Best way to add NuGet packages as project references in VS2012?

Question

Ok. Really quick question, I\'m probably just being thick.

If you right-click on a projects \'references\' folder then \'Manage NuGet Packages\' you can then instal

Answer 1

I had the same issue. The solution posted by kristianp has worked as expected, it can be a bit cumbersome however, when dealing with lots of packages. The solution, that worked for me was just to edit the myProjectName.csproj file in the notepad, and just to copy-paste references from another project like so:

...

<ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="Microsoft.AspNet.SignalR.Core">
      <HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.AspNet.SignalR.Core.2.1.2\lib\net45\Microsoft.AspNet.SignalR.Core.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="Microsoft.AspNet.SignalR.SystemWeb">
      <HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.AspNet.SignalR.SystemWeb.2.1.2\lib\net45\Microsoft.AspNet.SignalR.SystemWeb.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>

    ...

Hope this helps someone. It saved me a lot of clicking :)

Answer 2

Nowadays I use the Package Manager Console (View->Other Windows->Package Manager Console).

Chances are all you'll ever need are the following two commands:

install-package <package-name> [-version <version-number>] [-project <project-name]

and

update-package <package-name> [-reinstall] [-version <version-number>] [-project <project-name>]

where

• Parts within square brackets [ ] are optional.
• 'install-package' will install to the specified project, or if not specified the one selected in the 'Default Project' drop down at the top of the command window.
• 'update-package' will apply changes to every project unless a project is specified.
• '-reinstall' means uninstall then install the package again at the same version number.

At first I thought the behaviour of these commands was a little weird, but with experience I see that they are most useful like this. Although personally I would ditch the 'Default Project' drop down entirely.

Answer 3

You can use Manage NuGet packages for Solution... by:

• right-clicking on solution
• Tools > Library Package Manager > Manage NuGet packages for Solution

Then you can choose in which projects install package as on screenshot below: Additionally you can add installed package to another projects in solution using the same Manage NuGet packages for Solution....

Answer 4

The other answer here didn't help me. Here's what I did, I don't know any other way to do it. I'm using VS 2013.

• I installed the package in the Package Manager Console, e.g. PM> Install-Package Newtonsoft.Json
• In the Solution Explorer, right click references, select Add Reference
• Click Browse, and navigate to the dll in the packages directory under the folder of the solution.

This adds a relative path for the reference to the project, so it should work with other people getting the code from source control into different directories.