Version Build

An automated method to generate meaningful version numbers in a MS Devstudio project's version resources has been a surprisingly popular topic. After following leads to a variety of solutions, none that I came across quite do what I would like. Here is a solution that suits my needs, perhaps it will suit yours too.

The resource version number is a structure of two double word values, the Most Significant Value (MSV) and the Least Significant Value (LSV). Each value is broken into two parts, the high word and the low word. In a resource script, this is represented by something like "FILEVERSION 1,0,0,1" or "PRODUCTVERSION 1,0,0,1". The "1,0" is the high word/low word of the MSV. The "0,1" is the high word/low word of the LSV. There is also a string representation of the versions in the StringFileInfo block.

I find it desirable to to use the LSV to track incremental builds. Generally, marketing types like to dictate the MSV. So while I may be working on what I consider a Beta release, they want it stamped as version 2.1. But I digress.... :-)

The protocol I use for development versioning is to set the high word of the LSV to a value that indicates the year and day of the build. The low word counts the builds in the given day.

The way the high word is formulated is this: Using the ASCII decimal representation of the year, take the first digit ( e.g, 1998=1, 1999=1, 2000=2 ), multiply times 10, then add the last digit of the year (e.g., 1998=8, 1999=9, 2000=0), then multiply the sum by 1000 (e.g., 1998=18000, 1999=19000, 2000=20000). Now add the day of the year (e.g., Jan 1= 1, Jan 31=31, Feb 1=32). The high word for February 1, 1999 would therefore be 19032, the high word for December 25, 1998 would be 18356, while the high word for June 23, 2000 would be 20175.

The low word is started at 1 for the first build of the day, and incremented by 1 for each ensuing build.

Armed with this information, it is possible to go back in the source control application and find the version of the source that generated any given build. But of course it is tedious and demands more diligence than I can muster to reliably maintain the version by manual input. Thus I present this Devstudio macro that does all this for me, "VersionBuild".

When invoked, VersionBuild will attempt to locate the version resource. If successful, it will modify the FILEVERSION entry according to the protocol outlined above. If successful, VersionBuild will continue to build the project currently active.

By default, VersionBuild will synchronize the LSV of the PRODUCTVERSION as well as the StringFileInfo block's FileVersion and ProductVersion. There are two variables at the top of the macro, bPRODUCTVERSION and bStringFileInfo, which may be set appropriately to control which version types you want modified.

Sub VersionBuild()

'DESCRIPTION: Sets LSV of version number: Hi word = 1st digit of year + last digit of year + day of year; Lo word = 1 if new Hi word or previous + 1 if same Hi word

'Patrick Dell'Era

'patrickd@sirius.com

Dim i

Dim strHiWord

Dim strLoWord

Dim nHiWord, nOldHiWord

Dim LSV

Dim strTemp

Dim strMsg

Dim bPRODUCTVERSION, bStringFileInfo

' Set to True if you want the PRODUCTVERSION synchronized

bPRODUCTVERSION = True

' Set to True if you want the StringFileInfo block synchronized

bStringFileInfo = True

strMsg = "There was a problem modifying your version resource. Could not locate "

' Open the resource file as text

' NOTE: You will probably be informed that the resource is

' already opened in the resource editor. You'll need to confirm

' that you want to close that and open the file as text. Otherwise,

' we will return an error informing you that the resource file is

' not in the documents collection

' Trap errors for likely suspects

On Error Resume Next

' Attempt to open the document

Documents.Open (ActiveProject.Name + ".rc"), "Text"

If Err.Number <> 0 Then

MsgBox ("Error 0x" & Hex(Err.Number) & ": " & Err.Description)

Exit Sub

End If

' Try to bring it to the fore

Windows(ActiveProject.Name + ".rc").Active = True

If Err.Number <> 0 Then

MsgBox ("Error 0x" & Hex(Err.Number) & ": " & Err.Description)

Exit Sub

End If

' Seek out the version resource block

If ActiveDocument.Selection.FindText("VS_VERSION_INFO VERSIONINFO", dsMatchWord + dsMatchCase) = False Then

MsgBox strMsg + """VS_VERSION_INFO VERSIONINFO"""

Exit Sub

End If

' Seek the binary FILEVERSION entry

If ActiveDocument.Selection.FindText("FILEVERSION", dsMatchWord + dsMatchCase) = False Then

MsgBox strMsg + """FILEVERSION"""

Exit Sub

End If

' Skip first two entries for the MSV portion of the version

For i = 1 To 2

If ActiveDocument.Selection.FindText(",") = False Then

MsgBox strMsg + "comma #" + Trim(CStr(i)) + " in ""FILEVERSION""."

