Creating a .NET Core Project

You create a project for a COBOL application that will be deployed to .NET Core in essentially the same way that you create a project for any other COBOL application; the only difference is in the project template that you use. For a COBOL application that is to be deployed to .NET Core you must use one of the templates that are under Installed > COBOL > .NET Core in the New Project dialog box.

Note: The project templates for .NET Core are not installed automatically with Visual COBOL. If the .NET Core option does not appear as expected under Installed > COBOL, you must install them before proceeding. See To install missing features from the IDE for instructions.

To create a .NET Core project

  1. Click File > New > Project.
  2. Type cobol in the Search field.

    Only COBOL-specific templates are listed.

  3. Select Console App (.NET Core) or Class Library (.NET Core) as appropriate.
    Note: If there are no Console App (.NET Core) or Class Library (.NET Core) options you need to install Visual Studio's ".NET Core cross-platform development" component. See the .NET Core section of Additional Software Requirements for more information.
  4. Click Next.
  5. In the Project name field, type a name for the project.
  6. In the Location field, browse to the directory in which to store the project.
  7. Click Create.
Note: The project is created to target .NET Core 2.1. If you have installed a different version of the .NET Core SDK and want the project to create a COBOL application for deployment to a version of .NET Core other than 2.1 you can specify the different version using Target framework in the project's properties.