Automatically update version info in wix installer

Question

Hi I have a C/C++ Header file with my products version info init as follows:

#define nMajorVersion 4
#define nMinorVersion 4
#define nPointVersion 8
#define nBuildVersion 33
#define s_szFileVersion "4.4.8.33"
#define s_szProductVersion "4.4.8.33"

Is there any way I can automatically read from this file to update my version number in my wix 3.6 installer? At the moment I have it hard coded and this is not ideal for when it is released. Thanks

Answer 1

What you can do is create ac/c++ program which generates a file Version.wxi which looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Include>
  <?define ProductVersion.Major="4"?>
  <?define ProductVersion.Minor="4"?>
  <?define ProductVersion.Revision="8"?>
  <?define ProductVersion.Build="33"?>
  <?define ProductVersion="4.4.8.33"?>
  ....
</Include>

Then you can include and use those version numbers in the main wxs file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
  <?include Version.wxi ?>
  <?define UpgradeCode="GUID"?>
  <Product Id="*" 
        Name="$(var.ProductName) $(var.ProductVersion.Major).$(var.ProductVersion.Minor)" 
        Version="$(var.ProductVersion)" Language="1033" 
        Manufacturer="$(var.Company)" UpgradeCode="$(var.UpgradeCode)">

Generate the Version.wxi just before you compile your wix project. For example modify the .wixproj file to add a target which does that.