How to Extract Zip file in React to a Relative path using jszip?

In many cases, we need to extract a zip file in a React application. This can be for various reasons, such as extracting resources or configuration files. In this blog post, we will discuss how to extract a zip file in a React application to a relative path. We will cover the technical details in detail and will be divided into sections for better understanding.

Prerequisites

Before we get started, make sure you have the following installed on your development machine:

• Node.js and npm
• React project set up

We will also be using the following npm package:

• jszip: A library for creating, reading and editing .zip files.

Installing the Required Libraries

First, let’s install the required library by running the following command in your terminal:

npm install jszip

Extracting the Zip File

To extract a zip file in a React application, we need to import the jszip library and use its loadAsync() method to read the contents of the zip file. Then, we can use the file() method to access the files inside the zip and the async() method to extract them.

Here is an example of how to extract a zip file in a React component:

import JSZip from 'jszip';

class App extends React.Component {
  extractZip = async (file) => {
    const zip = new JSZip();
    const extractedFiles = await zip.loadAsync(file);
    extractedFiles.forEach(async (relativePath, file) => {
      const content = await file.async("string");
      //save the file in the desired location
    });
  }
  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <input type="file" onChange={(e) => this.extractZip(e.target.files[0])} />
      </div>
    );
  }
}

export default App;

In the above example, we first imported the JSZip library. Then, we created an extractZip method that takes a File object as a parameter. Inside the method, we created a new instance of the JSZip class and used the loadAsync() method to read the contents of the zip file. Next, we used the forEach method to iterate over the files inside the zip and the async() method to extract them. The files can be saved in the desired location by using the File System API or any other library of your choice.

Saving the Extracted Files

In the example above, the extracted files are not saved yet, you can use the Node.js fs module to write the files to the desired location. Here is an example of how to save the files to a specific directory.

import fs from 'fs';

class App extends React.Component {
  extractZip = async (file) => {
    const zip = new JSZip();
    const extractedFiles = await zip.loadAsync(file);
    extractedFiles.forEach(async (relativePath, file) => {
      const content = await file.async("string");
      fs.writeFile(`./extracted/${relativePath}`, content, (err) => {
        if (err) throw err;
      });
    });
  }
  render() {

In the above example, we are using the fs.writeFile method to save the files in the ./extracted directory. The first argument is the path where the file should be saved, the second argument is the content of the file, and the third argument is a callback function that will be called when the file is saved.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we discussed how to extract a zip file in a React application to a relative path. We covered the technical details of how to install the required libraries, how to read the contents of the zip file and how to extract and save the files in the desired location. We also discussed how to use the Node.js fs module to write the files to a specific directory. With this knowledge, you can now easily extract zip files in your React application and use the extracted files as per your requirements. Remember that saving the extracted files is an additional step and you can choose to handle it in any way you see fit.

It’s important to note that you should always validate the files before extracting them, to prevent any security issues. This may include checking the file type, checking if the file is coming from a trusted source, etc. Also, make sure to handle any errors that may occur during the extraction process, to provide a better user experience.