# Using Angular with Visual Studio 2015

{@a top}

Some developers prefer Visual Studio as their Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

This cookbook describes the steps required to set up and use Angular app files in Visual Studio 2015 within an ASP.NET 4.x project.

<div class="alert is-helpful">



There is no *live example* for this cookbook because it describes Visual Studio, not 
the Angular application itself. It uses the starter Angular application created by the CLI command [`ng new`](cli/new) as an example. 


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{@a asp-net-4}

## ASP.NET 4.x Project

To set up the Getting Started files with an **ASP.NET 4.x project** in
Visual Studio 2015, follow these steps:

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If you prefer a `File | New Project` experience and are using **ASP.NET Core**, 
then consider the _experimental_
<a href="http://blog.stevensanderson.com/2016/10/04/angular2-template-for-visual-studio/">ASP.NET Core + Angular template for Visual Studio 2015</a>. 
Note that the resulting code does not map to the docs. Adjust accordingly.   


</div>




<h2 id='prereq1'>
  Prerequisite: Node.js
</h2>



Install **[Node.js® and npm](https://nodejs.org/en/download/)**
if they are not already on your machine.
See [Local Environment Setup](guide/setup-local "Setting up for Local Development") for supported versions and instructions. 






<h2 id='prereq2'>
  Prerequisite: Visual Studio 2015 Update 3
</h2>



The minimum requirement for developing Angular applications with Visual Studio is Update 3.
Earlier versions do not follow the best practices for developing applications with TypeScript.
To view your version of Visual Studio 2015, go to `Help | About Visual Studio`.

If you don't have it, install **[Visual Studio 2015 Update 3](https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/news/releasenotes/vs2015-update3-vs)**.
Or use `Tools | Extensions and Updates` to update to Update 3 directly from Visual Studio 2015.



<h2 id='prereq3'>
  Prerequisite: Configure External Web tools
</h2>



Configure Visual Studio to use the global external web tools instead of the tools that ship with Visual Studio:

  * Open the **Options** dialog with `Tools` | `Options`.
  * In the tree on the left, select `Projects and Solutions` | `External Web Tools`.
  * On the right, move the `$(PATH)` entry above the `$(DevEnvDir`) entries. This tells Visual Studio to
    use the external tools (such as npm) found in the global path before using its own version of the external tools.
  * Click OK to close the dialog.
  * Restart Visual Studio for this change to take effect.

Visual Studio now looks first for external tools in the current workspace and 
if it doesn't find them, it looks in the global path. If Visual Studio doesn't 
find them in either location, it will use its own versions of the tools.



<h2 id='prereq4'>
  Prerequisite: Install TypeScript for Visual Studio 2015
</h2>



While Visual Studio Update 3 ships with TypeScript support out of the box, it currently doesn’t ship with more recent versions of TypeScript, which you need to develop Angular applications.

To install the latest version of TypeScript:

 * Download and install the latest [TypeScript for Visual Studio 2015](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48593),

 * OR install it with npm: `npm install -g typescript@latest`.

You can find out more about TypeScript support in Visual Studio **[here](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/typescript/announcing-typescript-3-1/)**.

At this point, Visual Studio is ready. It’s a good idea to close Visual Studio and 
restart it to make sure everything is clean.



<h2 id='download'>
  Step 1: Create a starter Angular app
</h2>

 
 Follow the instructions in [Local Environment Setup](guide/setup-local "Setting up for Local Development") to create a starter Angular app using the CLI command [`ng new`](cli/new). 

 



<h2 id='create-project'>
  Step 2: Create the Visual Studio ASP.NET project
</h2>



Create the ASP.NET 4.x project in the usual way as follows:

* In Visual Studio, select `File` | `New` | `Project` from the menu.
* In the template tree, select `Templates` | `Visual C#` (or `Visual Basic`) | `Web`.
* Select the `ASP.NET Web Application` template, give the project a name, and click OK.
* Select the desired ASP.NET 4.5.2 template and click OK.


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This cookbook uses the `Empty` template with no added folders, 
no authentication, and no hosting. Pick the template and options appropriate for your project.


