Reference a Full Framework Library Project from AS

Question

I'm currently using ASP.NET Core MVC RC2 which is suppose to support referencing a full framework library Project from a Core MVC Web Application Project. But I can't seem to make it work.

I have an existing full framework library project that I'd like to use with a new Core MVC Web application project. But when I try to add a reference to the library's project I get an error that says the target framework for it is incompatible with the target framework for the web application.

To try to simplify the problem I created a new Core MVC web application and a new Windows Code Library and tried to add a reference from the web application project to the library's project and got the same error message. I've searched on stack overflow and I did find this question that seemed highly relevent:How to make ASP.NET Core RC2 app build on net46 framework with older third party dependencies but I was unable to use the information there to solve my issue.

Here are the steps to reproduce the issue:
I created a solution with a ".NET Core" "ASP.NET Core Web Application" project based on the "Web Application" template in Visual Studio 2015.

I then added a new "Windows" "Class Library" project to the solution.

So at this point the solution looks like this:

Now, when I try to use visual studio to add reference from the Core MVC Web Application to the Full Framework library I get an error that says that "ExampleLib has a target frameworks that are incompatible with the targets in current project ExampleWebApplicaiton.":

This error seems fairly self explanatory and seems to want me to change the framework that the web application is targeting so that it's the same as the library, which makes perfect sense. The problem is that I can't find documentation on how to do that and intellisense isn't being particularly helpful.

I suspect I need to change one of the following pieces of the project.json file for the web application:

"dependencies": {
    "Microsoft.NETCore.App": {
     "version": "1.0.0-rc2-3002702",
     "type": "platform"
   },

or

 "frameworks": {
    "netcoreapp1.0": {
      "imports": [
        "dotnet5.6",
        "dnxcore50",
        "portable-net45+win8"
      ]
    }
  },

How do I specify .NETFramework Version 4.6 for the Core MVC Web Application instead of .NETCoreApp?

Answer 1

Following Ron C's steps here's the complete project.json for a web api project I just tested and it worked.

{
  "dependencies": {
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.Kestrel": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.EnvironmentVariables": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.FileExtensions": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Logging": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Debug": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Options.ConfigurationExtensions": "1.0.0"
  },

  "tools": {
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration.Tools": "1.0.0-preview2-final"
  },

  "frameworks": {
    "net461": {
      "imports": [
        "dotnet5.6",
        "portable-net45+win8"
      ],
      "frameworkAssemblies": {
        "System.Data": "4.0.0.0"
      }
    }
  },

  "buildOptions": {
    "emitEntryPoint": true,
    "preserveCompilationContext": true
  },

  "runtimeOptions": {
    "configProperties": {
      "System.GC.Server": true
    }
  },

  "publishOptions": {
    "include": [
      "wwwroot",
      "Views",
      "Areas/**/Views",
      "appsettings.json",
      "web.config"
    ]
  },

  "scripts": {
    "postpublish": [ "dotnet publish-iis --publish-folder %publish:OutputPath% --framework %publish:FullTargetFramework%" ]
  }
}

Answer 2

There is a template that allows you to target the full .NET framework - sorry, can't post an image yet, but you can go to: Templates -> Visual C# -> Web -> ASP.NET Core Web Application (.NET Framework)

Note that you can specify the version of the .NET Framework from the dropdown above (as per usual).

This will change your project.json to:

"frameworks": {
"net461": { }
}

(depending on the framework version that you've selected). You will now be able to add a reference to your class library.

"frameworks": {
    "net461": {
    "dependencies": {
    "ClassLibrary1": {
        "target": "project"
        }
     }
   }
}