Use Cases

Overview

This section provides practical guides for common Cabriolet use cases, demonstrating how to apply the library to real-world scenarios.

Available Use Cases

Software Distribution

Learn how to use Cabriolet for distributing software packages:

  • Creating installation archives

  • Multi-volume distribution for media

  • Compression strategy selection

  • Integrity verification

Data Archival and Long-term Storage

Best practices for archiving data:

  • Choosing appropriate formats for longevity

  • Metadata preservation

  • Compression vs. storage trade-offs

  • Migration strategies

Legacy Format Conversion

Converting old archives to modern formats:

  • Extracting from obsolete formats

  • Batch conversion workflows

  • Preserving metadata during conversion

  • Validation and testing

Automated Workflows and CI/CD

Integrating Cabriolet into automated systems:

  • Build pipeline integration

  • Automated testing of archives

  • Release packaging automation

  • Deployment workflows

Help File Extraction and Processing

Working with CHM and HLP documentation:

  • Extracting help file content

  • Converting to modern formats

  • Preserving structure and links

  • Batch documentation processing

Choosing a Use Case

Use Case Best For Key Features

Software Distribution

Installers, updates, patches

Multi-volume, compression, integrity

Data Archival

Long-term storage, backups

Format stability, metadata preservation

Legacy Conversion

Modernizing old archives

Format compatibility, batch processing

Automated Workflows

CI/CD, DevOps

Scripting, integration, reliability

Help File Extraction

Documentation migration

Structure preservation, conversion

Common patterns

Pattern 1: Extract-Transform-Archive

  1. Extract from legacy format

  2. Transform/process content

  3. Re-archive in modern format

Use Cases: Legacy conversion, format migration

Pattern 2: Distribute-Verify-Install

  1. Create distribution archive

  2. Verify integrity

  3. Deploy/install on target

Use Cases: Software distribution, deployment

Pattern 3: Scan-Extract-Process

  1. Scan for archives

  2. Extract relevant files

  3. Process/analyze content

Use Cases: Documentation extraction, data mining

Integration Examples

Ruby on Rails Application 

# In your Rails app
class ArchiveController < ApplicationController
  def extract
    archive = params[:file]
    cab = Cabriolet::CAB::Parser.new.parse(archive.tempfile.path)

    cab.files.each do |file|
      # Process extracted files
      process_file(file.name, file.data)
    end
  end
end

Rake Task 

# lib/tasks/archive.rake
namespace :archive do
  desc "Extract and process CAB files"
  task :process => :environment do
    Dir.glob('imports/*.cab').each do |cab_file|
      Cabriolet::CAB::Parser.new.parse(cab_file).files.each do |file|
        # Process file
      end
    end
  end
end

Command Line Script 

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'cabriolet'

ARGV.each do |file|
  cab = Cabriolet::CAB::Parser.new.parse(file)
  puts "#{file}: #{cab.files.count} files"
end

See also

Related sections

Table of contents