Property DashboardPath: The path to the Aspire Dashboard binaries is missing

[mmisztal1980]

I'm attempting to add Aspire to my OSS project, to see if it can help with some productivity issues I'm facing.

• I've added the Aspire .AppHost & .ServiceDefaults project(s) to the solution.

My immediate observations are:

• Projects namespace is being generated but only contains generated code for the .AppHost project . I have no idea how to ensure other executables to be strongly typed from that namespace.
• I've had to resort to the non-generic AddProject method:

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

builder.AddProject(
  name: "hive-microservices-demo-api",
  projectPath: @"../Hive.MicroServices.Demo.Api/Hive.MicroServices.Demo.Api.csproj");

builder.Build().Run();

• The .AppHost doesn't start.

/Users/mmisztal/Checkout/@cloud-tek/hive/hive.microservices/demo/Hive.MicroServices.Demo.Aspire.AppHost/bin/Debug/net8.0/Hive.MicroServices.Demo.Aspire.AppHost
Unhandled exception. System.AggregateException: One or more errors occurred. (Property DashboardPath: The path to the Aspire Dashboard binaries is missing.)
 ---> Microsoft.Extensions.Options.OptionsValidationException: Property DashboardPath: The path to the Aspire Dashboard binaries is missing.
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Options.OptionsFactory`1.Create(String name)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Options.UnnamedOptionsManager`1.get_Value()
   at Aspire.Hosting.Dashboard.ConfigureDefaultDashboardOptions.Configure(DashboardOptions options) in /_/src/Aspire.Hosting/Dashboard/DashboardOptions.cs:line 24
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Options.OptionsFactory`1.Create(String name)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Options.UnnamedOptionsManager`1.get_Value()
   at Aspire.Hosting.Dashboard.DashboardLifecycleHook.AddDashboardResource(DistributedApplicationModel model) in /_/src/Aspire.Hosting/Dashboard/DashboardLifecycleHook.cs:line 77
   at Aspire.Hosting.Dashboard.DashboardLifecycleHook.BeforeStartAsync(DistributedApplicationModel model, CancellationToken cancellationToken) in /_/src/Aspire.Hosting/Dashboard/DashboardLifecycleHook.cs:line 46
   at Aspire.Hosting.DistributedApplication.ExecuteBeforeStartHooksAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken) in /_/src/Aspire.Hosting/DistributedApplication.cs:line 353
   at Aspire.Hosting.DistributedApplication.RunAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken) in /_/src/Aspire.Hosting/DistributedApplication.cs:line 309
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.ThrowIfExceptional(Boolean includeTaskCanceledExceptions)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Wait(Int32 millisecondsTimeout, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Wait()
   at Aspire.Hosting.DistributedApplication.Run() in /_/src/Aspire.Hosting/DistributedApplication.cs:line 338
   at Program.<Main>$(String[] args) in /Users/mmisztal/Checkout/@cloud-tek/hive/hive.microservices/demo/Hive.MicroServices.Demo.Aspire.AppHost/Program.cs:line 7

Process finished with exit code 134.

I realize it's preview, but it doesn't seem like I'm trying to achieve rocket-science here.
Can anyone explain what am I missing?

[davidfowl]

I'd suggest using the project templates. I'm not sure how you made the apphost project, but it looks like its missing all of the required settings from launchSettings to make it run.

Projects namespace is being generated but only contains generated code for the .AppHost project . I have no idea how to ensure other executables to be strongly typed from that namespace.

Add a project reference to the AppHost project and it will generate the strongly typed references.

The documentation has a tutorial for how to add aspire to your existing application:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/aspire/get-started/add-aspire-existing-app

[mmisztal1980]

Hi @davidfowl thanks for the response.
The Aspire projects were added using Rider.

I'll lookup the link you've provided

[RichJacobs]

Hey @davidfowl, I've cloned the sample repo and just trying to run the Metrics sample following the readme instructions. I face the same issue as the original poster.

builder.AddProject<Projects.MetricsApp>("app")

This caused a compilation error:

The type or namespace name 'MetricsApp' does not exist in the namespace 'Projects' (are you missing an assembly reference?) MetricsApp.AppHost

So I changed it to

builder.AddProject("app", @"..\MetricsApp\MetricsApp.csproj")

The code now compiles but I get this error below.

Microsoft.Extensions.Options.OptionsValidationException: 'Property DashboardPath: The path to the Aspire Dashboard binaries is missing.'

Microsoft.Extensions.Options.OptionsValidationException
  HResult=0x80131500
  Message=Property DashboardPath: The path to the Aspire Dashboard binaries is missing.
  Source=Microsoft.Extensions.Options
  StackTrace:
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Options.OptionsFactory`1.Create(String name) in Microsoft.Extensions.Options\OptionsFactory.cs:line 61
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Options.UnnamedOptionsManager`1.get_Value() in Microsoft.Extensions.Options\UnnamedOptionsManager.cs:line 25
   at Aspire.Hosting.Dashboard.ConfigureDefaultDashboardOptions.Configure(DashboardOptions options) in /_/src/Aspire.Hosting/Dashboard/DashboardOptions.cs:line 24
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Options.OptionsFactory`1.Create(String name) in Microsoft.Extensions.Options\OptionsFactory.cs:line 39
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Options.UnnamedOptionsManager`1.get_Value() in Microsoft.Extensions.Options\UnnamedOptionsManager.cs:line 25
   at Aspire.Hosting.Dashboard.DashboardLifecycleHook.AddDashboardResource(DistributedApplicationModel model) in /_/src/Aspire.Hosting/Dashboard/DashboardLifecycleHook.cs:line 77
   at Aspire.Hosting.Dashboard.DashboardLifecycleHook.BeforeStartAsync(DistributedApplicationModel model, CancellationToken cancellationToken) in /_/src/Aspire.Hosting/Dashboard/DashboardLifecycleHook.cs:line 46
   at Aspire.Hosting.DistributedApplication.<ExecuteBeforeStartHooksAsync>d__13.MoveNext() in /_/src/Aspire.Hosting/DistributedApplication.cs:line 353
   at Aspire.Hosting.DistributedApplication.<RunAsync>d__11.MoveNext() in /_/src/Aspire.Hosting/DistributedApplication.cs:line 309
   at Program.<<Main>$>d__0.MoveNext() in C:\Dev\GitHub\aspire-samples\samples\Metrics\MetricsApp.AppHost\Program.cs:line 18
   at Program.<Main>(String[] args)

I will have a look at the links you sent above to see if it helps to resolve it but if you have any ideas too, that would be great :-)

[davidfowl]

You shouldn’t have to change the samples to make it work. Do you have the aspire workload installed?

[RichJacobs]

Wonderful! That's worked a treat! Yep, I did not have workload installed (🤦). Thanks again