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<h2 id='copy'>
  Step 3: Copy the Angular project files into the ASP.NET project folder
</h2>

Copy files from the starter Angular app into the folder containing the `.csproj` file.
Include the files in the Visual Studio project as follows:

* Click the `Show All Files` button in Solution Explorer to reveal all of the hidden files in the project.
* Right-click on each folder/file to be included in the project and select `Include in Project`.
  Minimally, include the following folder/files:

  * src/app folder (answer *No*  if asked to search for TypeScript Typings)
  * src/styles.css
  * src/index.html
  * package.json
  * src/tsconfig.json
  


<h2 id='restore'>
  Step 4: Restore the required packages
</h2>



Restore the packages required for an Angular application as follows:

* Right-click on the `package.json` file in Solution Explorer and select `Restore Packages`.
  <br>This uses `npm` to install all of the packages defined in the `package.json` file. 
  It may take some time.
* If desired, open the Output window (`View` | `Output`) to watch the npm commands execute.
* Ignore the warnings.
* When the restore is finished, a message in the bottom message bar of Visual Studio 
  should say: `Installing packages complete`. Be patient. This could take a while.
* Click the `Refresh` icon in Solution Explorer.
* **Do not** include the `node_modules` folder in the project. Let it be a hidden project folder.



<h2 id='build-and-run'>
  Step 5: Build and run the app
</h2>



First, ensure that `src/index.html` is set as the start page.
Right-click `index.html` in Solution Explorer and select option `Set As Start Page`.

### To run in VS with F5

Most Visual Studio developers like to press the F5 key and see the IIS server come up. 
To use the IIS server with the Getting Started app, you must make the following three changes. 

1. In `index.html`, change base href from `<base href="/">` to `<base href="/src/">`.
2. Also in `index.html`, change  the scripts to use `/node_modules` with a slash 
instead of `node_modules` without the slash. 
3. In `src/systemjs.config.js`, near the top of the file, 
change the npm `path` to `/node_modules/` with a slash.


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After these changes, `npm start` no longer works.
You must choose to configure _either_ for F5 with IIS _or_ for  `npm start` with the lite-server.


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### For apps that use routing

If your app uses routing, you need to teach the server to always return 
`index.html` when the user asks for an HTML page
for reasons explained in the [Deployment](guide/deployment#fallback) guide.

Everything seems fine while you move about _within_ the app. 
But you'll see the problem right away if you refresh the browser
or paste a link to an app page (called a "deep link") into the browser address bar.

You'll most likely get a *404 - Page Not Found* response from the server
for any address other than `/` or `/index.html`.

You have to configure the server to return `index.html` for requests to these "unknown" pages.
The `lite-server` development server does out-of-the-box.
If you've switched over to F5 and IIS, you have to configure IIS to do it.
This section walks through the steps to adapt the Getting Started application.

#### Configure IIS rewrite rules

Visual Studio ships with IIS Express, which has the rewrite module baked in. 
However, if you're using regular IIS you'll have to install the rewrite 
module.  

Tell Visual Studio how to handle requests for route app pages by adding these 
rewrite rules near the bottom of the `web.config`:


<code-example format='.'>
  &lt;system.webServer&gt;
    &lt;rewrite&gt;
      &lt;rules&gt;
        &lt;rule name="Angular Routes" stopProcessing="true"&gt;
          &lt;match url=".*" /&gt;
          &lt;conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll"&gt;
            &lt;add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" /&gt;
            &lt;add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" /&gt;
          &lt;/conditions&gt;
          &lt;action type="Rewrite" url="/src/" /&gt;
        &lt;/rule&gt;
      &lt;/rules&gt;
    &lt;/rewrite&gt;
  &lt;/system.webServer&gt;

</code-example>



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The match url, `<match url=".*" />`, will rewrite every request. You'll have to adjust this if 
you want some requests to get through, such as web API requests. 

The URL in `<action type="Rewrite" url="/src/"/>` should 
match the base href in `index.html`.


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Build and launch the app with debugger by clicking the **Run** button or by pressing `F5`.


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It's faster to run without the debugger by pressing `Ctrl-F5`.

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The default browser opens and displays the Getting Started sample application.

Try editing any of the project files. Save and refresh the browser to
see the changes.