On interfacing between system, you need access to MDM datas generated by tiers systems. Those system might have generated archives in Zip format to group file data together (version, functional domain).

Zip table type enables to list the content of such a zip file in a nice way.

Current version as per the documentation (https://mariadb.com/kb/en/connect-zipped-file-tables/) Zip table is created like :

{{create table xzipinfo2 (
fn varchar(256)not null,
cmpsize bigint not null flag=1,
uncsize bigint not null flag=2,
method int not null flag=3,
date datetime not null flag=4)
engine=connect table_type=ZIP file_name='E:/Data/Json/cities.zip';
}}

At this time there is no way to get direct access to the file name inside the table without parsing the CREATE_OPTIONS of that specific table. But when multiple=1 there will be no way to know which file is actually holding the specific entry.

Having an extra column to hold the archive file name would be a nice addition. Something like :

{{create table xzipinfo2 (
fn varchar(256)not null,
cmpsize bigint not null flag=1,
uncsize bigint not null flag=2,
method int not null flag=3,
date datetime not null flag=4,
afn varchar(256)not null)
engine=connect table_type=ZIP file_name='E:/Data/Json/cities.zip';
}}

Where afn column would hold the complete archive file name along with its path to allow direct reference to it.

Doing so, you could use afn either to create a connect table from some of the files entries directly pointing to the Zip files using afn column, whatever number of archive matching you got.

This epic would boost reinforce the use of Connect engine as a viable ETL alternative. This would benefit to MariaDB ecosystem.