Scaffolding: Error 'Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Utils, Version 1.1.0.0'

I am attempting to scaffold a controller in an ASP.NET Core app targeting 1.1 in Visual Studio 2017 Community. When I do, I get the error:

'Could not load file or assembly ‘Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Utils, Version 1.1.0.0’

I’ve read up on similar issues, and gotten this to work in the command line on a Mac with Visual Studio Code by adding the “PackageTargetFallback” shown below. However, am unable to get this working on VS2017 on Windows 2012.

If I fiddle with the Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design and Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Tool references to get newer versions, and to add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Utils DotNetCliToolsReference I get different errors such as:

Package Microsoft.Composition 1.0.27 is not compatible with netcoreapp1.1 .

This is referenced in issue #18452, but the “fix” is to remove Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design, which breaks scaffolding.

Is scaffolding supported in netcorapp1.1 & visual studio 2017? If so, what is wrong with my environment and/or csproj here?

.csproj is below.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp1.1</TargetFramework>
    <PackageTargetFallback>$(PackageTargetFallback);dotnet5.6;portable-net45+win8</PackageTargetFallback>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <Folder Include="wwwroot\" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Hangfire" Version="1.6.12" />
    <PackageReference Include="Hangfire.Console" Version="1.3.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="MailKit" Version="1.14.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.AspNetCore" Version="2.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.StaticFiles" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer.Design" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools" Version="1.1.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Debug" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.BrowserLink" Version="1.1.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design" Version="1.1.0-msbuild3-final" PrivateAssets="All" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <DotNetCliToolReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.DotNet" Version="1.0.0-msbuild3-final" />
    <DotNetCliToolReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.SecretManager.Tools" Version="1.0.0-msbuild3-final" />
    <DotNetCliToolReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Tools" Version="1.0.0-msbuild3-final" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 7 years ago
Comments: 32 (6 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

I found a solution. I deleted bin & obj folders then it gave me error it couldnt find project.deps.json in debug folder. I set project to debug, ran it and now I can add scaffolded items.

+39

GuerrillaCoder on Aug 23, 2017

Downgrading “Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design” from 3.0.0 to 2.2.4 resolved the issue for me. VS2019, AspNet Core 2.2

+13

luis-fss on Oct 11, 2019

These are the corresponding CodeGeneration.Design packages to use for the following TFMs:

.NET CoreApp 2.1 -> https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design/2.1.10

.NET CoreApp 2.2 -> https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design/2.2.4

.NET CoreApp 3.0 -> https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design/3.0.0

Hope this helps. We are trying to improve the experience by failing to install the package that is not compatible.

The reason we need these mapping packages is because the content generated for each of these TFMs could be different.

vijayrkn on Nov 4, 2019

I was getting similar issues then i realized my mistake. I had update to EF Core 3.1 and updated all my Nuget packages to 3.1 which was a mistake. My project was still targeting .Net Core 3.0 so I needed to keep the 3.0 version of Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design to match the .Net Core version my project targets.

Note: the Nuget package manager UI in visual studio suggests I update to 3.1 so you can get caught out if you blindly update all packages.

bmanners on Dec 12, 2019

For me, these suggestions didn’t solve. i’m using vs2019 - “Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design” Version=“3.0.0”

renatoflambert on Sep 28, 2019

Reinstall Install-Package Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Utils

werslybardales on Jun 1, 2020

Thanks @Lukkian , that worked for me !!!

Downgrading “Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design” from 3.0.0 to 2.2.4 resolved the issue for me. VS2019, AspNet Core 2.2

syedadeeliqbal on Oct 29, 2019

@Lukkian Your solution worked for me as well!! Thanks

CaptainDeadcode on Oct 16, 2019

I found that originally the reference <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design" Version="3.1.0" ExcludeAssets="all" /> has ExcludeAssets="all". I added it manually because of How to stop the localized Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.*.resources.dll files from getting published by ASP.NET Core? problem. That should be my original problem. Remove this reference then add again solves.

ChrisTorng on Jul 21, 2020