Compression Python Reference Documentation
Compression
Current Version: 10.0.0
Data compression component implementing the PPMD, Bzip2, Deflate, and LZW compression algorithms. .NET, ActiveX, and C++ implementations provide progress monitoring and abort capabilities. Provides a unified API for all supported compression algorithms.
Object Creation
obj = chilkat2.Compression()
Properties
Algorithm
The compression algorithm to be used. Should be set to either "ppmd", "deflate", "zlib", "bzip2", or "lzw".
Note: The PPMD compression algorithm is only available for 32-bit builds. It is not available for 64-bit implementations. Also, this PPMD implementation is the "J" variant.
topCharset
Only applies to methods that compress or decompress strings. This specifies the character encoding that the string should be converted to before compression. Many programming languages use Unicode (2 bytes per char) for representing characters. This property allows for the string to be converted to a 1-byte per char encoding prior to compression.
topDebugLogFilePath
If set to a file path, causes each Chilkat method or property call to automatically append it's LastErrorText to the specified log file. The information is appended such that if a hang or crash occurs, it is possible to see the context in which the problem occurred, as well as a history of all Chilkat calls up to the point of the problem. The VerboseLogging property can be set to provide more detailed information.
This property is typically used for debugging the rare cases where a Chilkat method call hangs or generates an exception that halts program execution (i.e. crashes). A hang or crash should generally never happen. The typical causes of a hang are:
- a timeout related property was set to 0 to explicitly indicate that an infinite timeout is desired,
- the hang is actually a hang within an event callback (i.e. it is a hang within the application code), or
- there is an internal problem (bug) in the Chilkat code that causes the hang.
DeflateLevel
This property allows for customization of the compression level for the "deflate" and "zlib" compression algoirthms. ("zlib" is just the deflate algorithm with a zlib header.) A value of 0 = no compression, while 9 = maximum compression. The default is 6.
topEncodingMode
Controls the encoding expected by methods ending in "ENC", such as CompressBytesENC. Valid values are "base64", "hex", "url", and "quoted-printable". Compression methods ending in ENC return the binary compressed data as an encoded string using this encoding. Decompress methods expect the input string to be this encoding.
topLastErrorHtml
Provides information in HTML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.
topLastErrorText
Provides information in plain-text format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.
LastErrorXml
Provides information in XML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.
topLastMethodSuccess
Indicate whether the last method call succeeded or failed. A value of True indicates success, a value of False indicates failure. This property is automatically set for method calls. It is not modified by property accesses. The property is automatically set to indicate success for the following types of method calls:
- Any method that returns a string.
- Any method returning a Chilkat object, binary bytes, or a date/time.
- Any method returning a standard boolean status value where success = True and failure = False.
- Any method returning an integer where failure is defined by a return value less than zero.
Note: Methods that do not fit the above requirements will always set this property equal to True. For example, a method that returns no value (such as a "void" in C++) will technically always succeed.
topVerboseLogging
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.
topVersion
Methods
BeginCompressBytes
Large amounts of binary byte data may be compressed in chunks by first calling BeginCompressBytes, followed by 0 or more calls to MoreCompressedBytes, and ending with a final call to EndCompressBytes. Each call returns 0 or more bytes of compressed data which may be output to a compressed data stream (such as a file, socket, etc.).
Returns None on failure
BeginCompressBytesAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the BeginCompressBytes method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topBeginCompressBytesENC
Large amounts of binary byte data may be compressed in chunks by first calling BeginCompressBytesENC, followed by 0 or more calls to MoreCompressedBytesENC, and ending with a final call to EndCompressBytesENC. Each call returns 0 or more characters of compressed data (encoded as a string according to the EncodingMode property setting) which may be output to a compressed data stream (such as a file, socket, etc.).
Returns None on failure
topBeginCompressBytesENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the BeginCompressBytesENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topBeginCompressString
Large amounts of string data may be compressed in chunks by first calling BeginCompressString, followed by 0 or more calls to MoreCompressedString, and ending with a final call to EndCompressString. Each call returns 0 or more bytes of compressed data which may be output to a compressed data stream (such as a file, socket, etc.).
