Introduction
Not satisfied with the versioning capabilities of Visual Studio? Try this tool.
Using the Code
This code does nothing more than read the AssemblyInfo file of your project and updates the version information based upon your selected method. It was basically designed to be run either as an external tool or from build events.
In all examples below, quotes are very important.
Arguments
- -p = project name
- -f = project folder
- -s = version schema
From Command Line
updatever -p="MyProject.vbproj" -f="C:\Documents and Settings\userid\My Documents\
Visual Studio 2008\Projects\ProjectFolder\MyProject" -s="schemaname"
From Visual Studio as an External Tool
- Start Visual Studio IDE
- Go to Tools
- Select External Tools...
- Click Add
- Title = Update Version
- Command = C:\SomeFolder\UpdateVer.exe
- Arguments =
-p="$(ProjectFileName)" -f="$(ProjectDir)" -s="schemaname"
- Check Use output window
- Click Ok
As Pre Build Event
Methods
Methods do the actual version revision. Descriptions of the provided methods are given below:
ignore - ignores the value and returns current version number increment - increments the current version number incrementeachday - will only increment if the date is greater than the previous version update stored as a comment in the AssemblyInfo file incrementreseteachday - will continue to increment the version number, but will reset that value to 0 if the date is greater than the previous version update random - selects a random version number dayvalue - number of days since 01/01/1900 dayvaluefrom - number of days since value specified as a parameter in the level element for the method secondvalue - number of seconds since 01/01/1900 secondvaluefrom - number of seconds since value specified as a parameter in the level element for the method fixed - sets to the value specified as a parameter in the level element for the method year - current date year month - current date month day - current date day fromsubversion - updates value from revision in subversion
Combining methods for each version part makes this very flexible. For instance, you can have the following schema:
<schema name="fixed_increment_build_each_day">
<detail name="assembly/file">
<level name="major" parameter="2" method="fixed"/>
<level name="minor" parameter="3" method="fixed"/>
<level name="build" method="incrementeachday"/>
<level name="revision" method="incrementreseteachday"/>
</detail>
</schema>
This will set fixed numbers for the major and minor parts of the version, each day will increment the build, and revision will increment on each compile, but each day will reset to 0. Thus, you may have version 2.3.15.5, compile 5 times during the day, making the version 2.3.15.10, but the next day on the first compile, the version will be 2.3.16.0, because of the increment of the build (for the day) and the reset of the revision. If you want to keep track of the day of the compile, you could change the build method to "dayvalue" and you will always know what day it was compiled on. This schema also keeps the assembly and file versions synchronized, provided they started out the same.
Version number methods are hard-coded in the UpdateMethods.vb file. I have provided the source code, so if you have some others you would like to use, code them and recompile. You will also need to add a call to the method in the ProcessMethod method of the ProjectData class to make the call to the newly created method.
Please share any new methods source here for others to use and they will be included in a future release. I will update the code occasionally with new methods and/or schemas.
Schemas
Several pre-defined schemas are provided. You can create more... just add them to the VersionSchemas.xml file.
You can specify assembly and file versions to use different methods by specifying "assembly" and "file" as the name in two different detail sections for the schema. If you want to use the same for assembly and file versions, specify "assembly/file" as the name. To keep assembly and file versions synchronized, ensure the versions are identical before calling.
Updates
04/20/2011
You can now specify the schema in the project file. Place the following element somewhere into the root project element:
<projectextensions>
<compile name="UpdateVersion">
<[CDATA[
<schema name="fixed_increment_build_each_day">
<detail name="assembly/file">
<level name="major" parameter="2" method="fixed"/>
<level name="minor" parameter="3" method="fixed"/>
<level name="build" method="incrementeachday"/>
<level name="revision" method="incrementreseteachday"/>
</detail>
</schema>
]]>
This allows you to keep the version update methods with the project instead of in the VersionSchemas.xml file. This also ensures the same schema will be used if the project is being shared amongst multiple developers with this application installed.
04/27/2011
Added new method (FromSubversion) (as suggested by Steve Pinckney) for subversion support.
Thanks to the SharpSVN project on CollabNet for the binaries for subversion.
11/11/2011
Errors occur if you don't change the version number from the default 1.0.* to 1.0.0.0 when a new project is created. Also, Visual Studio 2010, I have noticed, when creating some AssemblyInfo files, calls the AssemblyFileVersion entry AssemblyFileVersionAttribute. If you receive errors when running the application, check this to see if this is the case. Just change it to AssemblyFileVersion and everything works okay.
Unusual Behavior
When using as an external tool operating on the existing project, an exception will be thrown if the AssemblyInfo file is not displayed in the IDE. If you display the file in the editor and run the application as an external tool, no exception will be thrown and the AssemblyInfo file will be updated properly. I would have thought it would be the other way around. Evidently the IDE keeps that file exclusively open when not being edited, but removes the lock when it is being edited. Anyway, if you are using it as a tool, keep this in mind.
Points of Interest
Nothing really interesting about the code. Just thought I'd provide it in case others wanted to use it.
History
- Original: 04/19/2011
- Update: 04/20/2011 - Added ability to place schema into the project file
- Update: 04/27/2011 - Subversion revision support
