PathItemReferenceField resolves to null although link to an item has been set

Question

I have a template representing some rendering parameters. One of the fields on this template is a "general link" field which is supposed to link to an item in the Sitecore tree. I use the Synthesis object mapper framework.

The problem is that although I set a value in this field on my presentation details, the referenced item is null in my controller.

public class BrandController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        // IBrandParametersItem is my template
        var renderingParameters = RenderingContext.CurrentOrNull.Rendering.Parameters.As<IBrandParametersItem>();

        // BrandFolder is the general link field.
        // The BrandFolder property is of type IPathItemReferenceField
        // The brandFolder variable becomes null(!) although the field contains a link in the rendering parameters.
        var brandFolder = renderingParameters.BrandFolder.Target.As<IBrandFolderItem>();

        var brands = brandFolder.Children.Select(brand => brand.As<IBrandItem>()).ToList() ?? new List<IBrandItem>();

        return View(new BrandViewModel
        {
            Brands = brands
        });
    }
}

Looking at the Synthesis code, I have learned that BrandFolder.Target uses the path set in BrandFolder.TargetPath to resolve the item. When I debug, I can see that BrandFolder.TargetPath is set to something like

<link text=\"\" anchor=\"\" linktype=\"internal\" class=\"\" title=\"\" target=\"\"
querystring=\"\" id=\"{F9E446BB-1EF5-4B9D-A99E-446DF05CB208}\" />

So although it seems like the field value is correct(?), BrandFolder.Target still resolves to null. Any ideas?

Answer 1

It turned out that PathItemReferenceField was not the correct type for my general link field. The field had previously been of another type (internal link, I believe) and because of an incomplete Unicorn-sync the change to general link had not propagated to my Synthesis model in the code.

When I did a proper sync, the type of the field changed to HyperlinkField. This type "contains" the referred item in the TargetItem property, as opposed to the Target property on PathItemReferenceField.