Using compile options for version compatibility

Here’s the scenario; Your building a module and it needs to be compatible with different versions of a platform. e.g. Sitecore, and everything’s great up until the day you need to call different methods in different versions of the platform. You’d rather not drop support for the old versions, and nor do you want to start maintaining two code bases. So what do you do?

C# Preprocessor Directives


#if, #else and #endif


    Console.WriteLine("Debug version");
    Console.WriteLine("Non Debug version");

Defining a preprocessor symbol


This can be included in code as follows





  1. Right click your solution item in Solution Explorer and select Properties
  2. Click Configuration Properties on the left and then Configuration Manager on the right
  3. In the pop up window click the Active solution configuration drop down and then click New
  5. Click Ok and close all the windows you just opened
  6. Right click the project that your going to build and select Properties
  7. Select the Build tab
  8. Select your build configuration from the configuration at the top
  9. Enter the symbol your using for the #if directives
    Conditional Compilation Symbols

Reference different versions of an assembly





As well as different versions of assemblies, it may also be needed to target different versions of the .net framework. This can be done in the .csproj file by including additional proerty groups that have a condition on the configuration name.


In this example I’m targeting .net 4.5.2 for my Sitecore 8.2 configuration and 4.6.2 for my Sitecore 9 configuration.

Useful Links

C# preprocessor directives
-define (C# Compiler Options)

Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s