[I wrote]
I think what you really want to do is apply templates
to <solution>s instead of <item>s, and modify your select=
like this:
<xsl:if test="generate-id(..) =
generate-id(key('solution-key', .)[1])">
P.S.
Since you're looking at a "large amount of nodes", I wouldn't
use apply-templates at all; just combine the select and the
if test into a for-each:
<xsl:template match="report">
<!-- using Muenchian technique to display a list of unique solutions -->
<xsl:for-each select="item/metadata/solution[generate-id(..) =
generate-id(key('solution-key', .)[1])]">
<xsl:sort select="." />
<xsl:value-of select="." />
</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>
That might make things faster.
Lars
XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list