Adding AssemblyVersion to ASP.net MVC Site using Helpers

Introduction

I was looking around for some information on how best to add the AssemblyVersion to an MVC site. In the end I thought I'd do it my self as it can't be too difficult. It wasn't and I've included how to do it in this post to help other people out.

Adding a Helper Class to MVC project

The first thing to do is add a Helper class to your existing project. I decided not to use a namespace so I didn't have to import the namespace into the View.

using System;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Reflection;

//
// No Namespace
//

public static class VersionHelper
{

    /// <summary>
    /// Return the Current Version from the AssemblyInfo.cs file.
    /// </summary>
    public static string CurrentVersion(this HtmlHelper helper)
    {
        try
        {
            System.Version version = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version;
            return version.Major + "." + version.Minor + "." + version.Build;
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            return "?.?.?";
        }
    }
}

Adding the Code to your view

Once you've added the above Html helper class you'll be able to reference the CurrentVersion() Method using intellisense.

<span>Version <%=Html.CurrentVersion() %></span>

Conclusion

That's it. You can now reference the version from anywhere in any of your views. Here is what it looks like on the default MVC project.

Also if you want the code, you can download it from here.