Keeping up with Extension Versions

The documentation for behavior, binding element, and binding extensions in configuration says that using strong names to register types is recommended. Each time I build, the assembly version gets incremented, which changes the strong name. How can I develop an extension without having to change configuration files all the time?

The simplest solution I've heard for this problem is to stop incrementing the assembly version for development and instead use the file version. Assemblies have two versions: the assembly version, which is used by the framework for strong names, and the assembly file version, which is used by the file system but not by the framework. Incrementing the file version lets you track changes without having to update configuration files for every build. You can still change the assembly version for released builds since that should happen less frequently than each compile.

Next time: Advertising Identity on the Server