Writing a batch utility to archive files on Windows Server 2008 R2 - batch-file

Question

I need to write a command line (PowerShell or DOS) utility that will
archive all files created in between specified dates present in folder
X and store them as a .zip package in the same folder.
This utility will be scheduled into windows scheduler where arguments like to and from dates, store location will be provided to it and it will run at specified duration for e.g. at 12:00 noon daily.
Is it possible to write it as a batch .bat file?
Are there any built-in functionalities inside windows to zip files or I would need to use a third party program like 7-Zip etc for it.
I am not looking for any spoon feeding but just a direction, can anyone guide me to a tutorial or something. Both DOS based and PowerShell based solution would work for me.
Please help me out with this.
Thank you.

Answer 1

I would go for PowerShell.
With PowerShell you can easyly build and compare dates with the Get-Date commandlet and comparison operators. You could try something like:
$folderPath = 'C:\Temp'
$date1 = Get-Date '2014-05-01'
$date2 = Get-Date '2014-05-31'
foreach( $item in (Get-ChildItem $folderPath) )
{
if( $item.LastWriteTime -ge $date1 -and $item.LastWriteTime -le $date2 )
{
# Compression step
}
}
As for compression you have several options like stated in this question.
And for the script parameters you can check this blog article.

Answer 2

Here is a batch file that builds on Cristophe C's powershell script
It takes a folder and two dates on the command line and writes the last-modified filenames from date1 to date2 into a text file called daterange.txt
Some code can be added to zip up the files if further details are added to the question.
#echo off
if "%~3"=="" (
echo "%~0" "c:\folder" yyyy-mm-dd1 yyyy-mm-dd2
echo(
echo( This returns last-modified files in the folder from the two dates inclusive
echo( and puts them in a file called "daterange.txt"
echo(
echo( Requires Powershell V3+ (Powershell scripting also needs to be enabled^)
echo(
pause
goto :EOF
)
set "file=%temp%\psdaterange.ps1"
(
echo( $folderPath = '%~1\'
echo(
echo( $date1 = Get-Date '%~2'
echo( $date2 = Get-Date '%~3'
echo(
echo( foreach( $item in (Get-ChildItem -file $folderPath^) ^)
echo( {
echo( if( $item.LastWriteTime -ge $date1 -and $item.LastWriteTime -lt $date2.AddDays(1^) ^)
echo( {
echo( Write-Host $folderPath$item
echo( }
echo( }
) >"%file%"
powershell "%file%" > "daterange.txt"
del "%file%"

Answer 3

THere is Compress-Archive utility available in powershell 5.0.
# Create a zip file with the contents of C:\Stuff\
Compress-Archive -Path C:\Stuff -DestinationPath archive.zip
# Add more files to the zip file
# (Existing files in the zip file with the same name are replaced)
Compress-Archive -Path C:\OtherStuff\*.txt -Update -DestinationPath archive.zip
# Extract the zip file to C:\Destination\
Expand-Archive -Path archive.zip -DestinationPath C:\Destination
See this answer for more details:
How to create a zip archive with PowerShell?