I'm trying to implement some custom routing following this post by Shannon. In my case I have venues stored outside of the content tree but want to offer the ability to view venues via the route /venues/venue/venue-name.

The problem I am having is in regards to UmbracoContext.PageId being null which is causing exceptions in the views that my View uses for layout.

My controller is as follows:

  public class VenueController : PluginController
  {
    public VenueController() : this(UmbracoContext.Current)
    {
    }

    public VenueController(UmbracoContext umbracoContext): base(umbracoContext)
    {
    }

    public ActionResult Venue(string id)
    {
      var criteria = ExamineManager.Instance.DefaultSearchProvider.CreateSearchCriteria("content");
      var filter = criteria.NodeTypeAlias("Venue");
      if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(id))
        filter.And().Field("urlName", id);

      var result = Umbraco.TypedSearch(filter.Compile()).ToArray();

      return View("Venue", CreateRenderModel(result.First()));
    }

    private RenderModel CreateRenderModel(IPublishedContent content)
    {
      var model = new RenderModel(content, CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture);

      //add an umbraco data token so the umbraco view engine executes
      RouteData.DataTokens["umbraco"] = model;

      return model;
    }
  }
}

The parent views contain macros which result in exceptions such as "Cannot render a macro when UmbracoContext.PageId is null." when I try to render my Venue view. Am I approaching this wrong? Have things changed since the blog post?

The ste is running Umbraco v6.1.6.