Referencing a web service project from unit testing project: project not in list

Question

Problem: Trying to reference a .NET 2.0 web service project from my VS unit testing project.

Right click on the References folder in the unit test project -> Add Reference. The .NET 2.0 web service is NOT listed in the listbox of projects available to reference.

I know this usecase is possible; I have previously successfully referenced (in other solutions) a .NET 3.5 web service from a .NET 3.5 unit testing project.

The idea is to unit test all the public methods found in the classes alongside my .asmx. I have abstracted away all business logic away from the .asmx file itself into .cs files in a subdirectory in the web service project. So the idea here is to test the classes that perform the business logic, the web service itself (handling an HTTP request).

Configuration:

• Visual Studio 2008
• VS Unit testing project at .NET 3.5 compatibility
• Web service project at .NET 2.0 compatibility
• Solution file at version 9.

Question: Any ideas why Visual Studio 2008 won't let me reference a .NET 2.0 web serivce from a .NET 3.5 unit testing project?

Answer 1

No. Never make a reference directly to the web service project. You want to add a "Web Reference".

Answer 2

This question was a little more narrow that previously described.

The end result was that:

• the web services project was actually a Web Site Project (!) with a single .asmx file. I was stunned to make that realization. Doh!

• The project was re-created from scratch as a Web Service Project. All the logic was moved to an external assembly on John's advice in the comments.