Can I use .net core on visual studio 2013

Question

Is, or will .net core be available to use on visual studio 2013? Or it will be available only on visual studio 2015?

Thanks

Answer 1

An empty ASP.NET Core application can be built in VS2013 by doing the following steps:

1. Create a Console App project that targets at least .NET Framework 4.5.2 (using 4.5.1 is possible but support has now ended).
2. Install the following NuGet Packages:
   • Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting
   • Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.Kestrel
3. Add existing item to project: [solution root]\packages\Libuv.[version]\runtimes\[os]\native\libuv.dll.
4. For the above file, set the property "Copy to Output Directory" to "Copy always"
5. Produce the necessary Startup.cs and Program.cs files

Basic Code (from the Getting Started Tutorial):

Program.cs

public class Program
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var host = new WebHostBuilder()
            .UseKestrel()
            .UseStartup<Startup>()
            .Build();

        host.Run();
    }
}

Startup.cs

public class Startup
{
    public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app)
    {
        app.Run(context =>
        {
            return context.Response.WriteAsync("Hello from ASP.NET Core!");
        });
    }
}

Answer 2

Yes, it's possible to build against the .NET Core 5 contracts in Visual Studio 2013 by creating a Portable Class Library that targets .NET Framework 4.5 and Windows 8. You'll need to manually edit the .csproj file and add the following.

<PropertyGroup>
    <ImplicitlyExpandTargetFramework>false</ImplicitlyExpandTargetFramework>
</PropertyGroup>

Then install the System.Runtime NuGet package and other .NET Core 5 packages.

The resulting assembly will be able to execute on any .NET Core 5-based framework including .NET Framework 4.6, ASP.NET 5 & .NET Native.

Note, this is the same technique used to build the .NET Core assemblies in the corefx repository.