CompleteFTP allows users to download an entire folder or directory as a single ZIP file via FTP, FTPS and HTTPS (SFTP/SCP support to be added). This can be done by downloading a file whose path is the same as the folder but with .folder.zip appended to it. When this path is accessed, the ZIP archive is generated on the fly and is not written to disk.
This feature is particularly useful for users downloading from the command line with scripts or through APIs. Since these are virtual files and not actual files on the server, they won't appear in client applications like FileZilla, CyberDuck, or WinSCP. To use this feature with such clients, you would need to enter the path explicitly.
For example, to download the folder /documents/reports as a ZIP file, you would download /documents/reports.folder.zip.
If you're using the online file manager, you can simply right-click on a folder and select the option to download it as a ZIP file. This action utilizes the same feature internally.
Difference from ZIP File Navigation: This feature is independent of the ZIP file navigation feature, which allows users to navigate into a ZIP file as though it's a folder by appending .zip.folder to the ZIP file's name. While .folder.zip is used for downloading folders as ZIP files, .zip.folder is used for navigating into existing ZIP files on the server. Note the reversal of the extension
.folder.zip to a folder's path to download it as a ZIP file..zip.folder to a ZIP file's name to browse its contents as if it were a directory.It's important to note the difference in extensions to use these features correctly.
Note on legacy behavior: This ability to download a folder as a ZIP file has been an undocumented feature of CompleteFTP since version 13.0.0 (released August, 2020), but used a different extension. It was changed to .folder.zip for version 24.1.0 due to unintended behavior when the different extension was used.