WP7 app version

Question

A Windows Phone 7 app, it seems, has two places with version number - one in AssemblyInfo.cs (via AssemblyVersion/AssemblyFileVersion attributes), the other is WMAppManifest.xml. Those two seem uncorrelated - changing one does not affect the other. The Marketplace, it seems, uses the one from the manifest - can someone please confirm this?

The real question is - how do I retrieve the one from manifest programmatically to display on the About screen?

Faircloth

Answer 1

The WmAppManifest.xml number is in use. First two digits are relevant for Marketplace (it is checked when you do the update) next two are for your internal usage.

This is a regular XML file, open it as a XDocument and parse it. An example.

EDIT: the example is extraneous. For just the version, use:

string Version = XDocument.Load("WMAppManifest.xml")
    .Root.Element("App").Attribute("Version").Value;

Enmity

Thanks. "First two" and "next two" - what do you mean? In the manifest there's only Version, AppPlatformVersion is something completely different. – Faircloth

Version="1.3.0.0" 1.3 is valid for the marketplace 0.0 is for you only – Enmity

The relevant info is that the manifest goes to the device as is (unprocessed), and is easily available as an XML file in run-time. That is not an immediately obvious design. – Faircloth

This line of code just might have saved me hours! It works with Unity, just in case anyone requires it. – Eastsoutheast

Answer 2

To get App Version from "WMappManifest.xml", this solution might be a bit more efficient than lukas solution:

For WP7:

var xmlReaderSettings = new XmlReaderSettings
{
    XmlResolver = new XmlXapResolver()
};
using (var xmlReader = XmlReader.Create("WMAppManifest.xml", xmlReaderSettings))
{
    xmlReader.ReadToDescendant("App");
    return xmlReader.GetAttribute("Version");
}

For WP8:

using (var stream = new FileStream("WMAppManifest.xml", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
    string appVersion = XElement.Load(stream).Element("App").Attribute("Version").Value;
}

Sig

I don't think efficiency matters much for the About screen. – Faircloth

I don't think the answer was specific to the About screen, but specific to how to get Version number. – Elvyn