An attempt to explain when "/root" will work inside an Umbraco macro

context-node-in-umbraco-macros.xslt

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<xsl:stylesheet
	version="1.0"
	xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
	xmlns:umb="urn:umbraco.library"
	exclude-result-prefixes="umb"
>

	<xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes" omit-xml-declaration="yes" />
        
        <xsl:param name="currentPage" />
        
        <!-- Up here, "/*" refers to the <macro> element --> 
        
        <xsl:template match="/">
                <!-- In here, "/*" still refers to the <macro> element -->
                
                <xsl:for-each select="$currentPage/*[@isDoc]">
                        <!-- In here, "/*" will get you <root> - yay! -->
                </xsl:for-each>
                
                <!-- Oh my, back to <macro> with "/*" here -->
                
                <xsl:apply-templates select="$currentPage/bannerProperty" />
                
        </xsl:template>
        
        <xsl:template match="bannerProperty">
                <!-- Again, we will get <root> from "/*" here -->
        </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Umbraco macro transforms are executed on a simple little XML document consisting of a <macro> element with a childnode for every macro parameter that was sent to it (e.g. <myParamName>value</myParamName>).

Umbraco then provides access to the entire website structure through the currentPage XSLT param, which acts as a pointer to the page that's currently being rendered.

That is a perfect example of context in macros, in fact not just macros but XSLT in general. The for-each is a nice little hack to use for switching context although it does feel a little dirty at time the way I use it :)

Add another beer to the list of those I owe you...

Thanks Pete - I seriously hope we'll get to pay each other those beers queued up :-)