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

c++, resources, version, visual-c++

Solution

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;
}

Problem

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).

Original source