Releasing a Visual Studio Extension

Introduction

In the past, I've uploaded a VSIX file without installing it on my own machine only for people to complain that it won't install due to versioning issues. Now I have a script that checks things without myself having to remember where to look.

Running the Script

Running the script produces the following tail of output:

.\GUI\Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs
[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.6.0.0")]
[assembly: AssemblyFileVersion("1.6.0.0")]
.\VBasic\Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs
[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.6.0.0")]
[assembly: AssemblyFileVersion("1.6.0.0")]
GUI\RelNotes.txt
DeepEnds version 1.6
GUI\License.txt
DeepEnds version 1.6
GUI\Usage.txt
DeepEnds version 1.6
GUI\source.extension.vsixmanifest
    <Identity Id="DeepEnds.Zebedee Mason.2cdf4910-bf53-4266-baa4-95d2960e902a" Version="1.6" ...
GUI\DeepEndsPackage.cs
    [InstalledProductRegistration("#110", "#112", "1.6", IconResourceID = 400)] // Info on this package

The script does the following operations:

1. Traverses the solution directory looking for AssemblyInfo.cs files and prints the lines starting with [ and containing Version
2. Prints the first line of the release notes file
3. Prints the first line of the license file
4. Prints the first line of the usage file
5. Prints the fourth line of the vsixmanifest file - this is used by the installer to check it is a different version
6. Prints a line of the Package file - this is shown in Help -> About Microsoft Visual Studio

This allows for easy checking that I've remembered to roll forward the version numbers. Note I now install the release as well.

History

• 2016/10/04: First release
• 2016/10/12: Added the sixth check, described the fifth
• 2016/10/23: Added the fourth check