Add Class Library In ASP.NET Core Using .NET Core Command-Line Interface (CLI)

Introduction

This article explains how to add Class Library in ASP.NET Core using .NET Core Command-Line Interface (CLI) in a simple way. Before reading this article, read the previous part of this article using below article link.

Serve Static Files In ASP.NET Core Using Visual Studio 2017

.NET Core CLI

The .NET Core command-line interface (CLI) is a new cross-platform command line for developing .NET applications. Using .NET Core CLI we can open new .NET core application, modify the applications or add class libraries and so on. We can manage our application using the command line.

Background

We manage the ASP.NET Core applications using Graphic User Interface (GUI). Whenever we develop an application we are doing many tasks such as adding files, compiling the application, and running the application using graphical user interface; but we can do those using command line. Using .NET Core CLI we can manage our ASP.NET Core application.

Steps for Adding Class Library Using CLI

First, open the one new ASP.NET core application and add one sample page then build and run the application. Go to the solution explorer and we can see only one project in it.

Open PowerShell

Now we are going to add class library using some of the steps with the help of .NET Core CLI. Open the Windows PowerShell.

ASP.NET Core

Now Windows PowerShell window will be open. We can see how it looks on screen shot.

ASP.NET Core

Project Location

Our project is saved in “C:\Users\Vignesh\Documents\Visual Studio 2017\Projects” in our system and our project name”DemoASP.NETCore”. Now we are going to our project location in CLI

Command

Using below command we can go to our project location and can see the list project.

PS C:\Users\Vignesh> cd '.\Documents\Visual Studio 2017\'
PS C:\Users\Vignesh\Documents\Visual Studio 2017> cd '.\Projects'
PS C:\Users\Vignesh\Documents\Visual Studio 2017\Projects> ls

Using “ls” we can see all list of files or projects in the specified path. We can see the Windows PowerShell screen looks like below screenshot.

ASP.NET Core

We are going to add a new class library in “DemoASP.NETCore” solution, now go to the project location and can see the “DemoASP.NETCore.sln” solutions.

Command

PS C:\Users\Vignesh\Documents\Visual Studio 2017\Projects> cd .\DemoASP.NETCore\
PS C:\Users\Vignesh\Documents\Visual Studio 2017\Projects\DemoASP.NETCore> ls

ASP.NET Core

HELP Command in CLI

Using help command we can get full information about a specific command in CLI, for example, we are going to add new items in .NET Core so we should know about “new”. Type below mentioned command to know about “new”.

Command

PS C:\Users\Vignesh\documents\Visual Studio 2017\Projects\DemoASP.NETCore> dotnet new –help

We can create Console Application, Class Library, Unit Test Project, xUnit Test Project, ASP.NET Core Empty, ASP.NET Core Web App and ASP.NET Core Web API templates using “dotnet new” command with the short name of template name in CLI. We can see the below example.

Template	Short Name	Example Command
Console Application	console	dotnet new console
Class library	classlib	dotnet new classlib
Unit Test Project	mstest	dotnet new mstest
xUnit Test Project	xunit	dotnet new xunit
ASP.NET Core Empty	web	dotnet new web
ASP.NET Core Web App	mvc	dotnet new mvc
ASP.NET Core Web API	webapi	dotnet new webapi
Solution File	sln	dotnet new sln

Add New Class Library

We are going to add class library using CLI command. We can see the below command for adding class library. We need to run the below command in specified project path.

Command

dotnet new classlib -n democlass -o democlass

ASP.NET Core

After adding class library we get the message as “The template "Class library" created successfully”. We can see all list of items in our solutions using “ls” command.

Modify the Our Solution

We are going to modify the solutions so that we know the command for modifying the solutions. We are using command “dotnet --help”. We can see the below screenshot when entering “dotnet –help” command and can see the command to modify the solutions.

ASP.NET Core

We are using “sln” command to modify the solutions. We can see the above screenshot. We need to run the below command in our project which specifies the path.

Command

dotnet sln add .\DemoClass\DemoClass.cspro

ASP.NET Core

After run the command we get message as “Project `DemoClass\DemoClass.csproj` added to the solution.”

Now we can see all projects in our solutions using below CLI command.

Command

dotnet sln list

ASP.NET Core

There are two projects in our solutions. One is “DemoASP.NETCore.csproj” and another one is “DemoClass.csproj”.

Now we go Visual Studio it will show the message “The Solutions DemoASP.NETCore has been modified outside the environment”. We can see the full message in the above screenshot. When we press the reload button our solution will be reloaded and can see new class library which we have been added. We can see the class library which we have added in the below screenshot.

ASP.NET Core

We can add the reference to any project and can use the class library.

Conclusion

This article explains how to add class library using CLI command using step by step process. I hope this helps new learners.