Publishing ASP.Net Core Fails with NullReferenceException

Question

I have built a relatively simple ASP.Net Core web application that uses Angular 2 & bootstrap for the front end and WebApi as the back end.

I am able to build and run my application locally (to IIS Express) and it works just fine, however, when I attempt to use the Build -> Publish menu I encounter a NullReferenceExceptionError that is terrible unhelpful. Here is the output when I run Publish:

1>------ Publish started: Project: MyProject, Configuration: Release Any CPU ------
Connecting to C:\ProjectDir\MyProject\./bin/Release/PublishTest...
rmdir /S /Q "C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Temp\PublishTemp\MyProject86\"
Environment variables:
Path=%PATH%;.\node_modules\.bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Web\External;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Web\External\git
C:\Program Files\dotnet\dotnet.exe publish "C:\ProjectDir\MyProject" --framework net452 --output "C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Temp\PublishTemp\MyProject86" --configuration Release --no-build
Publishing MyProject for .NETFramework,Version=v4.5.2/win7-x64
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v14.0\DotNet\Microsoft.DotNet.Publishing.targets(149,5): Error : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

1>Publish failed due to build errors. Check the error list for more details.
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 0 failed, 3 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========
========== Publish: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 skipped ==========

I have attempted to do a FileSystem publish to both a directory on a server running IIS as well as just a local directory, and I get the same output in both of these instances.

I have cleaned my solution, rebuilt, and restarted Visual Studio just in case it had been in a bad state. I've created a few different publish profiles just to make certain that something wasn't misconfigured with that (some of them were created after the restart of VS2015, as well).

In addition I made sure to update VS2015 after I started having this problem, and I am now running version 14.0.25425.01 Update 3. I also have the latest web tools installed.

Here is my project.json file:

{
    "dependencies": {
        "Microsoft.NETCore.App": {
            "version": "1.0.0-rc2-3002702",
            "type": "platform"
        },
        "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.Mvc.ViewFeatures": "1.0.0-rc2-final",
        "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc": "1.0.0-rc2-final"
    },

    "tools": {
        "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration.Tools": {
            "version": "1.0.0-preview1-final",
            "imports": "portable-net45+win8+dnxcore50"
        }
    },

    "frameworks": {
        "net452": {
            "imports": [
                "dotnet5.6",
                "dnxcore50",
                "portable-net45+win8"
            ],
            "dependencies": {
                "aDependency": {
                    "target": "project"
                }
            }
        }
    },

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

    "runtimeOptions": {
        "gcServer": true
    },

    "publishOptions": {
        "include": [
            "wwwroot",
            "web.config"
        ]
    },

    "scripts": {
        "postpublish": [ "dotnet publish-iis --publish-folder %publish:OutputPath% --framework %publish:FullTargetFramework%" ]
    }
}

I've been searching for anyone else having this issue and I believe I found one or two other places where this seems to have been encountered but I haven't found anyone that has replied with a solution or even a theory to what is happening exactly. Any help, theories, or leads would be appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

EDIT: As suggested in the comments I created a new ASP.NET Core application since 1.0.0 was released and took a look at the differences. It worked and I feel silly for missing this, anyway, for anyone else who runs into this (albeit temporally limited) issue, here's the fixed project.json file:

{
    "dependencies": {
        "Microsoft.NETCore.App": {
            "version": "1.0.0",
            "type": "platform"
        },
        "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics": "1.0.0",
        "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration": "1.0.0",
        "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.Kestrel": "1.0.0",
        "Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console": "1.0.0",
        "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures": "1.0.0",
        "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc": "1.0.0",
        "Microsoft.AspNetCore.StaticFiles": "1.0.0"
    },

    "tools": {
        "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration.Tools": "1.0.0-preview2-final"
    },

    "frameworks": {
        "netcoreapp1.0": {
            "imports": [
                "dotnet5.6",
                "dnxcore50",
                "portable-net45+win8"
            ],
            "dependencies": {
                "aDependency": {
                    "target": "project"
                }
            }
        }
    },

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

    "runtimeOptions": {
        "configProperties": {
            "System.GC.Server": true
        }
    },

    "publishOptions": {
        "include": [
            "wwwroot",
            "web.config"
        ]
    },

    "scripts": {
        "postpublish": [ "dotnet publish-iis --publish-folder %publish:OutputPath% --framework %publish:FullTargetFramework%" ]
    }
}

Answer 1

I think you should update your app from RC2 to 1.0.0 and you may want to create a new web app with 1.0.0 and the latest tooling/vs project templates from dot.net then compare the project.json and startup code to your existing app and update the existing app