Gulp VS2015 .Net5

Question

Im trying to learn Gulp and have been unable to successfully run tasks via the Task Run Explorer. No tasks appear and the Explorer shows the error: Failed to load, see output window for more information. When checking the output window it appears that it cant find my project.json.

Failed to run "F:\Projects\NewInventory\src\NewInventory\Gulpfile.js"...
cmd.exe /c gulp --tasks-simple
Error: Cannot find module ' ./project.json'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:338:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:280:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:364:17)
    at require (module.js:380:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (F:\Projects\NewInventory\src\NewInventory\gulpfile.js:12:15)
    at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:364:17)

Failed to run "F:\Projects\NewInventory\src\NewInventory\Gulpfile.js"...
cmd.exe /c gulp --tasks-simple
Error: Cannot find module ' ./project.json'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:338:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:280:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:364:17)
    at require (module.js:380:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (F:\Projects\NewInventory\src\NewInventory\gulpfile.js:12:15)
    at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:364:17)

However, I also created a new .Net5 web application from scratch and compared with my current project to ensure that the project.json was in the correct directory location.

My project.json is as follows:

 "webroot": "wwwroot",
  "userSecretsId": "aspnet5-NewInventory-f5a8bab7-e95b-485b-97e9-9a072438b107",
  "version": "1.0.0-*",

  "dependencies": {
    "EntityFramework.SqlServer": "7.0.0-beta8",
    "EntityFramework.Commands": "7.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc": "6.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc.TagHelpers": "6.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Http.Features": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Http.Abstractions": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Authentication.Cookies": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Authentication.Facebook": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Authentication.Google": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Authentication.MicrosoftAccount": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Authentication.Twitter": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Diagnostics": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Diagnostics.Entity": "7.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Identity.EntityFramework": "3.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.IISPlatformHandler": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Server.Kestrel": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.StaticFiles": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.AspNet.Tooling.Razor": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.Framework.Configuration": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.Framework.Configuration.Abstractions": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.Framework.Configuration.Binder": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.Framework.Configuration.Json": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.Framework.Configuration.UserSecrets": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.Framework.Logging": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.Framework.Logging.Console": "1.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.BrowserLink.Loader": "14.0.0-beta8",
    "Microsoft.Framework.Logging.Debug": "1.0.0-beta8"
  },

  "commands": {
    "web": "Microsoft.AspNet.Server.Kestrel",
    "ef": "EntityFramework.Commands"
  },

  "frameworks": {
    "dnx451": { },
    "dnxcore50": { }
  },

  "exclude": [
    "wwwroot",
    "node_modules",
    "bower_components"
  ],
  "publishExclude": [
    "node_modules",
    "bower_components",
    "**.xproj",
    "**.user",
    "**.vspscc"
  ],
  "scripts": {
    "prepublish": [ "npm install", "bower install", "gulp clean", "gulp min" ]
  },
  "configurations": {
  }
}

Package.json

{
  "name": "ASP.NET",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "devDependencies": {
    "gulp": "3.8.11",
    "gulp-concat": "2.5.2",
    "gulp-cssmin": "0.1.7",
    "gulp-uglify": "1.2.0",
    "gulp-jshint": "1.11.2",
    "rimraf": "2.2.8",
    "del": "2.0.2",
    "gulp-bower": "0.0.10",
    "npm-check-updates": "2.3.2"
  }
}

Gulpfile.js

var gulp = require("gulp"),
    rimraf = require("rimraf"),
    concat = require("gulp-concat"),
    cssmin = require("gulp-cssmin"),
    uglify = require("gulp-uglify"),
    project = require("./project.json");

var bower = require('gulp-bower');
var del = require('del');
var project = require(' ./project.json');
var lib = project.webroot + '/lib';

var paths = {
    webroot: "./" + project.webroot + "/"
};

paths.js = paths.webroot + "js/**/*.js";
paths.minJs = paths.webroot + "js/**/*.min.js";
paths.css = paths.webroot + "css/**/*.css";
paths.minCss = paths.webroot + "css/**/*.min.css";
paths.concatJsDest = paths.webroot + "js/site.min.js";
paths.concatCssDest = paths.webroot + "css/site.min.css";

gulp.task('default', ['bower:install'], function () {
    return;
});

gulp.task('bower:install', ['clean'], function () {
    return bower({
        directory: lib
    });
});

gulp.task('clean', function (done) {
    del(lib, done);
});

gulp.task("clean:js", function (cb) {
    rimraf(paths.concatJsDest, cb);
});

gulp.task("clean:css", function (cb) {
    rimraf(paths.concatCssDest, cb);
});

gulp.task("clean", ["clean:js", "clean:css"]);

gulp.task("min:js", function () {
    gulp.src([paths.js, "!" + paths.minJs], { base: "." })
        .pipe(concat(paths.concatJsDest))
        .pipe(uglify())
        .pipe(gulp.dest("."));
});

gulp.task("min:css", function () {
    gulp.src([paths.css, "!" + paths.minCss])
        .pipe(concat(paths.concatCssDest))
        .pipe(cssmin())
        .pipe(gulp.dest("."));
});

gulp.task("min", ["min:js", "min:css"]);

Answer 1

You can fix the error by removing the line

var project = require(' ./project.json');

The space at the beginning of the path literal means it is not pointing at project.json. There is a line before doing what you need it to do;

var gulp = require("gulp"),
    rimraf = require("rimraf"),
    concat = require("gulp-concat"),
    cssmin = require("gulp-cssmin"),
    uglify = require("gulp-uglify"),
    project = require("./project.json"); <---- This is doing what you expected.