Auto reload for ASP.NET core development

DevReload

Live reload for ASP.NET core development.

Install

dotnet add package Abiosoft.DotNet.DevReload --version 0.1.4

Usage

Use the middleware. Usually in Startup.cs

using Abiosoft.DotNet.DevReload;

...
public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IWebHostEnvironment env)
{
    if (env.IsDevelopment())
    {
        app.UseDevReload();
    }
...
}

Then, add the tag helper to your main layout file.

@addTagHelper *, Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.TagHelpers
@addTagHelper *, Abiosoft.DotNet.DevReload

...

<environment include="Development">
    <devreload></devreload>
</environment>

And that's all. Just use dotnet watch run and your browser will auto reload.

How

DevReload monitors the ASP.NET app by long polling a REST endpoint and monitor static files with FileSystemWatcher.

Configure

You can modify the directories and file extensions for static files only.

Note that live editing of cshtml files may require Razor Runtime Compilation service.

app.UseDevReload(new DevReloadOptions
{
    Directory = ".",
    IgnoredSubDirectories = new string[] { ".git", ".node_modules" },
    StaticFileExtensions = new string[] { "cshtml", "css", "js", "html" },
});

Demonstration