Setting an install's Product Version programatically

[ken rentz]

Is it possible to set a project's product version by a compiler variable or other means? We are trying to automate the generation of our installs, and having to update the product version from the GUI makes this difficult at best.

[Alex_Ronquillo]

Sure, you can use Compiler Variables for the version field. Just remember to dereference the variable in the form #Variable#

[MortSkil]

If I enter e.g. #MY_VERSION# into the Product Version field in Project Properties, a message pops up:

Incorrect Product Version Value
Only numbers and periods are allowed in this field.

I guess this would be safely ignored, because the following procedure works:

In Compiler Variables, I have defined MY_VERSION and assigned it a default value.

Then, I build the IA project with the following command line:

miabuild.exe myproject.mpr /b=0 MY_VERSION=1.2.3.456

and the build completed successfully, with the expected version indicated when I open properties for the generated installer exe.

[ken rentz]

You're right. If we ignore the error message, everything seems to work all right.

It would be nice if we could get a confirmation that the error message is actually a bug. I've never liked writing code that relies on quirks that could be fixed at any moment.

[Alex_Ronquillo]

If you read the help file contents topic "Using Compiler Variables" you will see:

You can always use compiler variables where regular string expressions are allowed, even if regular (script) variables have been prohibited.

Therefore the error message cannot be considered a bug