PHP provides ZipArchive Class which allows us to create a Zip file. This class makes the file creation little easier.
Programmatically Zip creation mainly requires when preparing the group of file and folders for downloading.
In the demonstration, I am creating a function that will read all files and folders from the specified directory and add them in the ZipArchive class object.

1. HTML

Creating a <form> which have two button elements, one for Create Zip and another for Download.

Completed Code

<div class='container'>
 <h1>Create and Download Zip file using PHP</h1>
 <form method='post' action=''>
   <input type='submit' name='create' value='Create Zip' />&nbsp;
   <input type='submit' name='download' value='Download' />
 </form>
</div>

2. PHP

I have created includes folder within the project where I stored some files and folders.

Create Zip

Create ZipArchive Class object for Zip file creation. Define a function createZip() to read files and directory from the specified directory path.

Download Zip

Check if zip file exists or not. If it exists then download and remove it from the server.

Completed Code

<?php 
// Create ZIP file
if(isset($_POST['create'])){
  $zip = new ZipArchive();
  $filename = "./myzipfile.zip";

  if ($zip->open($filename, ZipArchive::CREATE)!==TRUE) {
    exit("cannot open <$filename>\n");
  }

  $dir = 'includes/';

  // Create zip
  createZip($zip,$dir);

  $zip->close();
}

// Create zip
function createZip($zip,$dir){
  if (is_dir($dir)){

    if ($dh = opendir($dir)){
       while (($file = readdir($dh)) !== false){
 
         // If file
         if (is_file($dir.$file)) {
            if($file != '' && $file != '.' && $file != '..'){
 
               $zip->addFile($dir.$file);
            }
         }else{
            // If directory
            if(is_dir($dir.$file) ){

              if($file != '' && $file != '.' && $file != '..'){

                // Add empty directory
                $zip->addEmptyDir($dir.$file);

                $folder = $dir.$file.'/';
 
                // Read data of the folder
                createZip($zip,$folder);
              }
            }
 
         }
 
       }
       closedir($dh);
     }
  }
}

// Download Created Zip file
if(isset($_POST['download'])){
 
  $filename = "myzipfile.zip";

  if (file_exists($filename)) {
     header('Content-Type: application/zip');
     header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($filename).'"');
     header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($filename));

     flush();
     readfile($filename);
     // delete file
     unlink($filename);
 
   }
}
?>

3. CSS

.container{
   margin: 0 auto;
   width: 50%;
   text-align: center;
}

input[type=submit]{
   border: 0px;
   padding: 7px 15px;
   font-size: 16px;
   background-color: #00a1a1;
   color: white;
   font-weight: bold;
}

4. Conclusion

The above-defined function createZip() accepts the path of the directory as a parameter. It will read all files and folders from the path and add in the zip file.

If you found this tutorial helpful then don't forget to share.