Using custom enum select picker for Wiki Macro parameters

There might be cases where you want to display a Wiki Macro parameter as a select picker. However, the enum custom picker can only be called from a java macro, from where you can pass the enum class object (which is not possible from a Wiki Macro point of view as you can only specify parameter types with Strings).

Hopefully, it is actually possible to use enums as Wiki Macro parameters, but this require a little bit more work.

Here is, for example, how to implement a custom Ascending / Descending select picker for a sort order parameter.

Step 1: Java enum

Write your custom java enum:

Then bundle it as a jar, and import it in your instance (by manually placing it in the WEB-INF/lib directory, or using the extension manager).

Step 2: Custom displayer vm

We need to forward the display of the parameter picker to the enum displayer.

In the skin of your instance, add a html_displayer/SortOrderEnum/edit.vm vm customization with the following code:

Step 3: Wiki Macro parameter type

Simply set your parameter type to your.enum.package.SortOrderEnum

You should now have your macro parameter picker as a select!

Step 4 (optional): Translations

By defaut, enum keys are displayed capitalized in the select, so "ASCENDING" would become "Ascending" (and underscores "_" would also become whitespace " " ).

In case you need the enum keys to be translated, you can create a page with a XWiki.TranslationDocumentClass object, where the translation keys are your enum full name concatenated with the enum value: