to-text conversion may produce incorrect or unreadable characters.

Returns Nothing on failure

More Information and Examples
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UncompressStringAsync (1)
Function UncompressStringAsync(ByVal inData As Byte(), ByVal inCharset As String) As Task

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UncompressString method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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UncompressStringENC
Function UncompressStringENC(ByVal inStr As String, ByVal charset As String, ByVal encoding As String) As String

Decompresses Gzip data provided as an encoded string and returns the uncompressed result as text.

The input string is first decoded using the specified encoding, such as base64, hex, url, base32, quoted-printable, etc. The decoded Gzip data is then decompressed and converted to text using the specified character set.

Returns Nothing on failure

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UnTarGz
Function UnTarGz(ByVal gzPath As String, ByVal destDir As String, ByVal bNoAbsolute As Boolean) As Boolean

Extracts a .tar.gz archive to a directory.

The Gzip decompression and TAR extraction are performed in streaming mode. No temporary files are created, and memory usage remains small and constant.

If bNoAbsolute is True, absolute paths in the TAR archive are not allowed. This helps protect against extracting files to unsafe locations, such as system directories.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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UnTarGzAsync (1)
Function UnTarGzAsync(ByVal gzPath As String, ByVal destDir As String, ByVal bNoAbsolute As Boolean) As Task

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UnTarGz method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns Nothing on failure

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XfdlToXml
Function XfdlToXml(ByVal xfldData As String) As String

Converts base64-encoded, Gzip-compressed XFDL data to XML text.

The input contains base64 data. The method decodes it, decompresses the Gzip data, and returns the resulting XML string.

XFDL (Extensible Forms Description Language) is an XML-based format used to define secure, interactive electronic forms—often including digital signatures and integrity protections—commonly used in government and enterprise applications.

Returns Nothing on failure

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Events

AbortCheck
Event OnAbortCheck

Enables a method call to be aborted by triggering the AbortCheck event at intervals defined by the HeartbeatMs property. If HeartbeatMs is set to its default value of 0, no events will occur. For instance, set HeartbeatMs to 200 to trigger 5 AbortCheck events per second.

More Information and Examples

Args are passed using Chilkat.AbortCheckEventArgs

Event callback implementation:

Dim WithEvents gzip As Chilkat.Gzip

Private Sub gzip_OnAbortCheck(sender As Object, args As Chilkat.AbortCheckEventArgs) Handles gzip.OnAbortCheck

    ...

End Sub
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PercentDone
Event OnPercentDone

This provides the percentage completion for any method involving network communications or time-consuming processing, assuming the progress can be measured as a percentage. This event is triggered only when it's possible and logical to express the operation's progress as a percentage. The pctDone argument will range from 1 to 100. For methods that finish quickly, the number of PercentDone callbacks may vary, but the final callback will have pctDone equal to 100. For longer operations, callbacks will not exceed one per percentage point (e.g., 1, 2, 3, ..., 98, 99, 100).

The PercentDone callback also acts as an AbortCheck event. For fast methods where PercentDone fires, an AbortCheck event may not trigger since the PercentDone callback already provides an opportunity to abort. For longer operations, where time between PercentDone callbacks is extended, AbortCheck callbacks enable more responsive operation termination.

To abort the operation, set the abort output argument to True. This will cause the method to terminate and return a failure status or corresponding failure value.

More Information and Examples

Args are passed using Chilkat.PercentDoneEventArgs

Event callback implementation:

Dim WithEvents gzip As Chilkat.Gzip

Private Sub gzip_OnPercentDone(sender As Object, args As Chilkat.PercentDoneEventArgs) Handles gzip.OnPercentDone

    ...

End Sub
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ProgressInfo
Event OnProgressInfo

This event callback provides tag name/value pairs that detail what occurs during a method call. To discover existing tag names, create code to handle the event, emit the pairs, and review them. Most tag names are self-explanatory.

More Information and Examples

Args are passed using Chilkat.ProgressInfoEventArgs

Event callback implementation:

Dim WithEvents gzip As Chilkat.Gzip

Private Sub gzip_OnProgressInfo(sender As Object, args As Chilkat.ProgressInfoEventArgs) Handles gzip.OnProgressInfo

    ...

End Sub
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TaskCompleted
Event OnTaskCompleted

Called from the background thread when an asynchronous task completes.

More Information and Examples

Args are passed using Chilkat.TaskCompletedEventArgs

Event callback implementation:

Dim WithEvents gzip As Chilkat.Gzip

Private Sub gzip_OnTaskCompleted(sender As Object, args As Chilkat.TaskCompletedEventArgs) Handles gzip.OnTaskCompleted

    ...

End Sub
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Deprecated

Decode
Function Decode(ByVal encodedStr As String, ByVal encoding As String) As Byte()
This method is deprecated.

Decodes an encoded string and returns the original data. The encoding mode is determined by encoding. It may be base64, hex, quoted-printable, or url.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

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DeflateStringENC
Function DeflateStringENC(ByVal inString As String, ByVal charsetName As String, ByVal outputEncoding As String) As String
This method is deprecated.

Compresses a string using the raw deflate algorithm and returns the compressed data as an encoded string.

The input string is first converted to bytes using the specified character set. The compressed binary data is then encoded using the requested output encoding, such as hex, base64, url, or quoted-printable.

Important: This method produces raw deflate-compressed data, not Gzip-format data. Use the Compress* methods when Gzip format output is required.

Returns Nothing on failure

More Information and Examples
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Encode
Function Encode(ByVal byteData As Byte(), ByVal encoding As String) As String
This method is deprecated.

Encodes binary data to a printable string. The encoding mode is determined by encoding. It may be base64, hex, quoted-printable, or url.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetDt
Function GetDt() As CkDateTime
This method is deprecated.

Applications should instead access the LastModStr property.

Gets the last-modification date/time to be embedded within the .gz.

Returns Nothing on failure

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InflateStringENC
Function InflateStringENC(ByVal inString As String, ByVal convertFromCharset As String, ByVal inputEncoding As String) As String
This method is deprecated.

Decompresses data previously compressed with DeflateStringENC.

The input string is first decoded using the specified input encoding, such as hex, base64, url, or quoted-printable. The resulting compressed bytes are then inflated, and the final bytes are converted to a string using the specified character set.

Returns Nothing on failure

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ReadFile
Function ReadFile(ByVal path As String) As Byte()
This method is deprecated.

Reads a binary file into memory and returns the byte array. Note: This method does not parse a Gzip, it is only a convenience method for reading a binary file into memory.

Returns an empty byte array on failure

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WriteFile
Function WriteFile(ByVal path As String, ByVal binaryData As Byte()) As Boolean
This method is deprecated.

A convenience method for writing a binary byte array to a file.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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