How do I solve a "view not found" exception in asp.net core mvc project

Question

I'm trying to create a ASP.NET Core MVC test app running on OSX using VS Code. I'm getting a 'view not found' exception when accessing the default Home/index (or any other views I tried).

This is the Startup configuration

    public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app) {

        // use for development
        app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
        app.UseDefaultFiles();
        app.UseStaticFiles();

        app.UseMvc( routes => {
            routes.MapRoute(
                name: "default",
                template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}"
            );
        });
    }

And I have the view defined in Views/Home/index.cshtml, and I have the following packages included on project.json

"dependencies": {
"Microsoft.NETCore.App": {
  "version": "1.0.0-rc2-3002702",
  "type": "platform"
},
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Razor.Tools" : "1.0.0-preview1-final",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics": "1.0.0-rc2-final",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc": "1.0.0-rc2-final",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration": "1.0.0-rc2-final",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.Kestrel": "1.0.0-rc2-final",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.StaticFiles": "1.0.0-rc2-final",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Routing": "1.0.0-rc2-final"
},

And finally, this is the exception I get.

System.InvalidOperationException: The view 'Index' was not found. The following locations were searched:
    /Views/Home/Index.cshtml
    /Views/Shared/Index.cshtml
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewEngines.ViewEngineResult.EnsureSuccessful(IEnumerable`1 originalLocations)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewResult.<ExecuteResultAsync>d__26.MoveNext()
    --- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown --- ...

Any suggestions of what I might be missing ?

Answer 1

In my case, the build action was somehow changed to Embedded resource which is not included in published files.

Changing Embedded resource to Content resolves my issue.

Answer 2

I found this missing piece. I ended up creating a ASP.NET Core project in VS2015 and then compare for differences. It turns out I was missing .UseContentRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()) from WebHostBuilder in main.

After adding this:

public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    new WebHostBuilder()
        .UseKestrel()
        .UseContentRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
        .UseStartup<Startup>()
        .Build()
        .Run();
}

I then got an exception regarding missing preserveCompilationContext. Once added in project.json my view shows correct.

"buildOptions": {
    "preserveCompilationContext": true,
    "emitEntryPoint": true
},

Answer 3

Check your .csproj file. Make sure your file(s) are not listed like:

<ItemGroup>
   <Content Remove="Views\Extractor\Insert.cshtml" />
   <Content Remove="Views\_ViewImports.cshtml" />
</ItemGroup>

If it is listed like above, remove the ones you need. Sometimes, that happens when we do right click and change build setting to Compile.