Automatic project/NuGet reference resolution with new proj files?

TL;DR:

I used to be able to reference a package and, depending on build environment (global.json with all of the project’s references present and referred to therein / just the project standalone), have it resolve as the local project or a NuGet package. Was this a casualty of the move back to msbuild?

Steps to reproduce

1. Have a project.json referencing a package by name
2. Demonstrate that if project is built with project in the context of a larger global.json containing both projects, the local project version is used
3. Demonstrate that if the project is built in isolation, the reference will be resolved via NuGet
4. dotnet migrate
5. Build in situations from 2 and 3 again

Expected behavior

• When referenced project present, resolved locally
• When referenced project not present, resolved from NuGet

Actual behavior

• Explicit ProjectReference OR PackageReference nodes generated in proj file

Environment data

dotnet --info output:

.NET Command Line Tools (1.0.2)

Product Information:
 Version:            1.0.2
 Commit SHA-1 hash:  54743c8b7b

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.14393
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\1.0.2

[livarcocc]

@eerhardt @dsplaisted do you guys have any idea if this is possible in MSBuild.

I am not aware of any way to do that in MSBuild. And like I said above, this is something that we explicitly do not support in MSBuild world. I will close the issue to indicate that. But maybe the people above know of a way to achieve something like this in the new project system.

[livarcocc]

If I understand your ask correct, you wanted your reference to be resolved automatically as a project reference or as a package reference.

If that’s correct, this is something that we do not support in csproj. In csproj, you have to be explicit about whether your reference is a Project or a Package by using either ProjectReference or PackageReference.