> 1) how can I find out about the current node's type defined in the
> data document's xsd schema?

This is very much the stuff of schema-aware XSLT 2.0, which allows you to do
things like

<xsl:if test=". instance of schema-element(my:invoice)">

or

<xsl:template match="element(*, my:invoice-type)">

Give it a try by downloading an evaluation copy of Saxon-SA at
www.saxonica.com.

> 2) how can I give a node a unique id, that I can somehow reuse to
> programmatically alter it's value (some serialization of the absolute
> xPath using something else than the "/" and "[ ]" characters, like
> "ID#animal-1#chicken-3#egg-5" for /animal[1]/chicken[3]/egg[5])?
> generate-id() doesn't do this...

XSLT doesn't allow you to alter the value of a node... There's an extension
function to get a path to a node in Saxon, and there are "pure XSLT"
solutions in the FAQ (somewhere!).

Michael Kay


> 
> and there is a third! Am I reinventing the wheel for the nth time
> here? I tried to google something up, but to no avail...
> 
> cheers and thanks for all the help from this great list!
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jan Limpens
> http://www.limpens.com