Add Compressed Files for User Download

A download widget in the WebUI is able to point only a unique file name. Thus if you need to download multiple different files, you would need multiple download widgets. However, you may use ZIP files (or equivalent compressed format, such as TAR files on Linux). The question is, how to automatically generate a zip file out of several files thanks to AIMMS, such that your end-user would be able to download it from the End-user mode (WebUI) in one click? In developer mode, on PRO or on the AIMMS Cloud ?


Start in developer mode

As you may know, AIMMS is capable of executing any executable program available on its running environment through the Execute function. AIMMS running environment may refer to your computer when using AIMMS in developer mode, your server computers when you are using AIMMS PRO and AIMMS computers when you are on the AIMMS Cloud.

Calling the Execute intrinsic function

You may download the 7za.exe executable from https://www.7-zip.org/download.html, and put it in your project folder. Say you have several files to download in a folder FilesToDownload in your project folder. As described in https://sevenzip.osdn.jp/chm/cmdline/syntax.htm, you may use the Execute function as follows.

Model Main_TarFiles {

    StringParameter TestPara {
        InitialData: "Waiting...";
    }

    Procedure MainExecution {
        Body: {

            Execute("7za.exe", "a archive2.zip .\FilesToDownload\*", wait: 1); !On windows
            TestPara := "Ready to test Existence";

        }
    }

As you may see, we asked AIMMS to execute a program called 7za.exe located in the project folder, provided some arguments:

  • a = add command

  • archive2.zip = the archive path. This will create the archive file in the project folder

  • .\FilesToDownload\* = the folder to add (any files or sub folder) regardless of their name (because we specified * at the end)

  • As a 3rd argument of the Execute function, we asked AIMMS to wait until the called program, 7za.exe, has finished his job.

  • We finished by assigning a string parameter to “Ready to test Existence”, notifying us about the end of the zipping process.

You may verify that the archive was created in the project folder.

Warning

Please mind to include the 7za.exe in your project folder for this code to work.

Note

  • On Linux, you may also directly use Execute("tar", "cvf archivedossier.tar FilesToDownload/", wait: 1);

Configure WebUI download widget

You may now open your WebUI, and insert a download widget that you will link with the following typical download procedure, pointing at your newly created archive2.zip file:

Procedure DownloadTarArchive {
    Arguments: (FileLocation,StatusCode,StatusDescription);
    Body: {

        FileLocation := "archive2.zip";

        StatusCode := webui::ReturnStatusCode('CREATED');
        StatusDescription := "Nice.";
    }
    StringParameter FileLocation {
        Property: Output;
    }
    Parameter StatusCode {
        Property: Output;
    }
    StringParameter StatusDescription {
        Property: Output;
    }
}

See also

https://documentation.aimms.com/webui/download-widget.html

Elevate your formulation to PRO

Knowing how works the Execute function, you may call any executable program in your system PATH, or by specifying the absolute path on your server, such as: C:\Program Files (x86)\MyProgram\MyProgram.exe. However, mind to create the archive somewhere the download procedure may access. In the following example, I take into account both situation, PRO on Windows or PRO on Linux.

I will thus simply improve my MainExecution procedure as follows:

if not AimmsStringConstants('platform')='Linux' then
    execute("7za.exe", "a archive2.zip .\FilesToDownload\*", wait: 1); !On windows, nothing has changed here. (I considered you bundled the 7za.exe program with your AIMMS project in the aimmspack.)
    TestPara := "Ready to test Existence";
else
    execute("tar", "cvf archive2.tar FilesToDownload/", wait: 1); !On Linux
    TestPara := "Ready to test Existence";
endif;

Note

  • For windows, I assumed you bundled the 7za.exe program with your AIMMS project in the aimmspack. As explained above, an alternative would be to install a zip program on your Windows Server accessible from the PATH, or

  • The AimmsStringConstants intrinsic string parameter provides a list of system constants, such as 'platform' (Windows, Linux) or 'architecture' (x64, x86).

And I will improve my Download procedure as well:

if projectDeveloperMode then
    FileLocation := "archive2.zip";

elseif AimmsStringConstants('platform')='Linux' then
    FileCopy("archive2.tar", webui::GetIOFilePath("archive2.tar"));
    FileLocation := webui::GetIOFilePath("archive2.tar");

else
    FileCopy("archive2.zip", webui::GetIOFilePath("archive2.zip"));
    FileLocation := webui::GetIOFilePath("archive2.zip");
endif;

StatusCode := webui::ReturnStatusCode('CREATED');
StatusDescription := "Nice.";

As you may have noticed, when running on PRO server, we took care to copy the archive file created in the project folder in the “PRO-temp” folder by using webui::GetIOFilePath, where the download widget will be able to access the file and make the End-User download it in his browser.

Note

The ProjectDeveloperMode intrinsic function detects if a project is in developer or end-user mode (when opened on PRO, a project is automatically in end-user mode)

Et voilà!

Note

  • You may use this implementation also on AIMMS Cloud, since AIMMS Cloud computers are operating on Linux.

Downloadable example

Please find the AIMMS example project attached here DownloadMultipleFiles.zip