Returns None on failure
BeginCompressStringAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the BeginCompressString method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topBeginCompressStringENC
Large amounts of string data may be compressed in chunks by first calling BeginCompressStringENC, followed by 0 or more calls to MoreCompressedStringENC, and ending with a final call to EndCompressStringENC. Each call returns 0 or more characters of compressed data (encoded as a string according to the EncodingMode property setting) which may be output to a compressed data stream (such as a file, socket, etc.).
Returns None on failure
BeginCompressStringENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the BeginCompressStringENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topBeginDecompressBytes
A compressed data stream may be decompressed in chunks by first calling BeginDecompressBytes, followed by 0 or more calls to MoreDecompressedBytes, and ending with a final call to EndDecompressBytes. Each call returns 0 or more bytes of decompressed data.
Returns None on failure
BeginDecompressBytesAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the BeginDecompressBytes method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topBeginDecompressBytesENC
The input to this method is an encoded string containing compressed data. The EncodingMode property should be set prior to calling this method. The input string is decoded according to the EncodingMode (hex, base64, etc.) and then decompressed.
A compressed data stream may be decompressed in chunks by first calling BeginDecompressBytesENC, followed by 0 or more calls to MoreDecompressedBytesENC, and ending with a final call to EndDecompressBytesENC. Each call returns 0 or more bytes of decompressed data.
Returns None on failure
topBeginDecompressBytesENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the BeginDecompressBytesENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topBeginDecompressString
A compressed data stream may be decompressed in chunks by first calling BeginDecompressString, followed by 0 or more calls to MoreDecompressedString, and ending with a final call to EndDecompressString. Each call returns 0 or more characters of decompressed text.
Returns None on failure
BeginDecompressStringAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the BeginDecompressString method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topBeginDecompressStringENC
The input to this method is an encoded string containing compressed data. The EncodingMode property should be set prior to calling this method. The input string is decoded according to the EncodingMode (hex, base64, etc.) and then decompressed.
A compressed data stream may be decompressed in chunks by first calling BeginDecompressStringENC, followed by 0 or more calls to MoreDecompressedStringENC, and ending with a final call to EndDecompressStringENC. Each call returns 0 or more characters of decompressed text.
Returns None on failure
topBeginDecompressStringENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the BeginDecompressStringENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topCompressBd
Compresses the data contained in a BinData object.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
CompressBdAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressBd method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topCompressBytes
CompressBytesAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressBytes method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topCompressBytesENC
Compresses bytes and returns the compressed data encoded to a string. The encoding (hex, base64, etc.) is determined by the EncodingMode property setting.
Returns None on failure
CompressBytesENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressBytesENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topCompressEncryptFile
Performs file-to-file compression and encryption. Files of any size may be compressed because the file is compressed and encrypted internally in streaming mode.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
CompressEncryptFileAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressEncryptFile method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topCompressFile
Performs file-to-file compression. Files of any size may be compressed because the file is compressed internally in streaming mode.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
CompressFileAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressFile method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topCompressSb
Compresses the contents of sb and appends the compressed bytes to binData.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
topCompressSbAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressSb method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topCompressStream
Compresses a stream. Internally, the strm's source is read, compressed, and the compressed data written to the strm's sink. It does this in streaming fashion. Extremely large or even infinite streams can be compressed with stable ungrowing memory usage.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
CompressStreamAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressStream method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topCompressString
CompressStringAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressString method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topCompressStringENC
Compresses a string and returns the compressed data encoded to a string. The output encoding (hex, base64, etc.) is determined by the EncodingMode property setting.
Returns None on failure
CompressStringENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressStringENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topDecompressBd
Decompresses the data contained in a BinData object.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
DecompressBdAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the DecompressBd method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topDecompressBytes
DecompressBytesAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the DecompressBytes method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topDecompressBytesENC
The opposite of CompressBytesENC. encodedCompressedData contains the compressed data as an encoded string (hex, base64, etc) as specified by the EncodingMode property setting.
Returns None on failure
DecompressBytesENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the DecompressBytesENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topDecompressFile
Performs file-to-file decompression (the opposite of CompressFile). Internally the file is decompressed in streaming mode which allows files of any size to be decompressed.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
DecompressFileAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the DecompressFile method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topDecompressSb
Decompresses the contents of binData and appends the decompressed string to sb.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
topDecompressSbAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the DecompressSb method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topDecompressStream
Decompresses a stream. Internally, the strm's source is read, decompressed, and the decompressed data written to the strm's sink. It does this in streaming fashion. Extremely large or even infinite streams can be decompressed with stable ungrowing memory usage.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
DecompressStreamAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the DecompressStream method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topDecompressString
Takes compressed bytes, decompresses, and returns the resulting string.
