C#•14mo ago

❔ Running .NET Framework Project off of command line

I primarily work with .NET core, and it is a breeze with dotnet But I've recently come across a .NET Framework web project, and I wanted to know if it was possible to build and run it off the command line Firstly I have managed to build it using msbuild. and I know I can host using IIS, so in theory, I can write a simple batch file to: 1) Build the project 2) Copy the contents of the build to the web directory 3) Start the IIS site But I wanted to know if there was a way to do this without going through this like I can with dotnet for .NET Core

20 Replies

Hazel 🌊💃•14mo ago

The answer depends on what type of project format it's using. .NET Framework projects can use SDK format, but they don't by default. If it's in SDK format though, you should be able to use dotnet commands just fine.

RDasherOP•14mo ago

It does not use the SDK format, I'm sure of that, cause out of habit the first thing I tried was dotnet build

Hazel 🌊💃•14mo ago

I converted all of our projects at work running .NET Framework 4.8 to SDK format for similar reasons. It's normally easy to convert, but given that it's an old web project, there might be some nuances I'm not aware of. You can always create a backup of the current .csproj; then slap the standard SDK shell in there and piece it together after the fact. I've found that to be faster than using the conversion tool out there.

RDasherOP•14mo ago

I've just gone through it, there are 27 .csproj files Should I convert all of them, or just the main .csproj

Hazel 🌊💃•14mo ago

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

    <PropertyGroup>
        <TargetFramework>net48</TargetFramework>
        <StartupObject>Namespace.Program</StartupObject>
    </PropertyGroup>

</Project>

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

    <PropertyGroup>
        <TargetFramework>net48</TargetFramework>
        <StartupObject>Namespace.Program</StartupObject>
    </PropertyGroup>

</Project>

RDasherOP•14mo ago

Alright, let me try this, and I'll get back to you on how it goes

Hazel 🌊💃•14mo ago

I think just the one you're tying to build with dotnet should be fine (though I'm not 100% on that) Better for consistency to do them all at some point though. Be sure to make a backup of your file before starting 🙂

RDasherOP•14mo ago

I'll take a backup of the whole project, just in case

Hazel 🌊💃•14mo ago

27 isn't too bad; I had 100+ to do when I got started. I'm down to 20 left. I'm slowly tackling them all 😄 Just the .csproj is fine; especially if you have source control in place. Also A nuance of SDK versus the old format SDK will pull in all files and folders So if you have files and folders excluded in the old format but still on disk they'll come in to play and you'll need to remove them. I recommend having both so you can visually see the structure of the project in old and new forms for cross comparison 🙂

RDasherOP•14mo ago

A coworker who worked on this project said that he had to upgrade it from 4.5 to 4.8 and the following year was a nightmare with lots of compatibility issues for the deployments, so that's what I'm specially scared of 😬

Hazel 🌊💃•14mo ago

Project format doesn't impact your target framework 🙂 Just make sure you target net48

RDasherOP•14mo ago

Gotcha

Hazel 🌊💃•14mo ago

I love it because I can now choose to target multiple target frameworks easily without impacting our current end products which allows me to start testing things for upgrades to newer versions of .NET 😄

reflectronic•14mo ago

to be clear, if it's an ASP.NET 4.x project, you cannot use the SDK style the .NET SDK just does not have all of the build logic needed for ASP.NET 4.x

reflectronic•14mo ago

https://github.com/dotnet/project-system/issues/2670

GitHub

Add support for ASP.NET (non-Core) projects · Issue #2670 · dotnet/...

We routinely run into cases where the new project system and ASP.NET MVC 5 collide (or rather, don't) - I'd like to see support added. Here are the main use cases I'm aware of, I hope o...

Hazel 🌊💃•14mo ago

That's awesome to know! I had that feeling there might be a nuance about old web projects I wasn't aware of 🙂 Like, I know converting old projects with SOAP service references has been problematic for me. I don't think it's impossible, but just something I haven't overcome yet.

reflectronic•14mo ago

if you are OK with using an unofficial third-party solutions then someone has created a custom project SDK for ASP.NET 4.x projects https://github.com/CZEMacLeod/MSBuild.SDK.SystemWeb

GitHub

GitHub - CZEMacLeod/MSBuild.SDK.SystemWeb: This MSBuild SDK is desi...

This MSBuild SDK is designed to allow for the easy creation and use of SDK (shortform) projects targeting ASP.NET 4.x using System.Web. - GitHub - CZEMacLeod/MSBuild.SDK.SystemWeb: This MSBuild SDK...

reflectronic•14mo ago

this would let you use the new format and dotnet build but it's unclear how well the Visual Studio integration would work

RDasherOP•14mo ago

Big oof Yeah it does not work well with the SDK idea So back to the original question I guess How do I do it with MSBuild ?

Accord•14mo ago

Was this issue resolved? If so, run /close - otherwise I will mark this as stale and this post will be archived until there is new activity.

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❔ Running .NET Framework Project off of command line