How to fix "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error in Orchard CMS

Question

I'm building an orchard CMS site. Initially, I downloaded the zipped version, but VS complained of the error: "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" in project Markdown.csproj, line 1. This made no sense to me, so I tried installing it from Web Platform installer. That worked great for a while. Then I restarted visual studio after some theme changes and got the original error again. I've attempted to revert the theme changes and tried relaunching VS in admin mode. Still no dice.

I can find absolutely nothing on the subject of Markdown.csproj via google. If anyone has suggestions I'm all ears. Thanks.

Amasa

I just now had the identical problem. I tried creating a new Orchard install (i.e. only stock modules) and launched VS2010 from webmatrix. The attempt to build simply switched to dozens of other problems. I just don't think Orchard was meant to be built that way, and I doubt anybody has. – Dripdry

Answer 1

In case anyone else runs into this, the solution for me was to migrate to orchard 1.4 via the source instead of web platform installer.

Amasa

Can't stress this enough: the Web PI version is NOT for compiling in VS. It's just for running using the built-in dynamic compilation. – Though

Answer 2

1. Create a new project.
2. Move your orchard files to the new project replacing all existing files and folders, except; .cproj file(s), Properties folder.
3. Clean
4. Build

Overseer

Answer 3

Clean you solution and recompile. I have had this happen to me, not with that module specifically, and cleaning up the binaries has solved it for me.

Romeliaromelle