Determine Node Depth
The depth of a node in the content tree can be determined by counting its element ancestors, or all ancestors of element type item. This can be accomplished with the following code:
<xsl:variable name="depth" select="count( ancestor-or-self::item )" />
The same technique can be used to determine the distance between two nodes in the hierarchy:
<xsl:variable name="difference" select="count( ancestor-or-self::item )
- count( $home/ancestor-or-self::item )" />