Error running selected code generator. The given assembly or codebase was invalid.

[lee-alderdice]

Hi,

I am running into the error below when scaffolding a controller and views in VS2017. My csproj is at the bottom. I am not sure how to fix this, so far I have tried:

• Different version of Wed.CodeGeneration.
• Different Package and DotNetCliToolReference configurations

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp1.1</TargetFramework>
    <RuntimeIdentifiers>win7-x64</RuntimeIdentifiers>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <PackageTargetFallback Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)' == 'netcoreapp1.1' ">$(PackageTargetFallback);dotnet5.6;portable-net45+win8</PackageTargetFallback>
    <RuntimeFrameworkVersion Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)' == 'netcoreapp1.1' ">1.1.1</RuntimeFrameworkVersion>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="BundlerMinifier.Core" Version="2.2.306" />
    <PackageReference Include="jquery.datatables" Version="1.10.15" />
    <PackageReference Include="MailKit" Version="1.10.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc" Version="1.1.3" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization" Version="1.1.3" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Routing" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.Kestrel" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Session" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.StaticFiles" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer.Design" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.EnvironmentVariables" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Localization" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Logging" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Debug" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Options.ConfigurationExtensions" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.BrowserLink" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.EntityFrameworkCore" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGenerators.Mvc" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Serilog.Extensions.Logging.File" Version="1.0.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="WnvHtmlToPdf_NetCore_Client" Version="14.0.0" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <DotNetCliToolReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Tools" Version="1.0.1" />
    <DotNetCliToolReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.DotNet" Version="1.0.1" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)' == 'net461' ">
    <Reference Include="System" />
    <Reference Include="Microsoft.CSharp" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

[prafullbhosale]

@lee-alderdice, I was able to repro the issue with the csproj you provided.

I had to make the following modification to get scaffolding to work:

Remove the below package references:

<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration" Version="1.1.1" /> 
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.EntityFrameworkCore" Version="1.1.1" />
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGenerators.Mvc" Version="1.1.1" />

The above packages are brought in transitively by Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design, so you should not refer to them directly.

Let me know if this helps.

[lee-alderdice]

Hi @prafullbhosale that has worked. Thank you so much. I have been looking on the web for a long time to get to this point.

[lee-alderdice]

Sorry to reopen this but I find once again that the ability to scaffold controllers and views has disappeared and the error message No executable ... dotnet-aspnet-codegenerator.

I am on VS2017 15.3.4
My .csproj has just this package Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design at version 1.1.2 and tooling Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.DotNet at version 1.1.0-preview4-final.

I have checked on VS2017 developer community and can't find anything that might intimate what is wrong at this time.

[vijayrkn]

This should be fixed in the latest versions.