I get intermitten results from the gitParameter option.

Sometime I get

no list, and the default is chosen

a partial list of  branches

a full list of branches (rarely)

This is what is in my pipeline script 

gitParameter branchFilter: 'origin/(.*)', defaultValue: 'master', name: 'BRANCH_NAME', type: 'PT_BRANCH'

stage('Checkout') {
    steps {
        dir ('code') {
            git(branch: "${params.BRANCH_NAME}", url: 'XXXXXX')
        }
    }
}

Is there a way to fix this or can we allow users to enter a branch name manually?

My scenario is I need the jobs definition to be stored in  git, hence I am using pipeline jobs stored as JenkinsFiles.

multibranch pipeline job does not suit as these jobs are to be triggered by users, and/or cron.