Product Versions in MSI installers created with WIX - part 2

In a previous post I described how to change the version of MSI installers created with WiX.

This post discusses a way of linking the version number of an assembly (library, dll, executable) to the product version.

This is more suited to a library/framework, where you want to ensure that the product version is the same as the library/framework.

1. On the library project, edit the AssemblyInfo.cs file:

Remove these two lines:

[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.0.0")]
[assembly: AssemblyFileVersion("1.0.0.0")]

2. Create a new File called VersionInfo.cs on the Properties folder.

Contents of file should be:

[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyVersion("0.0.0.*")]

3. Edit the project file (you'll need to unload the project if you want to do it from Visual Studio) and at the end, you'll find a commented out section. Get rid of it (everything between <!-- -->) and add the following:

<Target Name="BeforeBuild"> < <WriteLinesToFile Condition=" '$(Version)' != '' " File="Properties\VersionInfo.cs" Overwrite="True" Lines="[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyVersion(&quot;$(Version)&quot;)] // Auto-generated by build process" /> </ </Target>

4. On the product.wxs file on your WiX project, just add the following:

<Product Id="12c0deff-c0de-c0de-c0de-123f422c0dea" Name="Name" Language="1033" Version ="!(bind.FileVersion.filAB3D3C60ED5901936249D5C56B6C90A6)" Manufacturer="ManyRootsofallevil" UpgradeCode="fafffaff-c0de-c0de-c0de-123f422c0dea">

Where filAB3D3C60ED5901936249D5C56B6C90A6 is the id of your library file

5. Finally, add the following to the wix project. Make sure this is on the initial PropertyGroup Element:

<Version Condition=" '$(Version)' == ''">0.0.0.1</Version>

You can now build this using:

msbuild solution.sln /p:Version=1.3.3.7