I've recently been falling in love with XSLT and what it can
accomplish for me. The heart and soul of Umbraco is built upon
XSLT, so when I was first introduced I had a hard time adjusting to
how everything would work. Last night that all changed. If you're
in anyway confused as to how XSLT works, you should read the
articles on WC3 Schools. Their XPATH chapter greatly helped me get a
grasp on all the select statements going on.
Next you need to burn this XSLT element into your brain.
<xsl:copy-of select="" />
One of the major issues I've had with XSLT is not being able to
see the XML/data that I'm playing with. This handy little element
outputs whatever you put into the select attribute as XML that you
can work with.
So if you want to learn XSLT and XPATH quicker, and you want to
know where all the built-in Umbraco values come from, simply put
this in your XSLT template.
<xsl:copy-of select="$currentpage" />
Now view source on the page calling the marco and you'll have
some XML that you can touch and feel!
Combined with some reading at W3Schools for XPATH and you'll be well on your way to
coding XSLT in no time!