[Feature]: Use reference to System.Net.Http using framework `Reference` instead of PackageReference

Background and motivation

I hope this is the correct place to raise this.

Currently for .net47 target you are adding reference to System.Net.Http as package dependency:

 <ItemGroup Condition="'$(TargetFramework)' == 'net47'">
    <PackageReference Include="System.Net.Http" Version="4.3.4" />
  </ItemGroup>

According to this issue dot net team advise adding System.Net.Http standard framework reference instead. Just quoting them:

if you’re building a .NET Framework 4.7.2 class library, then you could just add a normal Framework reference to System.Net.Http.

In most cases, we don’t advise people use the separate System.Net.Http NuGet package anymore. See https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/issues/18280 and https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/issues/20777.

The main reason why I am suggesting this change is that VisualStudio resolve 4.7.2 project dependency to System.Net.Http and all its System dependencies by adding references to .net framework installed on local machine instead of project nuget. I think this issue has been raise in multiple place e.g. Broken System.Net.Http 4.1.1-4.3.0 post-mortem . It can also be problematic when you have reference to same assembly with both a single name reference and a package reference. For more details please take a look on Single-name references are removed by the SDK when targeting .NET Framework 4.7.2 and referencing a package with the same assembly

Alternative Concerns

Could you consider changing above to something like:

<ItemGroup Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)' == 'net47' ">
    <Reference Include="System.Net.Http" />
</ItemGroup>

It looks like another few other projects decide to follow this advise e.g. IdentityModel, Microsoft Graph

[jacekmlynek]

sorry, I wasn’t able to answer during the weekend.

@dennisdoomen @AArnott I have take a look at #2122 - looks sensible to me and what is more import, the attached pre-release version solved my issues.

To be honest I do not fully understand why msbuild resolved System.Net.Http reference in this way and why in some projects behaviour is different The only thing that I was able to find suggest that this may be related to bindings in config

I agree that it is insane coincidence 😃

[IT-VBFK]

Fixed with 97cf195?