Dynamic Zip Creation

[rulian]

What I want to achieve is let people select different images on the site. When they click a download button, I want them to download a zip file containing all their selected images.

I know its possible to manipulate zip files to some extent, but if it's possible to dynamically create zip files even with no compression itself, how would I go about doing so?

[etully]

There is a zip function in PHP but according to the manual, they suggest that you not use it because it's unmaintained.

Personally, I would execute a system command that zips up the files in question and give the user a link to the zip file you just created. You could delete it after 2 days... or you could serve the zip file out through a PHP script and delete it after it's been downloaded X times or X days, whichever comes first.