Managing Projects and Solutions

Supported project types

• .NET class libraries, console applications (C#, F#, VB.NET)
• ASP.NET MVC applications
• .NET shared projects
• .NET Core projects
• xUnit, NUnit test projects
• Xamarin Android applications
• Xamarin iOS

Opening existing projects and solutions

To open an existing project or solution, choose the corresponding item on the welcome screen. If Rider is already running, press Ctrl+Shift+O or choose File | Open | Solution or Project..., or alternatively, choose one of the resent solutions under File | Open Recent.
Rider will generate an .sln file and an .xproj file if necessary.

Rider also allows opening a project from source control. It can, for example, log in to GitHub, and clone a repo to the local file system. Once done, it will prompt to open the folder.

When opening a.NET Core project, Rider will automatically restore all packages. Rider will also detect the list of target frameworks from.sproj, and display them in a chooser in the status bar. Selecting the current target framework sets the context for the editor — what compiler defines are active, and what packages and assemblies are referenced.

Rider allows opening several solutions simultaneously in different windows. By default, each time you open a solution while another one is opened, it prompts you to choose whether to open the project in the same window or in a new window. If necessary, you can set the default way of opening projects on the Appearance & Behavior | System Settings page of Rider settings (Ctrl+Alt+S).

Creating projects and solutions

You can create a new project in a new solution using File | New... or add a new project to the existing solution by right-clicking the solution or solution folder node in the Solution Explorer, and choosing New | Project

Rider provides a number of templates for creating a new project. The New Project/ New Solution dialog has templates to create an empty project, standard.NET class libraries and applications, as well as test projects. It will also create.NET Core projects, as console applications, testing and class libraries. Simply enter the solution and project name, select a location, and click Create.

Once a project has been created, files can be added or removed by right-clicking on the project node in the Solution Explorer.

Project and assembly references

Rider supports adding references to standard.NET Framework projects by right clicking a project node and selecting Add Reference. The resulting dialog can be searched, just by typing, or the Add From... button can be used to reference a file on disk.

Rider will also add all necessary references when it installs a NuGet package.

This dialog is not available in.NET Core projects. Instead, references should be added by directly editing the.sproj file. Rider will automatically reload the project and restore the new package references. (This dialog does not exist because Microsoft is replacing the project.json file with a traditional.csproj file, at which point, Rider will add the appropriate support).