How to synchronise the publish version to the assembly version in a .NET ClickOnce application?

Question

In my C# ClickOnce application, there is an auto-incremented publish version in the Project -> Properties -> Publish tab. I'd like to display that version in my menu Help -> About box, but the code I'm using apparently accesses the assembly Version, which is different.

The Assembly Version can be changed manually in the Project -> Properties -> Application -> Assembly Information dialog. So for now, every time before I publish I've been copying the publish version to the assembly version, so my dialog shows the current version of the application. There must be a better way to do this.

All I really want to do is have an accurate, auto-updated, code-accessible version number.

Here's the code I'm using to access the assembly version number:

public string AssemblyVersion
{
    get
    {
        return Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version.ToString();
    }
}

An alternative would be to find code that accesses the publish version.

Answer 1

The other solutions will offer the written text from AssemblyInfo.cs (eg., "2.5.*") or for pre .net5 runtimes.

In order to get the non deterministic[1] Image Runtime Version (with build etc), say from the MainWindow.xaml code behind:

private string GetVersion() =>
   typeof(MainWindow).Assembly.GetName().Version.ToString();

[1] After making sure you are in non deterministic mode (for .net5+), in the project file:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <Deterministic>false</Deterministic>

Example:

In AssemblyInfo.cs, given the line:

[assembly: AssemblyVersion("4.1.*")]

ImageRuntimeVersion will be:

v4.1.3034.8779

Answer 2

I would like to expand on Sylvanaar's answer, as some of implementation details weren't obvious to me. So:

1. Manually install community build tasks found at: https://github.com/loresoft/msbuildtasks/releases Note: Don't install by nuget if you clean your packages, as the build will fail before getting a chance to restore the packages, since msbuildtasks are referenced as a task in the build file. I put these in folder next to solution file called .build

2. Add a completely empty file to your projects properties folder called VersionInfo.cs

3 Remove these lines if they exist in AssemblyInfo.cs

[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.*")]
[assembly: AssemblyFileVersion("1.0.*")]

4 Modify your csproj file

  <!-- Include the build rules for a C# project. -->
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />

  <!--INSERT STARTS HERE-->
  <!--note the use of .build directory-->
  <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' == 'true'">
    <MSBuildCommunityTasksPath>$(SolutionDir)\.build\MSBuildCommunityTasks</MSBuildCommunityTasksPath>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <!-- Required Import to use MSBuild Community Tasks -->
  <Import Project="$(SolutionDir)\.build\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.targets" Condition="'$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' == 'true'" />
  <Target Name="BeforeCompile" Condition="'$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)|$(Configuration)' == 'true|Release'">
    <FormatVersion Version="$(ApplicationVersion)" Revision="$(ApplicationRevision)">
      <Output TaskParameter="OutputVersion" PropertyName="AssemblyVersionToUse" />
    </FormatVersion>
    <AssemblyInfo CodeLanguage="CS" OutputFile="$(ProjectDir)Properties\VersionInfo.cs" AssemblyVersion="$(AssemblyVersionToUse)" AssemblyFileVersion="$(AssemblyVersionToUse)" />
  </Target>

5 Use a method like the following to access the version text:

public string Version()
{
    Version version = null;

    if (ApplicationDeployment.IsNetworkDeployed)
    {
        version = ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.CurrentVersion;
    }
    else
    {
        version = typeof(ThisAddIn).Assembly.GetName().Version;
    }

    return version.ToString();
}

Answer 3

I did it the other way around, used a wildcard for my assembly version - 1.0.* - so Visual Studio/MSBuild generated a version number automatically:

// AssemblyInfo.cs    
[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.*")]

And then I added the following AfterCompile target to the ClickOnce project to assign synchronize PublishVersion with the assembly version:

<Target Name="AfterCompile">
    <GetAssemblyIdentity AssemblyFiles="$(IntermediateOutputPath)$(TargetFileName)">
      <Output TaskParameter="Assemblies" ItemName="TargetAssemblyIdentity" />
    </GetAssemblyIdentity>
    <PropertyGroup>
      <PublishVersion>%(TargetAssemblyIdentity.Version)</PublishVersion>
    </PropertyGroup>
</Target>

Answer 4

I modified my .csproj file to update the assembly version. I created a configuration called "Public Release" for this, but it's not required to do that.

