ASP.NET - show application build date/info at the bottom of the screen

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>

Answer 2

I chose to just use the date of the executing assembly. The way I publish the files, this works fine.

lblVersion.Text = String.Format("Version: {0}<br>Dated: {1}",
    System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version.ToString(),
    System.IO.File.GetLastWriteTime(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location).ToShortDateString());

Answer 3

I'm using .NET 2.0 and 3.5 and it is able to set both the build number and build date. While the help panel says that if yet let .NET set it, it will use a random number for the revision, that isn't true, it actually puts date/time info that can be easily extracted, which is confirmed by the online docs: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.reflection.assemblyversionattribute.assemblyversionattribute.aspx

See this blog: http://dotnetfreak.co.uk/blog/archive/2004/07/08/determining-the-build-date-of-an-assembly.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage

I want to set the build version myself but still want the automatic date/time stamp so I use something like this for the AssemblyVersion("1.0.*")

Here is a sample function to extract the build date/time

private System.DateTime BuildDate()
{

//This ONLY works if the assembly was built using VS.NET and the assembly version attribute is set to something like the below. The asterisk (*) is the important part, as if present, VS.NET generates both the build and revision numbers automatically.
//<Assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.*")> 
//Note for app the version is set by opening the 'My Project' file and clicking on the 'assembly information' button. 
//An alternative method is to simply read the last time the file was written, using something similar to:
//Return System.IO.File.GetLastWriteTime(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.Location)

//Build dates start from 01/01/2000

System.DateTime result = DateTime.Parse("1/1/2000");

//Retrieve the version information from the assembly from which this code is being executed

System.Version version = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version;

//Add the number of days (build)

result = result.AddDays(version.Build);

//Add the number of seconds since midnight (revision) multiplied by 2

result = result.AddSeconds(version.Revision * 2);

//If we're currently in daylight saving time add an extra hour

if (TimeZone.IsDaylightSavingTime(System.DateTime.Now, TimeZone.CurrentTimeZone.GetDaylightChanges(System.DateTime.Now.Year)))
{
    result = result.AddHours(1);
}

return result;

}

Answer 4

You can get the Assembly Build date through reflection, check this examples:

• Determining Build Date the hard way
• Determining the Build Date of an Assembly