NuGet update through package manager removes properties from the project.json

[ericstj]

@vancem noticed this when trying to upgrade a project.

This is happening for both "type": "platform" and "exclude": "compile". The latter is definitely bug and something that should be fixed. Package manager should preserve the dependency shape (properties vs not) in the project.json.

The former is a different question (NuGet from updating the shared framework) which I'll leave out of this issue. /cc @piotrpmsft

[rrelyea]

Are you using 3.5-beta of vsix?

[ericstj]

No, was using 3.4.3.

[rrelyea]

@vancem / @ericstj - Can you please add repro steps and details?
Would be great to understand if 3.5-beta of the VSIX shows the same problem, too. That is the VSIX one should be using when doing netcore work.

[vancem]

I happen to reproduce it from VS 2015 (update 2) To repo there

Create a new project

File -> New Project -> Visual C# -> .Windows -> .NET Core Console Application (.NET COre)

You get a new project with a project.json which has type property in dependencies

"dependencies": {
"Microsoft.NETCore.App": {
"type": "platform",
"version": "1.0.0-rc2-3002702"
}

Then I wanted to upgrade Microsoft.NETCore.App to the latest private drop. I did this by right cliking on the 'References' node in the solution, -> Manage Nuget Packages. I have made a feed for the myget repo (if you don't already have it)

https://dotnet.myget.org/F/dotnet-core/api/v3/index.json

and browsed to the Microsoft.NetCore.App package, and clicked the 'upgrade icon associated with that package.

Once I upgraded, if I looked at my project.json I get

"dependencies": {
"Microsoft.NETCore.App": "1.0.0-rc4-000376"
},

which did the upgrade but 'lost' the "type" : "platform" property, which basically broke my app in a way that I had to go get expert help (Eric) to figure out.

[rrelyea]

let's investigate with 3.5-beta2 - does it still repro? and investigate issue/fix.

[zhili1208]

Yes, it repros with 3.5-beta

[rrelyea]

This appears to be a ASPNET Tooling issue. As noted by Zhi above, we've opened an issue on them.