Global Context Item

Global context item absent

When the XSpec <x:description> element does not have @run-as or has @run-as="import", the global context item is absent (the global . is absent) during the test. Consequently:

• Named templates are called without a context item if you don't provide x:context.
• Global parameters and global variables in your stylesheet are always evaluated without a context item.

For example, in this stylesheet

<xsl:stylesheet ...>
   <xsl:param name="p" select="foo" />
   <xsl:variable name="v" select="base-uri()" />

$p and $v rely on the global context item. Testing this stylesheet does not work (the test will be terminated prematurely), because . is absent when evaluating @select of $p and $v during the test.

One solution is to override $p and $v with global x:param:

<x:description ...>
   <x:param name="p" href="source-document.xml" select="foo" />
   <x:param name="v" href="source-document.xml" select="base-uri()" />

   <x:scenario ...>

Alternatively, you may want to refactor your stylesheet so that the global context item is always accessed indirectly as a single global parameter and then your XSpec can override it with a global x:param. See tutorial/global-context-item/.

Different global context item in each scenario

When /x:description/@run-as is external, every XSpec scenario has a different global context item depending on how the tested component is invoked. See its page for details.