Core-to-Core: Converting a Framework-Dependent App to Self-Contained in Visual Studio 2015

Below are instructions on how to change a Framework-Dependent .NET Core application to a Self-Contained one (i.e. where all the assemblies are included) in Visual Studio 2015.

1) Start Visual Studio.

2) Open a new project by selecting File -> New -> Project (CTRL-SHIFT-N)

3) In the New Project window, choose .NET Framework 4.6 or higher and a programming language, select Web, then ASP.NET Core Application (.NET Core), give your project a name and click on OK.

4) In the next window, select Web Application and click on the OK button.

5) Open the project.json file in your solution and remove "type":"platform" under dependencies -> Microsoft.NETCore.App. The markup should look something like this:

"dependencies": {
  "Microsoft.NETCore.App": {
    "version": "1.0.1"
  }
}

6) Add the following as the last element in the project.json file to specify the platform you want to deploy your application to. A complete list of Runtime IDs can be found here.

"runtimes": {
    "win81-x64": {}
}

7) Rebuild your project (CTRL-SHIFT-B)

Now, you can deploy your solution to the platform of your choice without the need for certain assemblies to be installed on the server to support a particular .NET Core version.

Article ID: 1476, Created: June 15 at 2:50 PM, Modified: June 15 at 2:58 PM

Core-to-Core: Converting a Framework-Dependent App to Self-Contained in Visual Studio 2015

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