  <Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
  <!-- To modify your build process, add your task inside one of the targets below and uncomment it.
       Other similar extension points exist, see Microsoft.Common.targets.
  <Target Name="BeforeBuild">
  </Target>
  <Target Name="AfterBuild">
  </Target>
  -->
  <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' == 'true'">
    <MSBuildCommunityTasksPath>$(SolutionDir)Tools\MSBuildCommunityTasks</MSBuildCommunityTasksPath>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <!-- Required Import to use MSBuild Community Tasks -->
  <Import Project="$(SolutionDir)Tools\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets" Condition="'$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' == 'true'" />
  <Target Name="BeforeCompile" Condition="'$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)|$(Configuration)' == 'true|PublicRelease'">
    <FormatVersion Version="$(ApplicationVersion)" Revision="$(ApplicationRevision)">
      <Output TaskParameter="OutputVersion" PropertyName="AssemblyVersionToUse" />
    </FormatVersion>
    <AssemblyInfo CodeLanguage="CS" OutputFile="$(ProjectDir)Properties\VersionInfo.cs" AssemblyVersion="$(AssemblyVersionToUse)" AssemblyFileVersion="$(AssemblyVersionToUse)" />
  </Target>

The published version may be:

ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.CurrentVersion

Answer 5

I modified sylvanaar's solution for use with VB:

- Microsoft.VisualBasic.targets instead of Microsoft.CSharp.targets
- CodeLanguage="VB" instead of CodeLanguage="CS" 
- AssemblyInfo.vb instead of VersionInfo.cs

, differences in paths:

- $(SolutionDir).build instead of $(SolutionDir)Tools\MSBuildCommunityTasks
- $(ProjectDir)AssemblyInfo.vb instead of $(ProjectDir)Properties\VersionInfo.cs

, and to remove conditions:

- Condition="'$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' == 'true'"
- Condition="'$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)|$(Configuration)' == 'true|PublicRelease'"

I also synchronized Company and Product with ClickOnce PublisherName and ProductName respectively and generated a Copyright based on the current date:

- AssemblyCompany="$(PublisherName)"
- AssemblyProduct="$(ProductName)" 
- AssemblyCopyright="© $([System.DateTime]::Now.ToString(`yyyy`)) $(PublisherName)"

I ended up adding this to my vbproj file. It requires the MSBuildTasks NuGet package to be installed first:

  <Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.VisualBasic.targets" />
  <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' == 'true'">
    <MSBuildCommunityTasksPath>$(SolutionDir).build</MSBuildCommunityTasksPath>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildCommunityTasksPath)\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets" Condition="'$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' == 'true'" />
  <Target Name="BeforeCompile">  
    <FormatVersion Version="$(ApplicationVersion)" Revision="$(ApplicationRevision)">
      <Output TaskParameter="OutputVersion" PropertyName="AssemblyVersionToUse" />
    </FormatVersion>
    <AssemblyInfo CodeLanguage="VB" OutputFile="$(ProjectDir)AssemblyInfo.vb" AssemblyVersion="$(AssemblyVersionToUse)" AssemblyFileVersion="$(AssemblyVersionToUse)" AssemblyCompany="$(PublisherName)" AssemblyProduct="$(ProductName)" AssemblyCopyright="© $([System.DateTime]::Now.ToString(`yyyy`)) $(PublisherName)"/>
  </Target>

I'm not sure how much the location within the project file matters, but I added this to the end of my project file, just before:

</Project>

Answer 6

sylvanaar's last line looks like the way to go, in my experience; but with the caveat that it is only available to deployed versions of the application. For debugging purposes, you might want something like:

    static internal string GetVersion()
    {
        if (ApplicationDeployment.IsNetworkDeployed)
        {
            return ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.CurrentVersion.ToString();
        }

        return "Debug";
    }