MSBuild targets are not applied to generated project.assets.json for project references when packaging from Visual Studio 2017

[soen]

Details about Problem

NuGet product used (NuGet.exe | VS UI | Package Manager Console | dotnet.exe):
VS UI

NuGet version (x.x.x.xxx):
4.3.0.4406
4.4.0

dotnet.exe --version (if appropriate):
2.0.0
2.0.2

VS version (if appropriate):
Visual Studio 2017 15.3.5
Visual Studio 2017 15.4.0

OS version (i.e. win10 v1607 (14393.321)):
win10 (10.0.15063 Build 15063)

Worked before? If so, with which NuGet version:
N/A

Detailed repro steps so we can see the same problem

1. Open the sample project TestSetVersion.zip

2. Pack the project named ProjectC from VS, by right-clicking on the project in the Solution Explorer and selecting Pack

3. Once packed, open the file TestSetVersion\ProjectC\bin\Debug\ProjectC.1.2.3-r12345.nupkg (i.e. using NuGet Package Explorer)

4. Verify that the package contains two dependencies with the following versions; ProjectA >= 1.2.3.r12345 and ProjectB >= 1.2.3.r12345

5. Remove the \bin and \obj output folders from TestSetVersion\ProjectC\

6. Open the file TestSetVersion\Directory.Build.props, and comment out the target named BeforeGenerateNuspec

7. Pack the project named ProjectC from VS

8. Once packed, open the file TestSetVersion\ProjectC\bin\Debug\ProjectC.1.2.3-r12345.nupkg (i.e. using NuGet Package Explorer)

9. Verify that the package contains two dependencies with the following (incorrect) versions; ProjectA >= 1.0.0 and ProjectB >= 1.0.0

Based on the above it seems that when a project (ProjectC) is referencing other projects (ProjectA and ProjectB), in the same solution, the versions of the referenced projects will not be set to the version provided by the given SetVersion target. This behaviour only seem to occur when packaging the project from inside VS, as calling either MSBuild (msbuild \t:restore \t:pack) or the .NET Core CLI (dotnet pack) directly will produce a package for ProjectC that contains dependencies to ProjectA and ProjectB with the version set via the SetVersion target.

It is expected that the file project.assets.json is generated with the correct version for the project it belongs to, and also with correct versions for PackageReferences.

Do note that the target BeforeGenerateNuspec and the inline task FixProjectAssetsJson is indeed a workaround, since it is not fully clear how to use MSBuild targets, since the Restore Target from NuGet doesn’t seem to be executed from VS, and there seems to be no clear public targets available for before or after generating the project.assets.json file.

[jainaashish]

even project.assets.json also has 1.0.0 version for both packageA and packageB and if i'm not wrong pack is picking these versions for dependencies. I think SetVersion is not being called with target.

@emgarten do you have any comment here?

[emgarten]

Duplicate of #4790