[SOLVED] How to convert a VB.Net project to .NetCore

How to convert a VB.Net project to .NetCore

How to convert my vb.net project into .NetCore .

I have used .NET Portability Analyzer extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace and it shows most of the solutions have more than 90% portability.

.NetCore supports VB and I assume no code change is required for conversion. But I didn't get any option to convert my vb project to .NetCore .My project is in .Net Framework 4.5 . Do I need to convert to latest .Net Framework before conversion? Is there any visual studio plugins available for conversion (to .net framework and then to .Net Core)?

Thanks in advance .

Solution

I would recommend updating your project file (.vbproj) to the new format. Here is an example of a netstandard2.0 project file:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <RootNamespace>VbTest</RootNamespace>
    <TargetFramework>netstandard2.0</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Newtonsoft.Json" Version="12.0.2" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <ProjectReference Include="..\ClassLibrary1\ClassLibrary1.vbproj" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

I've typically done this as a manual process when upgrading c# projects.

Easy parts:

All source files are included by default and don't require explicit entries.

Harder parts:

References need to be moved from packages.config to the project file (then delete packages.config).
Project references will also need to be manually moved over to the new format. Can do this by hand in a text editor, or add them using your IDE.