.net - Issue adding reference to class library project in ASP.NET 5 (Core)

Question

Hi firstly i know vaguely similar questions have been asked before, but they are outdated now, I am using Visual Studio 2015 rtm and ASP.NET 5 beta 6.

I'm trying to add a reference to a normal (i.e. not vnext) class library project to my vnext web application. If I follow these steps:

1. Create a new web app project

2. Remove the "dnxcore50" framework from project.json

3. Add a new project for a normal class library

4. Manually move the class library project into the /src folder (otherwise I get error "The dependency MyClassLibrary1 >= 1.0.0-* could not be resolved.")

5. Add a reference to this class library

Now it builds OK, but if I try and add "using MyClassLibrary1" it says MyClassLibrary1 doesn't exist in current context.

If I then change the class library to target .NET 4 Client profile (by default it was 4.6) it does work correctly, however .NET 4 full or 4.5 does not work. I need it to be 4.5 or higher as I need to reference various packages that require this. Ideally everything would just target 4.6.

This is my project.json file:

{
  "webroot": "wwwroot",
  "userSecretsId": "aspnet5-WebApplication2-6767111e-0eba-42a4-9d68-4b6c20767518",
  "version": "1.0.0-*",

  "dependencies": {
    "EntityFramework.SqlServer": "7.0.0-beta6",
    "EntityFramework.Commands": "7.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc": "6.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc.TagHelpers": "6.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Authentication.Cookies": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Authentication.Facebook": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Authentication.Google": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Authentication.MicrosoftAccount": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Authentication.Twitter": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Diagnostics": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Diagnostics.Entity": "7.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Identity.EntityFramework": "3.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Server.IIS": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Server.WebListener": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.StaticFiles": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Tooling.Razor": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.Framework.Configuration.Abstractions": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.Framework.Configuration.Json": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.Framework.Configuration.UserSecrets": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.Framework.Logging": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.Framework.Logging.Console": "1.0.0-beta6",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.BrowserLink.Loader": "14.0.0-beta6"
  },

  "commands": {
    "web": "Microsoft.AspNet.Hosting --config hosting.ini",
    "ef": "EntityFramework.Commands"
  },

  "frameworks": {
    "dnx451": {
      "dependencies": {
        "MyClassLibrary1": "1.0.0-*"
      }

    }
  },

  "exclude": [
    "wwwroot",
    "node_modules",
    "bower_components"
  ],
  "publishExclude": [
    "node_modules",
    "bower_components",
    "**.xproj",
    "**.user",
    "**.vspscc"
  ],
  "scripts": {
    "prepublish": [ "npm install", "bower install", "gulp clean", "gulp min" ]
  }
}

And my global.json file:

{
  "projects": [
    "src",
    "test",
    "wrap"
  ],
  "sdk": {
    "version": "1.0.0-beta6"
  }
}

Answer 1

This is how I did it using beta6 (UPDATE: It's still valid for the RC1 UPDATE 1).

1. Remove frameworks => dnxcore from your project.json (you can't target it anyway using full .net class libraries)
2. In your target project right click on References => Add Reference
3. Navigate and select reference dll you want to add.

This will add a reference entry to your project.json file. Behind the scenes the dll is copied over to /lib directory in your solution and a "wrapper project" with only a project.json file is created in /wrap folder. The wrapper project is documented here (not well enough though): https://github.com/aspnet/Home/wiki/Project.json-file#bin-syntax-wrapping-a-dll

That's it! I've just tested this scenario. Hope this helps.