diff --git a/apps/common/compressed_files.py b/apps/common/compressed_files.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6737bbc9ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/common/compressed_files.py
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+import os, tempfile, zipfile
+
+try:
+    import zlib
+    COMPRESSION = zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED
+except:
+    COMPRESSION = zipfile.ZIP_STORED
+
+try:
+    from cStringIO import StringIO
+except ImportError:
+    from StringIO import StringIO
+
+from django.core.files.uploadedfile import SimpleUploadedFile
+
+
+class NotACompressedFile(Exception):
+    pass
+
+
+class CompressedFile(object):
+    def __init__(self, file_input=None):
+        if file_input:
+            self._open(file_input)
+        else:
+            self._create()
+        
+    def _create(self):
+        self.descriptor = StringIO()
+        self.zf = zipfile.ZipFile(self.descriptor, mode='w')
+        
+    def _open(self, file_input):
+        try:
+            # Is it a file like object?
+            file_input.seek(0)
+        except AttributeError:
+            # If not, try open it.
+            self.descriptor = open(file_input, 'r+b')
+        else:
+            self.descriptor = file_input               
+
+        try:
+            test = zipfile.ZipFile(self.descriptor, mode='r')
+        except zipfile.BadZipfile:
+            raise NotACompressedFile
+        else:
+            test.close()
+            self.descriptor.seek(0)
+            self.zf = zipfile.ZipFile(self.descriptor, mode='a')
+
+    def add_file(self, file_input, arcname=None):
+        try:
+            # Is it a file like object?
+            file_input.seek(0)
+        except AttributeError:
+            # If not, keep it
+            self.zf.write(filename, arcname=arcname, compress_type=COMPRESSION)             
+        else:
+            self.zf.writestr(arcname, file_input.read())
+
+    def contents(self):
+        return [filename for filename in self.zf.namelist() if not filename.endswith('/')]
+        
+    def get_content(self, filename):
+        return self.zf.read(filename)
+        
+    def write(self, filename=None):
+        # fix for Linux zip files read in Windows  
+        for file in self.zf.filelist:  
+            file.create_system = 0
+
+        self.descriptor.seek(0)
+            
+        if filename:
+            descriptor = open(filename, 'w')
+            descriptor.write(self.descriptor.read())
+        else:
+            return self.descriptor
+
+    def as_file(self, filename):
+        return SimpleUploadedFile(name=filename, content=self.write().read())
+
+    def close(self):
+        self.zf.close()