Attach unit tests to ASP.NET Core project

Question

I created an ASP.NET Core Web Application in VS 2015. The Add unit tests checkbox was available for the ASP.NET 4.x templates, but when I selected ASP.NET 5 templates it was grayed out. I tried creating the project anyway with plans to add my own unit tests.

I added another project to the solution but I'm not able to link the two. When I right-click the references of the UnitTest project and hit Add Reference, I can see the original project as an option.

But when I check the box and hit OK, I get a dialog box that says, "A reference to 'PangolinWeb' could not be added. An assembly must have a 'dll' or 'exe' extension in order to be referenced."

Why can't I add an ASP.NET Core project as a reference? Is this the only way to make all of its classes and methods available to my UnitTest project?

I am working with ASP.NET Core now for 1 year. In my current project my team is using xUnit, which I think is a better choice for ASP.NET Core. For more details about it, check xunit.github.io — Juliano Sales
– Juliano Sales, Commented May 3, 2016 at 19:35

mcintyre321 · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-17 12:05:42Z

13

The project still compiles to a dll that you can reference, so instead of referencing the project, reference the dll in the bin folder of the Core project

Add a reference to the file using the Add Reference, browse dialog
Edit the csproj to use a variable for the configuration so it builds in release mode correctly. e.g.

`

<Reference Include="YourLibrary, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
  <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
  <HintPath>..\YourLibrary\bin\$(Configuration)\net45\YourLibrary.dll</HintPath>
  </Reference>

use the solution project build order to make the referencing project build after the dotnetcore library project.

edited Oct 17, 2016 at 12:05

mcintyre321

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answered May 19, 2016 at 12:43

m0r6aN

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2 Comments

Steve Over a year ago

Wow... so simple. Good call :)

hannes neukermans Over a year ago

i like this answer.

Thomas · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-03 21:33:35Z

3

You cannot add a ASP.NET 5 (ASP.NET Core) project as a reference to a .NET Framework .csproj project (which I presume your unit test project is). This is a feature gap in the current Visual Studio tooling but will be fixed (IMHO as part of the upcoming RC2). Why? Because it is not implemented ;).

I also want to highlight that the answer of Juliano is right. xUnit is the framework of choice, by the .NET and ASP.NET teams.

Solution ideas: Include the classes as a linked file into your csproj. Like that you can compile it twice and test it once. Not the finest solution but a workaround for a while till the tooling will catch up.

answered May 3, 2016 at 21:33

Thomas

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2 Comments

Lars Kemmann Over a year ago

Does anybody have an update on the timeline for when this will be fixed?

Thomas Over a year ago

The project was delayed, since they decided to scrap the project.json. They switch to csproj and mscorlib shim support with .NET Core 1.2. ETA Summer 2017

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