Browser Link with ASP.NET Core v1.0 in Visual Studio 2015 Update 3

Question

I am using Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 and wanting to use the Browser Link feature with my ASP.NET Core v1.0 WebApp project... but I can't get Browser Link to work.

1. Is Browser Link supported for ASP.NET Core v1.0 projects?

I can't find much out there with regards to using Browser Link with ASP.NET Core.

My project builds OK, but the Browser Link dashboard always shows as "No current connections" when running both with or without debug.

In my project.json i'm importing the Browser Link dependancy;

{
  "dependencies": {
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.FileProviderExtensions": "1.0.0-rc1-final",
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Razor.Tools": "1.0.0-preview2-final",
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration.Tools": "1.0.0-preview2-final",
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.Kestrel": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.StaticFiles": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.EnvironmentVariables": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Logging": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Debug": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Options.ConfigurationExtensions": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.NETCore.App": {
      "version": "1.0.0",
      "type": "platform"
    },
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.BrowserLink.Loader": "14.0.0"
  },

  "tools": {
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration.Tools": "1.0.0-preview2-final"
  },

  "frameworks": {
    "netcoreapp1.0": {
      "imports": [
        "dotnet5.6",
        "portable-net45+win8"
      ]
    }
  },

  "buildOptions": {
    "emitEntryPoint": true,
    "preserveCompilationContext": true
  },

  "runtimeOptions": {
    "configProperties": {
      "System.GC.Server": true
    }
  },

  "publishOptions": {
    "include": [
      "wwwroot",
      "web.config",
      "Views",
      "appsettings.json"
    ]
  },

  "scripts": {
    "prepublish": [ "npm install", "bower install", "gulp clean", "gulp min" ],
    "postpublish": [ "dotnet publish-iis --publish-folder %publish:OutputPath% --framework %publish:FullTargetFramework%" ]
  }
}

My web.config;

<handlers>
  <add name="aspNetCore" path="*" verb="*" modules="AspNetCoreModule" resourceType="Unspecified" />
    <add name="Browser Link for HTML" path="*.html" verb="*"
         type="System.Web.StaticFileHandler, System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"
         resourceType="File" preCondition="integratedMode" />
</handlers>

2. For an ASP.NET Core v1.0 project, what else do I need to do to get Browser Link working?

---

Update 1

I have added the following to the root element of my web.config;

<appSettings>
  <add key="vs:EnableBrowserLink" value="true"/>
</appSettings>
<system.web>
  <compilation debug="true"></compilation>
</system.web>

The "Refresh Linked Browsers" option is still disabled for me.

But still not working to launch with Browser Link and see the connection in the Browser Link Dashboard.

Answer 1

I am using VS2015 Update 3 too.

Browserlink is also supported for ASP.NET Core projects of course.

Add the following code to your Startup.cs -> Configure method:

  app.UseBrowserLink();

But if you use --> .NET Core 1.0 - VS 2015 Tooling RC then this could be your issue.

Set appSetting “vs:EnableBrowserLink” to “true“

Set compilation debug to true in your web.config file. Browserlink will be disabled when debug is false!

<system.web>
  <compilation debug="true"></compilation>
</system.web>

Try to click

"Refreshed Linked Browsers",

in my case no connections showed up initially, but after refresh! After that when you hover over the refresh icon, a tooltip showing the connected browsers is displayed, like this for example:

In my project.json I have the following setting:

 "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.BrowserLink.Loader": "14.0.0",

and Browserlink has to be enabled:

You can see if it's loaded in the browsers network tab:

Answer 2

I still had old versions of the .net core installed as well as the SDK. I removed these (from Control Panel), and reinstalled the Tooling Preview 2 from: https://www.microsoft.com/net/core#windows

And hey-presto BrowserLink starts working.

Answer 3

I was having the same problem with building a .NET Core MVC app from the empty template, but I figured out that the "Web Application" template works for me out of the box.

So, I checked all of the configuration JSON files to see what the differences were.

Starting from the bottom, web.config between the two are actually identical, so you don't have to add anything there.

In the Web App project, Startup.cs has the following code inside the Configure() method:

if (env.IsDevelopment())
{
    app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
    app.UseBrowserLink();
}

In project.json, you've already been told to put the following in the dependencies section:

"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.BrowserLink.Loader": "14.0.0"

bundleconfig.json just tells the app how to bundle and minify JavaScript, so that doesn't affect BrowserLink.

Now, this next one I don't get. appsettings.json doesn't exist in the empty project, and you were told to put an appsettings tag in your web.config. Since MS is trying to go away from the web.config, I figured I would find something about BrowserLink in that appsettings.json. Nope:

}
  "Logging": {
    "IncludeScopes": false,
    "LogLevel": {
      "Default": "Debug",
      "System": "Information",
      "Microsoft": "Information"
    }
  }
}

Okay, whatever, at this point I'll try anything. Copy the text, restart Visual Studio, run my project (make sure to navigate to a page that is not just static HTML) and...

Any time you browse to a static HTML page, you'll lose Browser Link, but other than that, it works pretty well. My advice: now that you know how much of a headache it is to do this, never start from an empty project, ever again.