Assembly versions consist of four different parts ({Major Version}.{Minor Version}.{Build Number}.{Revision}):
- Major Version
- Manually incremented for major releases, such as adding many new features to the solution.
- Minor version
- Manually incremented for minor releases, such as introducing small changes to existing features.
- Build Number
- Typically incremented automatically as part of every build performed on the Build Server. This allows each build to be tracked and tested.
- Revision
- Incremented for QFEs (a.k.a. “hotfixes” or patches) to builds released into the Production environment (PROD). This is set to zero for the initial release of any major/minor version of the solution
An easy way to associate the project's assembly files is what I refer to as "shared assembly info". Referring to the assembly attributes that should be the same across all projects in the solution, such as AssemblyCompanyAttribute.
To implement this, create a file in the solution folder named SharedAssemblyInfo and then add a link in each project to SharedAssemblyInfo. You can also move the linked SharedAssemblyInfo into the Properties folder so that it sits side-by-side with the AssemblyInfo that is specific to each project in the solution.
I recommend placing the following assembly attributes in SharedAssemblyInfo (and, of course, removing them as necessary from the project-specific AssemblyInfo files):
- AssemblyCompany
- AssemblyCopyright
- AssemblyTrademark
- ComVisible
- NeutralResourcesLanguageAttribute
- AssemblyVersion
- AssemblyFileVersion
The AssemblyInfo files typically have the following assembly attributes:
- AssemblyTitle
- AssemblyDescription
- AssemblyProduct
- Guid
Within the common library for a product, I would also recommend creating a version control object. This would be able to use the assembly file for displaying the application version number on a web application or logging.The class object would look something like:
Public Class VersionControl
Public Shared Function RetrieveAppVersion() As String
With Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version
Return String.Format("{0}.{1}.{2}", .Major, .MajorRevision, .Minor)
End With
End Function
Public Shared Function RetrieveDBVersion() As String
Return "Database: " & DatabaseFunctions.SingleInt("SELECT DatabaseVersion FROM tblSystem", ConnectionInformation.GetSQLConnectionString())
End Function
Public Shared Function RetrieveDLLVersion() As String
Return Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version.ToString
End Function
End Class