Returns None on failure
DecompressStringAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the DecompressString method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topDecompressStringENC
The opposite of CompressStringENC. encodedCompressedData contains the compressed data as an encoded string (hex, base64, etc) as specified by the EncodingMode property setting.
Returns None on failure
DecompressStringENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the DecompressStringENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topDecryptDecompressFile
Performs file-to-file decryption and decompression.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
DecryptDecompressFileAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the DecryptDecompressFile method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topEndCompressBytes
Must be callled to finalize a compression stream. Returns any remaining (buffered) compressed data.
(See BeginCompressBytes)
Returns None on failure
EndCompressBytesAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the EndCompressBytes method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topEndCompressBytesENC
Must be callled to finalize a compression stream. Returns any remaining (buffered) compressed data.
(See BeginCompressBytesENC)
Returns None on failure
topEndCompressBytesENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the EndCompressBytesENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topEndCompressString
Must be callled to finalize a compression stream. Returns any remaining (buffered) compressed data.
(See BeginCompressString)
Returns None on failure
EndCompressStringAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the EndCompressString method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topEndCompressStringENC
Must be callled to finalize a compression stream. Returns any remaining (buffered) compressed data.
(See BeginCompressStringENC)
Returns None on failure
EndCompressStringENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the EndCompressStringENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topEndDecompressBytes
Called to finalize the decompression stream and return any remaining (buffered) decompressed data.
(See BeginDecompressBytes)
Returns None on failure
EndDecompressBytesAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the EndDecompressBytes method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topEndDecompressBytesENC
Called to finalize the decompression stream and return any remaining (buffered) decompressed data.
The input to this method is an encoded string containing compressed data. The EncodingMode property should be set prior to calling this method. The input string is decoded according to the EncodingMode (hex, base64, etc.) and then decompressed.
(See BeginDecompressBytesENC)
Returns None on failure
topEndDecompressBytesENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the EndDecompressBytesENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topEndDecompressString
Called to finalize the decompression stream and return any remaining (buffered) decompressed data.
(See BeginDecompressString)
Returns None on failure
EndDecompressStringAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the EndDecompressString method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topEndDecompressStringENC
Called to finalize the decompression stream and return any remaining (buffered) decompressed data.
The input to this method is an encoded string containing compressed data. The EncodingMode property should be set prior to calling this method. The input string is decoded according to the EncodingMode (hex, base64, etc.) and then decompressed.
(See BeginDecompressStringENC)
Returns None on failure
topEndDecompressStringENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the EndDecompressStringENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topLoadTaskCaller
MoreCompressBytes
MoreCompressBytesAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the MoreCompressBytes method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topMoreCompressBytesENC
MoreCompressBytesENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the MoreCompressBytesENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topMoreCompressString
MoreCompressStringAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the MoreCompressString method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topMoreCompressStringENC
MoreCompressStringENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the MoreCompressStringENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topMoreDecompressBytes
MoreDecompressBytesAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the MoreDecompressBytes method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topMoreDecompressBytesENC
The input to this method is an encoded string containing compressed data. The EncodingMode property should be set prior to calling this method. The input string is decoded according to the EncodingMode (hex, base64, etc.) and then decompressed.
(See BeginDecompressBytesENC)
Returns None on failure
topMoreDecompressBytesENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the MoreDecompressBytesENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topMoreDecompressString
MoreDecompressStringAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the MoreDecompressString method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
topMoreDecompressStringENC
The input to this method is an encoded string containing compressed data. The EncodingMode property should be set prior to calling this method. The input string is decoded according to the EncodingMode (hex, base64, etc.) and then decompressed.
(See BeginDecompressStringENC)
Returns None on failure
topMoreDecompressStringENCAsync (1)
Creates an asynchronous task to call the MoreDecompressStringENC method with the arguments provided. (Async methods are available starting in Chilkat v9.5.0.52.)
Returns None on failure
top