Macro Parameter Editors
A guide to creating macro property editors in Umbraco
The samples in this article has not been verified against the latest version of Umbraco.
Every macro can contain parameters. Options for the Editor to set when they insert the Macro to customise the output. There are some useful default types. For example:
- True/False
- TextBox
- TextArea
- Numeric
- Single/Multiple Media Picker
- Single/Multiple Content Picker
- ... and some 'others'
It is possible to create custom macro parameter types.
To create a custom Macro Parameter Type, first create a custom 'Property Editor' (or copy one from the core). See Property Editors documentation and in the corresponding Package Manifest file for the editor, set the
isParameterEditor
property to be true.{
"propertyEditors": [
{
"alias": "My.ParameterEditorAlias",
"name": "Parameter Editor Name",
"isParameterEditor": true,
"editor": {
"view": "/App_Plugins/My.ParameterEditor/ParameterEditorView.html"
}
}
]
}
However 'Parameter Editors' unlike 'Property Editors' cannot contain 'prevalues', since there is no UI to present configuration options in the Macro Parameter tab when a particular type is chosen. However using the
defaultConfig
option enables the passing of 'one off' default set of configuration for the parameter editor to use:{
"propertyEditors": [
{
"alias": "My.ParameterEditorAlias",
...
"defaultConfig": {
"startNode": "1234",
"minItems": 0,
"maxItems": 6
}
}
]
}
This is only a problem if you have a macro parameter type, that needs to be used on lots of different macros, but with slightly different configurations in each instance.
We'll create an 'Image Position' Macro Parameter type providing a Radio Button list of options for positioning an image that has been inserted via an 'Insert Image' Macro into a Rich Text Editor.
{
"propertyEditors": [
{
"alias": "Our.Umbraco.ImagePosition",
"name": "Image Position",
"isParameterEditor": true,
"editor": {
"view": "/App_Plugins/Our.Umbraco.ImagePosition/ImagePosition.html",
"valueType": "STRING"
}
}
],
"javascript": [
"/App_Plugins/Our.Umbraco.ImagePosition/ImagePosition.controller.js"
]
}
<div ng-controller="Our.Umbraco.ImagePositionController">
<div class="radio" ng-repeat="position in positions" id="selectstatus-{{position.Name}}">
<label>
<input type="radio" name="position" ng-model="model.value" value="{{position.Name}}">{{position.Name}}
</label>
</div>
</div>
angular.module("umbraco").controller("Our.Umbraco.ImagePositionController", function ($scope) {
if ($scope.model.value == null) {
$scope.model.value = 'FullWidth';
}
// could read positions from defaultConfig
$scope.positions = [
{
Name: 'FullWidth'
},
{
Name: 'Left'
},
{
Name: 'Right'
},
{
Name: 'Center'
}
];
});
The final custom parameter should look like this:

Image Position Radio Button Options
In this example it doesn't really add anything to move the radio button options into configuration, however to illustrate the concept of providing defaultConfig, let's do that:
The package manifest becomes:
{
"propertyEditors": [
{
"alias": "Our.Umbraco.ImagePosition",
"name": "Image Position",
"isParameterEditor": true,
"editor": {
"view": "/App_Plugins/Our.Umbraco.ImagePosition/ImagePosition.html",
"valueType": "STRING"
},
"prevalues": {
"fields": [
{
"label": "Options",
"description": "Radio Button Options",
"key": "options",
"view": "textarea"
}
]
},
"defaultConfig": {
"options": [
{
"Name": "FullWidth"
},
{
"Name": "Lefty"
},
{
"Name": "Righty"
},
{
"Name": "Centerish"
}
]
}
}
],
"javascript": [
"/App_Plugins/Our.Umbraco.ImagePosition/ImagePosition.controller.js"
]
}
In the
ImagePosition.controller.js
we can now read the 'options' values from the defaultConfig
in the package.manifest configuration: $scope.positions = $scope.model.config.options;
@using Umbraco.Extensions
@inherits Umbraco.Cms.Web.Common.Macros.PartialViewMacroPage
@{
var imagePosition = Model.MacroParameters["imagePosition"];
//or if for convenience if you are using Umbraco.Extensions namespace there is a GetParameterValue extension method, which allows a default value to be specified if the parameter is not provided:
imagePosition = Model.GetParameterValue<string>("imagePosition","full-width");
}
If your custom property editor doesn't load when your project is deployed, you may need to modify your Runtime Minification Settings. The minified bundle cache may need to be "busted" to get your new code to load. For example, to bust the cache whenever the app is restarted, you can use this configuration:
"Umbraco": {
"CMS": {
"RuntimeMinification": {
"CacheBuster": "AppDomain"
}
}
}
Last modified 4mo ago