How do I read from a version resource in Visual C++ - c++

Question

I have a version resource in my resources in a C++ project which contains version number, copyright and build details. Is there an easy way to access this at run-time to populate my help/about dialog as I am currently maintaining seperate const values of this information. Ideally, the solution should work for Windows/CE mobile and earlier versions of Visual C++ (6.0 upwards).

Answer 1

This is an edited version of my original answer.
bool GetProductAndVersion(CStringA & strProductName, CStringA & strProductVersion)
{
// get the filename of the executable containing the version resource
TCHAR szFilename[MAX_PATH + 1] = {0};
if (GetModuleFileName(NULL, szFilename, MAX_PATH) == 0)
{
TRACE("GetModuleFileName failed with error %d\n", GetLastError());
return false;
}
// allocate a block of memory for the version info
DWORD dummy;
DWORD dwSize = GetFileVersionInfoSize(szFilename, &dummy);
if (dwSize == 0)
{
TRACE("GetFileVersionInfoSize failed with error %d\n", GetLastError());
return false;
}
std::vector<BYTE> data(dwSize);
// load the version info
if (!GetFileVersionInfo(szFilename, NULL, dwSize, &data[0]))
{
TRACE("GetFileVersionInfo failed with error %d\n", GetLastError());
return false;
}
// get the name and version strings
LPVOID pvProductName = NULL;
unsigned int iProductNameLen = 0;
LPVOID pvProductVersion = NULL;
unsigned int iProductVersionLen = 0;
// replace "040904e4" with the language ID of your resources
if (!VerQueryValue(&data[0], _T("\\StringFileInfo\\040904e4\\ProductName"), &pvProductName, &iProductNameLen) ||
!VerQueryValue(&data[0], _T("\\StringFileInfo\\040904e4\\ProductVersion"), &pvProductVersion, &iProductVersionLen))
{
TRACE("Can't obtain ProductName and ProductVersion from resources\n");
return false;
}
strProductName.SetString((LPCSTR)pvProductName, iProductNameLen);
strProductVersion.SetString((LPCSTR)pvProductVersion, iProductVersionLen);
return true;
}

Answer 2

To get a language independent result to Mark's answer change :
// replace "040904e4" with the language ID of your resources
!VerQueryValue(&data[0], _T("\\StringFileInfo\\040904e4\\ProductVersion"), &pvProductVersion, &iProductVersionLen))
{
TRACE("Can't obtain ProductName and ProductVersion from resources\n");
return false;
}
To
UINT uiVerLen = 0;
VS_FIXEDFILEINFO* pFixedInfo = 0; // pointer to fixed file info structure
// get the fixed file info (language-independent)
if(VerQueryValue(&data[0], TEXT("\\"), (void**)&pFixedInfo, (UINT *)&uiVerLen) == 0)
{
return false;
}
strProductVersion.Format("%u.%u.%u.%u",
HIWORD (pFixedInfo->dwProductVersionMS),
LOWORD (pFixedInfo->dwProductVersionMS),
HIWORD (pFixedInfo->dwProductVersionLS),
LOWORD (pFixedInfo->dwProductVersionLS));

Answer 3

Something like might get you started, perhaps:
TCHAR moduleName[MAX_PATH+1];
(void)GetModuleFileName(AfxGetInstanceHandle(), moduleName, MAX_PATH);
DWORD dummyZero;
DWORD versionSize = GetFileVersionInfoSize(moduleName, &dummyZero);
if(versionSize == 0)
{
return NULL;
}
void* pVersion = malloc(versionSize);
if(pVersion == NULL)
{
return NULL;
}
if(!GetFileVersionInfo(moduleName, NULL, versionSize, pVersion))
{
free(pVersion);
return NULL;
}
UINT length;
VS_FIXEDFILEINFO* pFixInfo;
VERIFY(VerQueryValue(pVersionInfo, const_cast<LPTSTR>("\\"), (LPVOID*)&pFixInfo, &length));

Answer 4

Something like this will give you raw access to the resource data and get you started:
HRSRC res = ::FindResource(NULL, MAKEINTRESOURCE(MY_VERSION_ID), RT_VERSION);
DWORD size = ::SizeofResource(NULL, res);
HGLOBAL mem = ::LoadResource(NULL, res);
LPVOID raw_data = ::LockResource(mem);
...
::FreeResource(mem);

Answer 5

Beware!
Using FindResource..LockResource is not correct. It will sometimes work (as it did in my small demo program) and sometimes cause access violations (example: the production code I was making the demo for).
The VerQueryValue() documentation states that you should call GetFileVersionInfoSize and GetFileVersionInfo instead.
Raymond Chen explains, see http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2006/12/26/1365215.aspx

Answer 6

Ok, a bit more googleing found the following on CodeGuru. Basically this approach uses the CFileVersionInfo object to get on any given file. It should be interesting to see if it works on the currently running .EXE file and on Windows CE.

Answer 7

Sometimes I receive Access Violation when use VerQueryValueA. But I never got this error when use VerQueryValueW. I think something wrong with VerQueryValueA in version.dll. Therefore I use VerQueryValueW instead of VerQueryValueA even in projects Multi-byte Character Encoding. Here is my code of ReadVersion function