VB.NET: How To Find Application Build Version

tansqrx

May 11 2005, 10:06 PM

This seams pretty simple but I can't seam to find it out on the net. I would like to include the build information in my help dialogue box.

Ex.

----------------------------
| Welcome to help |
| Build 132 |
----------------------------

after the next recompile

----------------------------
| Welcome to help |
| Build 133 |
----------------------------

Sorry for the cheesey ascii but I figured it would be the best to get my point across.

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wykked_dreamz

May 12 2005, 03:13 AM

tansqrx im not sure i understand what you are saying. what are you trying to build? the ascii is fine but i dont think that your point got across to me. sorrie, im a little slow at times.

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miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG

May 12 2005, 08:15 AM

Hi tansqrx,
Here's your solution...

First of all your AssemblyInfo.vb contains all information on your Version/Major/Minor Builds etc.
If you take a look into that file you'll see:

QUOTE

' Version information for an assembly consists of the following four values:
'
' Major Version
' Minor Version
' Build Number
' Revision
'
' You can specify all the values or you can default the Build and Revision Numbers
' by using the '*' as shown below:

<Assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.0.0")>

Now .NET provides you with a prebuilt class called FileVersionInfo which fetches this information out of your assembly or ANY given executable file.. Here's a little code-snippet that demonstrates this:

CODE

Dim myBuildInfo As FileVersionInfo = FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo(Application.ExecutablePath)

MsgBox("Product build part number: " & myBuildInfo.ProductBuildPart)

The the method named GetVersionInfo of this class fetches the information from an exe file which is specified within the paranthesis () - in this example I've used Application.ExecutablePath - which returns the path of the currently executing program including the filename - i.e. the program in which you're using this code.

The MsgBox displays the Build Information by calling the ProductBuildPart method - which extracts the build information from the Version string - of the format a.b.c.d - here the part contained in "c" is your Build Version. Use this same routine to populate your Help box.

Reminder: You'll have to upgrade the build number in your AssemblyInfo.vb file too - by default when you start writing a new application, it's set to as 1.0.0.0 - if you don't change this, your product build will always get reported as "0" or whatever you set the last build number too - this doesn't get updated automatically upon subsequent recompiles. This has to be done manually.

Don't forget to experiment with the other members of this class - they enable you to extract the Major-Minor Version/Revision info and other stats from the version string too...

Hope this helps

Regards,
m^e

P.S. Don't look so far

It's right there in your MSDN libraries.. just a simple search for Version Infomation would have got you the results

I was in the same shoes as you an year back

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tansqrx

May 12 2005, 10:30 PM

As always thank you microscopic^earthling.

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miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG

May 18 2005, 09:37 AM

Glad that helped.

Issue resolved. Topic closed.

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