Macro Parameters syntax

What is Macro parameters?

A macro parameter is in short a value you send to a Macro from Umbraco. This could be piece of text, a node ID or even a big chunk of xml. To do this you have a handfull of different form controls you can use:

• bool - A true/false value
• contentPicker - the ID of the selected node as a single integer.
• contentRandom - the xml from a random node.
• contentTree - the xml of the selected node and it's child nodes
• contentType - the alias of a selected content type as a string
• contentTypeMultiple - a comma separated list of selected content type aliases
• mediaCurrent - the xml of the selected media item
• numer - an integer
• propertyTypePicker - the alias of the selected property type
• propertyTypePickerMultiple - a comma separated list of selected property type aliases
• tabPicker - the caption of the selected tab
• tabPickerMultiple - a comma separated list of selected tab captions
• text - a text string
• textMultiline - a text string.
  

Let's continue and look at how you use macro parameters with an xslt macro and what they look like in your xslt.

Setting up a macro parameter

First let's create a simple xslt script which will have 2 simple parameters, a text string and a contentTree type - to recap: A text type is a simple string and a contentTree type is the xml of a selected node.

• Adding the parameters
• Create a xslt macro
• Look under the "parameters" tab on the macro settings screen.
• Create a new parameter the alias "text" name "Text property" and type "text"
• Create a second parameter called "contentTree" with the name "Select Node" and the type "contentTree

Writing some basic xslt

Okey so now we have a macro with some parameters. Lets get these parameters into the xslt.

Our Xslt code (without the stylesheet info):

<xsl:template match="/">
  <xsl:copy-of select="/macro/text">
  <xsl:copy-of select="/macro/contentTree">
</xsl:template>

Inserting the macro on a template

Write some text and pick a node in the content tree by clicking "choose item" - then save. Go take a look at the page in your browser (try viewing the source of the page to see what it actually returns)

Great, you're done with setting up parameters and getting the data into a xslt macro. Let's continue and look at what that data actually look like and how it actually works...

Working with parameters in xslt

Okey so sofar we've setup a simple xslt script, added 2 parameters and picked some simple data for the parameters when we inserted the macro in a template.

So what does the 2 parameters return?

The <xsl:copy-of select="/macro/text" /> returns:

<text>Hello World</text>

The <xsl:copy-of select="/macro/contentTree" /> returns:

<contentTree nodeID="1053">
<node id="1053" version="a1e061ab-3109-4690-9374-bd0f05882e9b"
parentID="1052" level="2" writerID="0" creatorID="0"
nodeType="1044" template="1043" sortOrder="1"
createDate="2005-12-30T14:01:21" updateDate="2007-06-21T14:06:32"
nodeName="About" urlName="about" writerName="Administrator"
creatorName="Administrator" nodeTypeAlias="wwTextpage"
path="-1,1052,1053">
<data alias="bodyText">Body text...</data>
<data alias="header">My Header text...</data>
</node>
</contentTree>

So as you can see: the text parameter simple sends the text string we entered to the macro and the contentTree paramater sends a big chunk of xml describing the node we selected. If the node had any child nodes these would also be send to the xslt macro as xml.

Explaining how the parameters are send to the macro

When you setup a macro parameter for a xslt macro. You basicly tell umbraco to send some xml to the xslt script. This xml looks something like this:

<macro>
<parameteralias1>Value</parameteralias1>
<parameteralias2>Value</parameteralias2>
</macro>

So with this infomation along with some basic xpath we can query the xml from the parameters. which is what are doing with "/macro/text" which will get the value from the "text" parameter and the "/macro/contentTree" which will get the value of the parameter with the alias "contentTree" we could then go on a do some basic xpath work on the contentTree macro to return the selected nodes name like this:

<xsl:value-of select="/macro/contentTree/node/nodeName"/>

or get it's bodyText value with

<xsl:value-of select="/macro/contentTree/node/data [@alias = 'bodyText'"/>

Okey so now we are able to define parameters, input some data, get the data to the xslt and work with it in the xslt file. Let's continue to take a look at all the different types of parameters and what they look like in xslt