Passing an Archetype as a macro parameter

[outcome]

Hi, thanks for an awesome package :-) We use it a lot in our Umbraco systems and so far only have good things to say. However, I do have a question/feature request. Is it possible to pass an Archetype in as a macro parameter? What I'm trying to do is use Archetype for front page widgets and I have a switch case where the code shows different HTML for different widget types (based on the alias). Then one of my widgets has a nested Archetype and I've been trying to use JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ArchetypeModel> on the string that gets passed to the macro but I always get a conflict with other property editors like the uWestFest Url Picker. Is there a way to tell the macro parameter to expect an Archetype or call the Archetype Value Converter directly?

This is the code I have:

    switch(boxAlias) {
        case "linkBox":
             var boxlinks = box.GetValue("boxLinks");
             @Umbraco.RenderMacro("Quicklinks", new {links = boxlinks})
             break;
    }

And then in the Quicklinks macro I have:

    var links = Model.MacroParameters["links"].ToString();

    ArchetypeModel linksModel = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ArchetypeModel>(links);
    foreach(ArchetypeFieldsetModel link in linksModel) {
        @link.GetValue("linkIcon")
    }

This gives me a null reference error coming from the IsConverter() method of the uWestFest Url picker. Am I doing something wrong or is this just not possible?

Thank you so much, Sunnefa @ Outcome Software

[kgiszewski]

The bad news is I don't use macros anymore so I can't give you much help.

It would appear the PVC are getting called.

Can you confirm the type of 'links' is a string and not something else? (i.e. UrlPicker)

[outcome]

The nested Archetype has three properties, title, icon and url. The url property uses the UrlPicker property editor. The links variable in the macro is indeed a string and everything works right up until this part:

    @link.GetValue("linkIcon")

If I write:

    @link.Alias

everything works just fine. So it seems to have something to do with a property value converter. I ended up just looping over the links in the switch case instead of calling a macro to do it, but that of course ends up making my code a bit cluttered. Do you have any other suggestions as to how I could achieve this functionality? Thank you, Sunnefa

[kgiszewski]

Could you try doing explicit gets?

@link.GetValue<string>("linkIcon")

[outcome]

No, I just tried it and it makes no difference, I still get a null reference error from the Url picker...

[BenFidge]

Out of interest, how did you get archetype to work using it as a macro parameter? I tried adding a package.manifest with isParameterEditor set to ttrue, and it appears in the macro parameter type drop-down list, but selecting it doesnt do anything?

[kgiszewski]

This isn't something we're planning to support.