display Add-in version or build information

[Curtis_Waguespack]

I would like to provide an "about" button for an addin. Is there a good way to gather the build version, or something similar so that I can provide a button to display this information?

Use case: The user's version of the add-in is not behaving as expected. Maybe they aren't using the latest version? or maybe I forgot to provide the latest version, etc. It would be handy if they could push an "about" button that would display the build version, etc.

Thanks in advance.

[matt_jlt · Accepted solution]

you can use reflection to get the build version

Imports System.Reflection

Public Sub Main()
    Dim assembly As Assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
    Dim version As Version = assembly.GetName().Version
    Dim buildVersion As String = version.ToString()

    MessageBox.Show("Build Version: " & buildVersion)
End Sub

[JelteDeJong · Accepted solution]

I use Git as a version control system. Each time I release a new version of my addin I create a Tag on the commit I released. In my build process, I use a few commands to get that tag and write it to a file. I read that file from my code when I need the version of my addin.

The main advantage is that it's a semi-automated process that I cannot forget in a version control system that I was already using.