How to get "Product Version" for my application

[Vicent.Chen]

Who can help me to get the below version information? Thanks.

Does CVI have a function for reading this version information?

[RobertoBozzolo]

Hi Vicent, this is not possible with native CVI functions: you must use SDK calls instead:

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
//
// Function FileVersion
//
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
/// HIFN FileVersion
/// HIFN Function to retrieve version informations from the .exe
/// HIRET Error code - '0' means OK
/// HIPAR file/Pathname of the executable to query
/// HIPAR version/String where to store version informations
int CVIFUNC FileVersion (char *file, char *version)

{
    void* tempBuffer = NULL;
    void* versionInfo = NULL;
    int  error = 0;
    char dummy[64], langName[16];
    UINT len;
    DWORD infoSize;
    DWORD uselessParm;
    DWORD* tempDWORD;

    if ((infoSize = GetFileVersionInfoSize (file, &uselessParm))) {
        nullChk (versionInfo = malloc (infoSize));
        if (!GetFileVersionInfo (file, 0, infoSize, versionInfo))
            goto Error;

        /* Get the Language and Code Page                                        */
        /*     The below 'hex' value looks a little confusing, but essentially   */
        /*     it is the hexidecimal representation of a couple different values */
        /*     that represent the language and character set that we are wanting */
        /*     string values for.  040904E4 is very common, it means:            */
        /*         US English, Windows MultiLingual characterset -- or:          */
        /*         04------    = SUBLANG_ENGLISH_USA                             */
        /*         --09----    = LANG_ENGLISH                                    */
        /*         --11----    = LANG_JAPANESE                                   */
        /*         ----04E4    = 1252 = Codepage for Windows:Multilingual        */
        if (VerQueryValue (versionInfo, TEXT("\\VarFileInfo\\Translation"),
            ((void **)(&tempDWORD)), &len)) {

            /* lVerPointer is a pointer to four 4 bytes of Hex number, first two */
            /* bytes are language id, and last two bytes are code page. However, */
            /* Lang_Charset_String needs a string of 4 hex digits, the first two */
            /* characters correspond to the language id and last two the last two*/
            /* character correspond to the code page id.                         */             
            langName[0] = 0;
            sprintf (langName, "%04hX%04hX", LOWORD (*tempDWORD),
                  HIWORD (*tempDWORD));
            if (langName[0]) {
                sprintf (dummy, "\\StringFileInfo\\%s\\ProductVersion", langName);
                if (!VerQueryValue (versionInfo, TEXT (dummy), &tempBuffer, &len) == 0)
                    if (tempBuffer)
                        strcpy (version, (char *)tempBuffer);
            }
        }
    }

Error:
    if (versionInfo) free (versionInfo);
    return error;
}

Actual returned string won't have the '+' embedded in the originating string.

[Vicent.Chen]

Thanks, Roberto.

Can you tell which .h file should be included for the GetFileVersionInfoSize function?

[RobertoBozzolo]

Necessary declarations are listed in the Win SDK (called Win32API in newer versions of CVI). I normally include windows.h as I make use of other APIs: it may be that a specific, smaller include is enough for this function. I forgot to mention that you need to add version.lib to your project.

[msaxon]

For the avoidance of doubt, the code quoted in Roberto's posting actually retrieves the Text Information version of the Product Version, not the Numeric Information version. These can, of course, be different.

[RobertoBozzolo]

You're right, Martin: the information retrieved is part of the text section of the panel; I don't think the numeric information can be retrieved 'as is', since wnhen you build the executable CVI calculates actual value for each string and embeds the result in the executable; the result of translation can be seen by checking Preview Substitutions checkbox at the bottom of that panel.

Version info can be tailored as you want: as an example, we normally don't use all 4 fields in the file version, and I put in the corresponding  field in 'text information' section the string "Version %1 (build %2)", which results in a string embedded like "Version 1 (build 3)" that can be retrieved in this form with the code I posted as well as seen in the file properties dialog box in Windows Explorer.

[msaxon]

Roberto:

As it happens, you can retrieve the numeric Product Version, which is stored as part of the version info:

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
//
// Function FileVersion (Alternate)
//
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
/// HIFN FileVersion
/// HIFN Function to retrieve version informations from the .exe
/// HIRET Error code - '0' means OK
/// HIPAR file/Pathname of the executable to query
/// HIPAR version/String where to store version informations
int CVIFUNC FileVersion (char *file, char *version)

{
    void* versionInfo = NULL;
    int  error = 0;
    UINT len;
    DWORD infoSize;
    DWORD uselessParm;
    VS_FIXEDFILEINFO* fixedVerInfoPtr;

    if ((infoSize = GetFileVersionInfoSize (file, &uselessParm))) {
        nullChk (versionInfo = malloc (infoSize));
        if (!GetFileVersionInfo (file, 0, infoSize, versionInfo))
            goto Error;
        if (!VerQueryValue (versionInfo, TEXT("\\"), (void **)&fixedVerInfoPtr, &len))
            goto Error;

		/* Get the Product Version */  
        sprintf (version, "%d.%d.%d.%d",
                 (fixedVerInfoPtr->dwProductVersionMS & 0xffff0000) >> 16, 
                 (fixedVerInfoPtr->dwProductVersionMS & 0xffff),
                 (fixedVerInfoPtr->dwProductVersionLS & 0xffff0000) >> 16,
                 (fixedVerInfoPtr->dwProductVersionLS & 0xffff));
    }

Error:
    if (versionInfo) free (versionInfo);
    return error;
}

It's always numeric (of course), and is useful therefore for doing numeric comparisons of version - you can put dwProductVersionMS & dwProductVersionLS together as a single 64 bit integer.

[Michael_H.]

Vincent,

If you are using CVI 2010, you can use the predefined macro _TARGET_PRODUCT_VERSION_ as a string in your program. There is also a macro for the file version, _TARGET_FILE_VERSION_. Each time your program is compiled these macros will be updated to the current values in the Version Info dialog.

Michael

NI

[Vicent.Chen]

Thanks all of you.

Your method works well in my program.

Thanks again.

By the way, Micheal, I am using CVI9.0, I didn't find macro _TARGET_PRODUCT_VERSION_ in the help files. Is it only for CVI2010?

[RobertoBozzolo]

Vicent,

I'm happy you have somved your problem!

Martin,

thanks for your suggestion: when I looked for those functions I was interested to strings but it's good to know how to retrieve version informations in numeric format. I'll bookmark your post for future use.

Michael,

I'm using CVI2009 at present but I'll keep your post bookmarked to retrieve it when I'll switch to 2010.