diff --git a/plugins/facetapi/adapter.inc b/plugins/facetapi/adapter.inc
index fd7445c..4f1051f 100644
--- a/plugins/facetapi/adapter.inc
+++ b/plugins/facetapi/adapter.inc
@@ -417,8 +417,9 @@ abstract class FacetapiAdapter {
   /**
    * Returns a facet's active items.
    *
-   * @param array $facet
-   *   The facet definition as returned by facetapi_facet_load().
+   * @param array|string $facet
+   *   Either the facet definition as returned by facetapi_facet_load() or the
+   *   machine readable name of the facet.
    *
    * @return array
    *   An associative array containing (but not limited to):
@@ -432,8 +433,9 @@ abstract class FacetapiAdapter {
    *   FacetapiQueryTypeInterface::extract() method. For example, date and range
    *   query types add the "start" and "end" values of the range.
    */
-  public function getActiveItems(array $facet) {
-    return $this->activeItems['facet'][$facet['name']];
+  public function getActiveItems($facet) {
+    $facet_name = is_array($facet) ? $facet['name'] : $facet;
+    return $this->activeItems['facet'][$facet_name];
   }
 
   /**