I'm new to Umbraco and I'm working on adding my first .NET User Control (VB.NET/VS2008) to Umbraco 4.5.2

• I've built the user control and moved the DLL to the umbraco bin folder and the control files to the umbraco user control folders.
• I can see the control under the Macros node in the Developer section of Umbraco.
• I can create a macro out of my control via the developer section.
• I've checked "Use in editor" and "Render content in Editor"
• When I browse properties I see my two properties and am able to add them as parameters for the macro.
• I have a content page with a rich text editor. I click on insert macro. I choose my macro and am prompted for the values of my two parameters. I then save and publish the page.

Here's where the problem starts ....

I open the page up and I can see some of my control working but it's throwing an error because nothing is being passed to it through either parameter. If I hard code the values for the parameters inside the user control code everything works fine.  

Below is my user control code. Does anyone see what I'm doing wrong? Is there something else I need to configure in Umbraco? Thanks for any help!

Imports
 
 System.Xml
Imports
 
 System.ServiceModel.Syndication
Partial
 
 Public Class RPC_RSS_Parser
 
Inherits System.Web.UI.UserControl
 
Private m_sURL As String = ""
 
Private m_sNavigationType As String = ""
 
Private m_sError As String = ""
 
Public Property RssURL() As String
 
Get
 
Return m_sURL
 
End Get
 
Set(ByVal value As String)
 
Me.m_sURL = RssURL
 
End Set
 
End Property
 
Public Property NavigationType() As String
 
Get
 
Return m_sNavigationType
 
End Get
 
Set(ByVal value As String)
 
Me.m_sNavigationType = NavigationType
 
End Set
 
End Property
 
Public ReadOnly Property SlideError() As String
 
Get
 
Return m_sError
 
End Get
 
End Property
 
Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
 
Try
 
'Go out and get the feed
 
'Cat Rental Equipment
 
'used for debugging only
 
Me.LiteralDebug.Text = "The URL passed in is: " & Me.m_sURL.ToString & " : the nav type was set to: " & Me.m_sNavigationType.ToString
 
'Hard coded value for testing
 
'Me.m_sURL = "http://blog.ringpower.com/syndication.axd?category=e81c5eca-d4b1-4121-9f91-4ebda7131047"
 
'Here's where the errors being thrown ......
 
Dim myFeed As SyndicationFeed = SyndicationFeed.Load(XmlReader.Create(Me.m_sURL.ToString))
 
'For each post build a new slide for the slidedeck - assign to literal control 
 
Dim sSlide As New StringBuilder
 
For Each BlogPost As SyndicationItem In myFeed.Items
Debug.Print(BlogPost.Title.Text)
 
'Build HTML
sSlide.Append(
"<dt>" & BlogPost.Title.Text & "</dt>")
sSlide.Append(
"<dd class='slide'><div class='sd-node sd-node-container'><div class='sd-node sd-node-content'><div class='sd-node sd-node-title'>")
sSlide.Append(
"<a href='#' target='_blank'>" & BlogPost.Title.Text & "</a></div>")
sSlide.Append(
"<div class='sd-node sd-node-date'>" & BlogPost.PublishDate.Date.ToShortDateString & "</div>")
sSlide.Append(
"<div class='sd-node sd-node-timesince'> Posted On: " & BlogPost.PublishDate.Date.ToShortDateString & "</div>")
sSlide.Append(
"<div class='sd-node sd-node-excerpt'><p>" & BlogPost.Summary.Text.ToString & "</p></div>")
sSlide.Append(
"<div class='sd-node sd-node-permalink'><a href='" & BlogPost.Id & "' target='_blank'>Read More</a></div></div></div></dd>")
 
Next
 
Me.LiteralMySlideDeck.Text = sSlide.ToString
 
'Parameter passed in from Umbraco and using this literal control to select the navigation type
 
Select Case Me.m_sNavigationType.ToUpper
 
Case "TITLE"
 
Me.LiteralNavType.Text = "<ul class='sd-node sd-node-nav sd-node-nav-primary sd-node-navigation-type-post-titles'></ul>"
 
Case "DOTS"
 
'Me.LiteralNavType.Text = "<ul class='sd-node sd-node-nav sd-node-nav-primary sd-node-navigation-type-simple-dots'></ul>"
 
Case Else
 
Me.LiteralNavType.Text = "<ul class='sd-node sd-node-nav sd-node-nav-primary sd-node-navigation-type-post-titles'></ul>"
 
End Select
 
Catch ex As Exception
 
Me.m_sError = "RPC Slider User Control Error: " & ex.Message.ToString
 
Me.LiteralMySlideDeck.Text = "RPC Slider User Control Error: " & ex.Message.ToString
 
End Try
 
End Sub
End
 
 Class

Here's the page html

<%
@ Control Language="vb" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeBehind="RPC_RSS_Parser.ascx.vb" Inherits="RSS_Parser.RPC_RSS_Parser" %>
<
 
script type="text/javascript" src='<%=Page.ResolveUrl("~/Scripts/jquery-1.4.4.min.js")%>'></script>
<
 
link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/skin.css" media="screen,handheld" />
<
 
script type="text/javascript" src='<%=Page.ResolveUrl("~/Scripts/slidedeck.jquery.lite.pack.js")%>'></script>
<
 
div class="slidedeck_frame skin-light">
 
<dl class="slidedeck" id="smart_slidedeck">
 
<asp:Literal ID="LiteralMySlideDeck" runat="server"></asp:Literal>
 
</dl>
 
<a class="sd-node sd-node-nav-link sd-node-previous" href="#previous" target="_blank">Previous</a><a class="sd-node sd-node-nav-link sd-node-next" href="#next" target="_blank">Next</a>
 
<asp:Literal ID="LiteralNavType" runat="server"></asp:Literal>
 
</div>
 
<script type="text/javascript">jQuery( '#smart_slidedeck' ).css({width:'960px',height:'370px'}).slidedeck( {"speed":500,"start":1,"autoPlay":true,"autoPlayInterval":5000,"cycle":true,"hideSpines":true} );</script>
 
<script type="text/javascript" src='<%=Page.ResolveUrl("~/Scripts/skin.js")%>'></script>
<
 
asp:Literal ID="LiteralSlideDeckControl" runat="server"></asp:Literal>
<
 
asp:Literal ID="LiteralDebug" runat="server"></asp:Literal>