A Latest News Macro using XSLT,

The Following Code can be placed in a Template or in a Macro for a user to place on any page.

What this Macro does, is display only the last 2 news items, I have used it on the following sites, for example:

Cindy-Lou photographer (link to follow) and SCSC (link to follow)

The only bit that needs cahnged per project are:

1)  <xsl:variable name="maxItems" select="2"/> (highlighted below) --> This ensures only the lates 2 News Items are shown.
2) <xsl:if test="@template = 1169"> (highlighted below) --> 1169 is the Template ID of my News Articles,  change 1169 to match the News Item template for your project. 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE xsl:stylesheet [ <!ENTITY nbsp "&#x00A0;"> ]>
<xsl:stylesheet
  version="1.0"
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  xmlns:msxml="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"
  xmlns:umbraco.library="urn:umbraco.library" xmlns:Exslt.ExsltCommon="urn:Exslt.ExsltCommon" xmlns:Exslt.ExsltDatesAndTimes="urn:Exslt.ExsltDatesAndTimes" xmlns:Exslt.ExsltMath="urn:Exslt.ExsltMath" xmlns:Exslt.ExsltRegularExpressions="urn:Exslt.ExsltRegularExpressions" xmlns:Exslt.ExsltStrings="urn:Exslt.ExsltStrings" xmlns:Exslt.ExsltSets="urn:Exslt.ExsltSets" xmlns:PS.XSLTsearch="urn:PS.XSLTsearch"
  exclude-result-prefixes="msxml umbraco.library Exslt.ExsltCommon Exslt.ExsltDatesAndTimes Exslt.ExsltMath Exslt.ExsltRegularExpressions Exslt.ExsltStrings Exslt.ExsltSets PS.XSLTsearch ">

<xsl:output method="xml" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>

<xsl:param name="currentPage"/>

<!-- update this variable on how deep your site map should be -->
<xsl:variable name="maxLevelForSitemap" select="8"/>
<xsl:variable name="maxItems" select="2"/>


  <xsl:template match="/">
    <div id="latestNews">
      <xsl:variable name="counter" select="1" />
      <h2>Latest News</h2>
      <ul>
      <xsl:call-template name="drawNodes">
        <xsl:with-param name="parent" select="$currentPage/ancestor-or-self::* [@isDoc and @level=1]"/>
      </xsl:call-template>
      </ul>
        </div>
  </xsl:template>
   
   

  <xsl:template name="drawNodes">
    <xsl:param name="parent"/>
    <xsl:if test="umbraco.library:IsProtected($parent/@id, $parent/@path) = 0 or (umbraco.library:IsProtected($parent/@id, $parent/@path) = 1 and umbraco.library:IsLoggedOn() = 1)">
  
 
        <xsl:for-each select="$parent/* [@isDoc and @level &lt;= $maxLevelForSitemap]">
     <xsl:sort select="newsDate" order="descending"/>


       
    <xsl:if test="position()&lt;= $maxItems">
      <xsl:if test="@template = 1169">
               <li>
               <a href="{umbraco.library:NiceUrl(@id)}"><xsl:value-of select="newsTitle"/></a>
               </li>
            </xsl:if>
        </xsl:if>
             <xsl:if test="count(./* [@isDoc and @level &lt;= $maxLevelForSitemap]) &gt; 0">
               <xsl:call-template name="drawNodes">
                 <xsl:with-param name="parent" select="."/>
               </xsl:call-template>
             </xsl:if>
        
        
        </xsl:for-each>
     
  
    </xsl:if>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>