VB.NET: How To Find Application Build Version

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.

Edited May 12, 2005 by microscopic^earthling (see edit history)

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.

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:

' 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:

 

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

As always thank you microscopic^earthling.

Glad that helped. Issue resolved. Topic closed.