VersionUpdater

This is a simple Swift command line program that reads specified text files and searches for specific lines and updates them as instructed.

Requirements

In order to work, VersionUpdater needs versioning information. Versioning information is kept in a file in a given project in a specific format. When run VersionUpdator reads the file and does a very simple string search for certain text and then modifies it as needed.

VersionUpdater requires that the version file be a .swift file. VersionUpdater requires that the read me file be in markdown format.

Versioning information needed

VersionUpdater needs the specific strings below to be present in the version file.

String	Symbolic	Use	Type
public static let BuildTime:	.BuildTime	The date/time of the build. Supplied by VersionUpdator.	String
public static let BuildIncrement:	.BuildIncrement	Value to use to increment the built count. Supplied by the application. Not modified by VersionUpdator.	Integer
public static let BuildDate:	.BuildDate	The date of the build. Supplied by VersionUpdator.	String
public static let Build:	.BuildNumber	The build number. Updated by VersionUpdator.	Integer
public static let BuildID:	.BuildID	The ID of the build. Updated by VersionUpdator.	UUID
public static let MajorVersion:	.MajorVersion	The major version number. Supplied by the application and not modified by VersionUpdator.	String (interpreted as an integer)
public static let MinorVersion:	.MinorVersion	The minor version number. Supplied by the application and not modified by VersionUpdator.	String (interpreted as an integer)
public static let VersionTag:	.VersionTag	Tag string for the version. Not used extensively yet.	String

VersionUpdate needs the specific string below to be present in the read me file.

String	Symbolic	Use	Type
Most recent build:	.MostRecentBuild	The text that identifies the line to update with build information.	String

Supplied functions

The versioning file (usually with the name Versioning.swift) supplies several functions to make version retreival easier and more convenient.

Function	Usage
MakeVersionString	Returns a string with the major and minor version numbers with optional prefix and suffix.
MakeSimpleVersionString	Returns a simple version string with optional build number.
MakeBuildString	Returns a string with the build number, date, and time.
AuthorList	Returns a list of authors, optionally alphabetized by last name.
CopyrightText	Returns full copyright text.
ProgramIDAsUUID	Returns the program's ID (assigned by the application, not VersionUpdater) as a UUID type, not the native string type.
MakeVersionParts	Return various parts of the versioning information as an array of tuples, with item 0 identifying the contents of item 1 for each tuple.
MakeVersionBlock	Returns a multi-line string with versioning information.
MakeAttributedVersionBlockEx	Returns a multi-line, attributed string (good only for macOS/iOS/iPadOS) with versioning information. Allows for finer grain setting of attributes than MakeAttributedVersionBlock.
MakeAttributedVersionBlock	Returns a multi-line, attributed string (good only for macOS/iOS/iPadOS) with versioning information.
EmitXML	Emits versioning information as an XML fragment.

Some properties and fields that are also useful.

Property	Usage
CopyrightYears	Array property that contains a set of years related to the copyright.
CopyrightHolder	String property that contains the name of the copyright holder.
IsReleaseBuild	Set by the caller to indicate whether the build is for release or not. Defaults to false.

The data that must be present in the versioning file (most commonly named Versioning.swift) is shown below:

Field	Use	Type	Required
MajorVersion	The major version number. The user must update this manually.	String interpreted as an integer.	Yes
MinorVersion	The minor version number. The user must update this manually.	String interperted as an integer.	Yes
VersionSuffix	Optional version suffix value. The is supplied by the user.	String	No
ApplicationName	Name of the application to which the versioning information belongs. Supplied by the user.	String	No
Tag	Tag value for the application. Intended to be used for things like "Alpha" or "Beta" but can be anything.	String	No
ProgramID	ID of the program.	UUID in string format.	Yes
IntendedOS	String with the name of OSes the program is intended to run on.	String	No
Build	Current build number. Updated by VersionUpdater. While this is updated by VersionUpdater, the user can set this to any initial (or subsequent) value desired.	Integer	Yes
BuildIncrement	The value to increment the build number with each update. Unless otherwise required, should leave at the default value of 1.	Integer	Yes
BuildID	ID of the build. Created and supplied by VersionUpdater.	String interpreted as a UUID.	Yes
BuildDate	Date of the build. Created and supplied by VersionUpdater.	String interpreted as a Date	Yes
BuildTime	Time of the build. Created and supplied by VersionUpdater.	String interpreted as a Date	Yes
CopyrightYears	List of years the program is in copyright.	[String] with each entry a year. Should be in chronological order.	Yes
CopyrightHolder	String of the copyright holder(s) names.	String	Yes
Authors	Array of the names of the authors of the program. Names should be in given name, family name order.	[String]	Yes

Usage

The most efficient way to use VersionUpdater is as a script step in Xcode. To ensure proper timing synchronization (eg, the build date is shown in the most current build), the script step must be executed before the compile step.

VersionUpdater takes two command line parameters:

1. The project's version information file (usually Versioning.swift) that must be a .swift file.
2. An optional read me file. The version information file must be the first parameter, and if specified, the read me file the second parameter. This must be a markdown file.
3. An optional Info.plist file. The files short version (which is really the app's version) and version (which is really the build number) fields are updated with information from the Versioning file.