Abstract
This article allows you to read the assembly attributes information
using .NET. The information store in AssemblyInfo files like Title, Description,
copyright, Trade mark can be read using reflection and assembly namespace.
Topic
The assembly attribute is used by manifest to provide information about
the assembly. In this article we will see who to read Informational Attributes
from AssemblyInfo file. In AssemblyInfo file Informational Attributes contains
the information about product Name, description, Trademark, copyright. In
general this information's are either hardcode or store in database or flat
file. .NET assembly provides to store this information in AssemblyInfo file and
after compilation it becomes the part of assembly. So at run time one can read
this information.
Part of Assembly Information
| Sr. no. | Attribute | Description |
| 1 | AssemblyTitle | Title name from the assembly. |
| 2 | AssemblyDescription | It provides the detail description from the assembly. |
| 3 | AssemblyCompany | It Provides the company information from the assembly. |
| 4 | AssemblyProduct | It provides the production information from the assembly. |
| 5 | AssemblyCopyright | It Provides the copyright from the assembly. |
| 6 | AssemblyTrademark | It Provides the trademark from the assembly. |
Each of these attributes has a defined class,
which is used to read the information from the AssemblyInfo file.
Follow the Steps below to read the AssemblyInfo File.
Step 1
Create VB Windows Application and change the project name to
AssemblyInfo.
Step 2
Open AssemblyInfo.vb file and edit the file with the changes shown
below
<Assembly:
AssemblyTitle("Attribute Information ")>
<Assembly:
AssemblyDescription("Reading the Assembly Attribute Information ")> <Assembly:
AssemblyCompany("Company Name")>
<Assembly:
AssemblyProduct(".NET")>
<Assembly:
AssemblyCopyright("Copyright VB.NET All Rights Reserved")>
<Assembly:
AssemblyTrademark("Attribute Information")>
Step 3
Create new Class file and rename it to clsAppInfo. Imports
system.reflection name space.
Imports Namespaces
Imports SR = System.Reflection
Step 4
Define one Interface called IAssemblyInfomation with following
signature.
Interface
IApplicationSM
ReadOnly Property
Title() As String
ReadOnly Property Description()
As String
ReadOnly Property Company()
As String
ReadOnly Property Product()
As String
ReadOnly Property Copyright()
As String
ReadOnly Property Trademark()
As
String
End
Interface
Step 5
Create Public class ClsAssInfo and implements the above define
interface. Write the implementation of above properties.
Public
Class ClsAssInfo
Implements
IAssInfo
Dim m_AssInfo As
System.Reflection.Assembly
Sub New()
m_AssInfo = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly
End Sub
Public ReadOnly
Property Company() As
String Implements
AssemblyInfo.IAssInfo.Company
Get
Dim m_Company
As SR.AssemblyCompanyAttribute
m_Company = m_AssInfo.GetCustomAttributes(GetType(SR.AssemblyCompanyAttribute),
False)(0)
Return
m_Company.Company.ToString
End Get
End Property
Public ReadOnly
Property Copyright() As
String Implements
AssemblyInfo.IAssInfo.Copyright
Get
Dim m_Copyright
As SR.AssemblyCopyrightAttribute
m_Copyright = m_AssInfo.GetCustomAttributes(GetType(SR.AssemblyCopyrightAttribute),
False)(0)
Return
m_Copyright.Copyright.ToCharArray
End Get
End Property
Public ReadOnly
Property Description() As
String Implements
AssemblyInfo.IAssInfo.Description
Get
Dim m_Description
As SR.AssemblyDescriptionAttribute
m_Description = m_AssInfo.GetCustomAttributes(GetType(SR.AssemblyDescriptionAttribute),
False)(0)
Return
m_Description.Description.ToString
End Get
End Property
Public ReadOnly
Property Product() As
String Implements
AssemblyInfo.IAssInfo.Product
Get
Dim m_Product
As SR.AssemblyProductAttribute
m_Product = m_AssInfo.GetCustomAttributes(GetType (SR.AssemblyProductAttribute),
False)(0)
Return
m_Product.Product.ToString
End Get
End Property
Public ReadOnly
Property Title() As
String Implements
AssemblyInfo.IAssInfo.Title
Get
Dim m_Title
As SR.AssemblyTitleAttribute
m_title = m_AssInfo.GetCustomAttributes(GetType(SR.AssemblyTitleAttribute),
False)(0)
Return
m_Title.Title.ToString
End Get
End Property
Public ReadOnly
Property Trademark() As
String Implements
AssemblyInfo.IAssInfo.Trademark
Get
Dim m_Trademark
As SR.AssemblyTrademarkAttribute
m_Trademark = m_AssInfo.GetCustomAttributes(GetType(SR.AssemblyTrademarkAttribute),
False)(0)
Return
m_Trademark.Trademark.ToString
End Get
End Property
Step 6
Open the Window form and instantiate clsAppInfo class and use clsAppInfo Method
to read the Assembly information.
Description of some function used here
System.Reflection:
The System.Reflection namespace provide information about classes and interface
that gets loaded dynamically and provides information about data member,
function with the ability to dynamically create and invoke types.
GetExecutingAssembly Function:
It loads the current assembly that is running form the code. In our
case the currently assembly is AssemblyInfo.