[NI Package Builder] Add ability to set "CompatibilityVersion" attribute of a package

[DR_parker]

I recently ran into a problem where packages I created and distributed to my team failed to install because the packages were not compatible with the version of NI Package Manager installed on their system.  I usually keep my NI Package Manager instance updated, but other users only use it every so often and may not follow the same practice.

I propose a new feature in NI Package Builder (other NIPM-related tools like LabVIEW Package builder) that allows the package developer to specify a compatible version in the package build spec.

Related to the issue described here: Solved: CompatabilityVersion in control file - NI Community

[Scott_Richardson]

NIPB will likely not support this option due to the fact that a package built by a newer version of NIPM could be using features that the older NIPM does not understand or support, although NIPB historically does not expose new NIPM specific features like that or the features are typically not used by most customers when exposed in NIPB.

FWIW, after building the package with NIPB, a workaround is that you can use nipkg.exe unpack to extract the package contents, automate the updating of the the extracted control file, and then use nipkg.exe pack to create the package with the changes.

The only caveat is that if the package needs to know about an NIPath, e.g. a version of LabVIEW released after the installing NIPM, it will fail to install. That is what we do at Testeract since we stick with a specific minimal version of LabVIEW for our framework packages.