.NET Core introduces a new project model. A project is defined by a JSON file named “project.json”. This post will examine some of the options available to projects.

Project.json

project.json defines everything about a .NET Core project. It controls the project’s platform support, references, compilation, and packaging.

The best way to get a starter template is execute dotnet new on the command line, or to use Visual Studio. This will create an empty project with a project.json that works for a basic library.

Multi-project setup

Many projects can be built together. This is similar to a Visual Studio “Solution”.

Without configuration

Without configuration, projects are considered part of a solution if they are in the same file directory with each other.

solution/
    Banana.Library
    Banana.Web

With global.json

A file named global.json can be used to identify the location of projects

solution/
    global.json

    src/
        Banana.Library
        Banana.Web
    test/
        Banana.Test

Contents of global.json

{
  "projects": ["src", "test"]
}

Examples

A typical project.json for a web project

{
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "name": "Banana.Web",

  "compilationOptions": {
    "emitEntryPoint": true,
    "keyFile": "../lib.snk"
  },

  "dependencies": {
    "Banana.Library": "0.0.1",
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.Kestrel": "1.0.0-rc2",
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc": "1.0.0-rc2"
  },

  "frameworks": {
    "netcoreapp1.0": {
      "dependencies": {
        "Microsoft.NetCore.App": {
          "type": "platform",
          "version": "1.0.0-rc2"
        }
      }
    }
  },

  "tools": {
    "dotnet-razor-tooling": "1.0.0-rc2"
  }
}

A typical project.json for a library

{
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "name": "Banana.Library",

  "compilationOptions": {
    "xmlDoc": true,
    "keyFile": "../lib.snk"
  },

  "dependencies": {
    "Newtonsoft.Json": "8.0.1"
  },

  "frameworks": {
    "netstandard1.3": {
      "dependencies": {
        "NETStandard.Library": "1.0.0-rc2"
      }
    }
  },

  "scripts": {
    "prepublish": ["gen.cmd"]
  }
}