Question

I have a asp.net web application which has a number of versions deployed on different customer servers inside their networks. One practice that we have is to have clients email screenshots when they have issues.

In the old asp.net 1.1 days, we could grab details of the build DLL, using reflection, and show info about the build date and numbering on the screen in a subtle location.

With .NET 2.0 and higher, the build model changed, and this mechanism no longer works. I have heard of different build systems out there, but I’m really looking for the simplest way, on the 3.5 framework, to do what this functionality did on framework 1.1.

1. Every time a build is performed, update the build date/time, and somehow update the build number
2. Be able to see the build timestamp and number, to display on the screen
3. be as simple to implement as possible

Answer 1

We are using .Net 2.0 and pull the version information out of the assembly. Perhaps not ideal, but we use the description to store the build date.

Assembly assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly(); string version = assembly.GetName().Version.ToString(); string buildDate = ((AssemblyDescriptionAttribute)Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(     assembly, typeof(AssemblyDescriptionAttribute))).Description; 

The build process uses asminfo nant task to generate the AssemblyInfo.cs file that contains this information.

    <asminfo output='Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs' language='CSharp'>         <imports>             <import namespace='System' />             <import namespace='System.Reflection' />             <import namespace='System.Runtime.CompilerServices' />             <import namespace='System.Runtime.InteropServices' />         </imports>         <attributes>             <attribute type='AssemblyVersionAttribute' value='${assembly.version}' />             <attribute type='AssemblyInformationalVersionAttribute' value='${assembly.version}' />             <attribute type='AssemblyDescriptionAttribute' value='${datetime::now()}' />             ...         </attributes>     </asminfo>