LabVIEW Idea Exchange
The Problem:
When storing many builds of installers, currently there is no easy way to find out the version number of the exe that the installer installs.
In the past I had tried to work around this by programmatically setting 'Installer Product Version' to the same as the exe in my build script. Installer Product version can be found in the installer's nidist.id file under [Volume Id]>DistributionVersion, and the setup.ini file under [Distribution]>Version. This works nicely until you want the build number, or major/minor exceeds 255: 'Installer Product Version' is stored in the format major.minor.fix and the max values are 255.255.65535 i.e. u8.u8.u16. This is a limitation of MSI installers. See:
Version Information Page (Installer Properties Dialog Box) - LabVIEW 2018 Help - National Instrument...
ProductVersion property - Win32 apps | Microsoft Docs
Executables have Version Numbers in the format major.minor.fix.build, with max values 65535,65535,65535,65535 i.e. u16.u16.u16.u16
I would expect the installer's setup.exe's File version (under Properties>Details) to be settable as major.minor.fix.build, but this is not the case. File Version seems the most appropriate as it is 4 digits and this is used in built exe's. I would like this to be settable via property nodes (in the same way as .exe's) as it does not have the u8 limitation and does not omit the build number. Currently property nodes do not affect it. If numbers larger than the u8/u16 limits are set via property nodes, they max out in nidist.id and setup.ini. Another acceptable workaround would be to include another key/value pair in nidist.id or setup.ini that allows u16 major.minor.fix.build to be set via property nodes.
Proposed Solution:
Property nodes affect the installer's Setup.exe version number under properties, with max values of u16.
Or there is a new key/value pair in nidist.id or setup.ini that allows u16 major.minor.fix.build to be set via property nodes, in addition to the existing key/value pairs that have some u8 max values and omit build number.
Perhaps this will no longer be an issue if NI moves away from MSI installers...
