UPDATE: After receiving a request to modify the code to ignore .lock files, I have an updated to this post.  I’ve received a request on how to use the Zip Shapefile code I posted last week from ArcGIS. Sorry, I did not set the code up to call directly from ArcGIS but only as an illustration of how it can be done. I have, however, with some minor tweaking, made a version that can added to ArcToolbox.

UPDATE: After receiving a request to modify the code to ignore .lock files, I have an updated to this post. One of the tasks I’ve been automating is publishing a weekly data update to a website. The update consists of shapefile. The trouble with shapefiles is they consist of 3 or more files with the same basename but different extensions in the same directory. Not an overly complicated situation but a common one that ArcGIS does not have a solution out-of-the-box.