Exit Sub

End If

' Move off comma

ActiveDocument.Selection.CharRight

' Select the entire number

ActiveDocument.Selection.WordRight dsExtend

' Copy the number string

strTemp = ActiveDocument.Selection.Text

' Convert the number string into an integer

nOldHiWord = CInt(strTemp)

' Get the current year as a string

strTemp = CStr(DatePart("yyyy", Now))

' Make the high word of the LSV equal to the first digit

' of the year ( 1998 = 1; 1999 = 1; 2000 = 2 ...) and

' the last digit of the year ( 1998 = 8; 1999 = 9; 2000 = 0 ...)

strHiWord = CStr(Left(strTemp, 1)) + CStr(Right(strTemp, 1))

' Convert the string into an integer value times 1000 to allow

' room for the day of the year value that is calculated next

nHiWord = CInt(strHiWord) * 1000

' Find out the day of the year for today

LSV = CInt(DatePart("y", Now))

' Add it to the previously calculated year-based value

nHiWord = nHiWord + LSV

' Preserve a copy of the value as a string

strHiWord = CStr(nHiWord)

' If the current value of the high word of the LSV is not the

' same as the newly calculated one, then replace the old with

' the new

If nHiWord <> nOldHiWord Then ' new day

strHiWord = CStr(nHiWord)

ActiveDocument.Selection = strHiWord

End If

' Let's find the low word of least significant value and adjust it

If ActiveDocument.Selection.FindText(",") = False Then

MsgBox strMsg + "comma #3" + " in ""FILEVERSION""."

Exit Sub

End If

' Move off the comma

ActiveDocument.Selection.CharRight

' Select the entire number

ActiveDocument.Selection.WordRight dsExtend

' If the high word of the LSV has changed, then we have begun a

' new day of compilation fun. So reset the low word to 1

If nHiWord <> nOldHiWord Then ' new day, restart counter

LSV = 1

Else

' Same day, new compilation, so increment the low word of

' the LSV

' Grab the number into a text string

strTemp = ActiveDocument.Selection.Text

' Convert it into an integer

LSV = CInt(strTemp)

' Increment the integer

LSV = LSV + 1

End If

' Convert the low word of the LSV into a string

strLoWord = CStr(LSV)

' Copy the string into the selected text

ActiveDocument.Selection = strLoWord

' NOTE: The following code will synchronize the PRODUCTVERSION, FileVersion, and ProductVersion

' entries of the resource file with the FILEVERSION. This is done with the same techniques.

' Set the bPRODUCTVERSION and bStringFileInfo values at the top of the macro appropriately.

If bPRODUCTVERSION Then

' Now seek out PRODUCTVERSION and synchronize

If ActiveDocument.Selection.FindText("PRODUCTVERSION", dsMatchWord + dsMatchCase) = False Then

MsgBox strMsg + """PRODUCTVERSION"""

Exit Sub

End If

For i = 1 To 2

If ActiveDocument.Selection.FindText(",") = False Then

MsgBox strMsg + "comma #" + Trim(CStr(i)) + " in ""PRODUCTVERSION""."

Exit Sub

End If

ActiveDocument.Selection.CharRight

ActiveDocument.Selection.WordRight dsExtend

ActiveDocument.Selection = strHiWord

If ActiveDocument.Selection.FindText(",") = False Then

MsgBox strMsg + "comma #3" + " in ""PRODUCTVERSION""."

Exit Sub

End If

ActiveDocument.Selection.CharRight

ActiveDocument.Selection.WordRight dsExtend

ActiveDocument.Selection = strLoWord

End If

If bStringFileInfo Then

' Now seek out FileVersion in the string block and synchronize

If ActiveDocument.Selection.FindText("FileVersion", dsMatchWord + dsMatchCase) = False Then

MsgBox strMsg + """FileVersion"""

Exit Sub

End If

For i = 1 To 3

If ActiveDocument.Selection.FindText(",") = False Then

MsgBox strMsg + "comma #" + Trim(CStr(i)) + " in ""PRODUCTVERSION""."

Exit Sub

End If

ActiveDocument.Selection.WordRight

ActiveDocument.Selection.WordRight dsExtend

ActiveDocument.Selection = strHiWord

If ActiveDocument.Selection.FindText(",") = False Then

MsgBox strMsg + "comma #4" + " in ""PRODUCTVERSION""."

Exit Sub

End If

ActiveDocument.Selection.WordRight

ActiveDocument.Selection.WordRight dsExtend

ActiveDocument.Selection = strLoWord

If bPRODUCTVERSION Then

' Now seek out ProductVersion in the string block and synchronize

If ActiveDocument.Selection.FindText("ProductVersion", dsMatchWord + dsMatchCase) = False Then

MsgBox strMsg + """ProductVersion"""

Exit Sub

End If

For i = 1 To 3

If ActiveDocument.Selection.FindText(",") = False Then

MsgBox strMsg + "comma #" + Trim(CStr(i)) + " in ""ProductVersion""."

Exit Sub

End If

ActiveDocument.Selection.WordRight

ActiveDocument.Selection.WordRight dsExtend

ActiveDocument.Selection = strHiWord

If ActiveDocument.Selection.FindText(",") = False Then

MsgBox strMsg + "comma #4" + " in ""ProductVersion""."

Exit Sub

End If

ActiveDocument.Selection.WordRight

ActiveDocument.Selection.WordRight dsExtend

ActiveDocument.Selection = strLoWord

End If ' bPRODUCTVERSION

End If ' bStringFileInfo

'close RC file

ActiveDocument.Close

If Err.Number <> 0 Then

MsgBox ("Error 0x" & Hex(Err.Number) & ": " & Err.Description)

Exit Sub

End If

'build active project

ExecuteCommand "BuildToggleBuild"

End Sub

Date Posted: February 23, 1999