Umbraco multi-color menu tabs - asp.net

Question

I'm using the Asp.Net CMS Umbraco and would like some help to determine whether or not there is something specific about the Umbraco CMS that might make the task of creating a multi-colored menu bar... different from standard html and css manipulation.
The menu bar code that I'm using is based upon the friendly-ghost theme shipped with Umbraco.
Now the normal method for employing different colours in a menu would be something like
div # menu ul.rMenu li.page-item-(some number) {background-color: # (whatever);}
...
...
<li class "rMenu-expand page-item-(the same number as above)"><a href="(link to whatever site on the menu)">
<span> Wording for the particular tab </span></a></li>
And bingo... the (some-number) tab has the (whatever) colour!
However, Umbraco seems to be using a different set-up that is not entirely compatible with the above strategy. Should I be looking at *umbTextpage id *parentID *nodeType ... or something entirely different that I haven't, as yet, noticed?
I believe that nodeName is being used for the wording of particular tabs... should I take it, then, that nodeType refers to the tabs themselves ???
That's great, thanks. However, the menu is generated dynamically using xslt. Do you think I should I attempt to insert that code (converted to xslt) into the menu generation process...
<xsl:for-each select="$currentPage/ancestor-or-self::* [#level=$level]/* [#isDoc and string(umbracoNaviHide) != '1']">
<li>
<xsl:if test="#id = $currentPage/#id">
<xsl:attribute name="class">current</xsl:attribute>
</xsl:if>
<a class="navigation" href="{umbraco.library:NiceUrl(#id)}">
<span><xsl:value-of select="#nodeName"/></span>
</a>
</li>
... or attempt to use razor code after the fact (i.e. have the menu be created and subsequently cycle through the menu's elements, giving a numerical 'tag' to each node)?

Answer 1

The beauty of Umbraco is that you have complete control of the layout. You can have it build your menu how ever you want.
I don't know whether you are using xslt or razor to generate your menu, but If you're looking trying to get a unique number to append to "page-number-" then use the node's Id, that won't change even if the name of the node is edited.
Using Umbraco 4.7 razor you do something like this:
#{
<ul>
#foreach (var node in Model.AncestorOrSelf().Children.Where("Visible"))
{
<li class="rMenu-expand page-item-#node.Id">
<a href="#node.Url">
<span>#node.Name</span>
</a>
</li>
}
</ul>
}