An Automatic Build Incrementer for VC6

Visual Basic programmers have long had the ability to automatically increment the build number each time the program was compiled. Visual C++ programmers haven't.

Several weeks ago, I started trying to find a way to do automatically increment build numbers on each compile. I found several articles on the subject and some source code but none of it did exactly what I wanted it to do, so I decided to write my own incrementer.

Add the code to an existing macro file or, if you don't have an existing macro file, create one and add one dummy macro so you can access the code snippet. Application_BeforeBuildStart() is a Visual Studio defined event handler and although the code is in a macro file, when you select the Tools|Macro menu item, you won't see it, so you need at least a dummy macro in the file to access the source code.

Note that these code snippets have been subjected to limited testing and that you use them at your own risk. They work correctly in the test environment, but you assume all risk for their use. I will not assume any liability whatsoever for their failure to work correctly in your environment.

Please e-mail any comments, suggestions for improvement, problems, etc. to me.

Sub Application_BeforeBuildStart()
 ' written 7/11/00 by CCB Consulting
 ' e-mail any comments, corrections, etc. to support@ccbcon.com
 ' updated versions will be at www.ccbcon.com on the Code Snippets page
 ' invoked automatically before build starts
 ' will open the project's *.rc file as text
 ' will search for the version info
 ' and will increment the build number

 dim oDoc
 dim sBuild
 dim sRCFile
 dim sOne
 dim sTwo
 dim iSelect
 dim lLineNbr
 dim bFound

 'get the name of the active project's .rc file
 sRCFile = application.activeproject & ".rc"

 'open *.rc file as text
 set oDoc = Documents.Open(sRCFile, "Text")

 'position to the correct section of the file
 oDoc.Selection.FindText " FILEVERSION", dsMatchCase
 'save the line number for the next search
 lLineNbr = oDoc.Selection.CurrentLine

 'use a regular expression search string for the first version search
 sOne = "[0-9]+,[0-9]+,[0-9]+,"

 'find the first string
 oDoc.Selection.FindText sOne, dsMatchRegExp

 if oDoc.Selection.CurrentLine = lLineNbr then
  'convert the regular expression to an absolute search string
  sOne = oDoc.Selection

  'build an absolute search string for the strings with embedded spaces
  sTwo = Replace(sOne, ",", ", ")

  'move to the build number
  oDoc.Selection.CharRight

  'select the build number
  oDoc.Selection.WordRight dsExtend

  'increment the build number
  sBuild = oDoc.Selection + 1

  'replace the old build number with the new one
  oDoc.Selection = sBuild

  else 'something went wrong
   msgbox "Version number 1 not found. Closing without changes."

   oDoc.Close dsSaveChangesNo

   set oDoc = nothing

   exit sub
 end if

 'now change the other 3 occurences of the build number
 for iSelect = 2 to 4
  if iSelect = 2 then 
   bFound = oDoc.Selection.FindText(sOne)
  else
   bFound = oDoc.Selection.FindText(sTwo)
  end if

  oDoc.Selection.CharRight
  oDoc.Selection.WordRight dsExtend
  oDoc.Selection = sBuild

  if bFound = False then
   msgbox "Version number " & iSelect & " not found. Closing without changes."
   oDoc.Close dsSaveChangesNo
   set oDoc = nothing
   exit sub
  end if
 next

 'close and save *.rc
 oDoc.Close dsSaveChangesYes

 set oDoc = nothing
End Sub

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