def fromString( parent, xmlstring, actions = None ):
        """
        Loads the xml string as xml data and then calls the fromXml method.
        
        :param      parent | <QWidget>
                    xmlstring | <str>
                    actions     | {<str> name: <QAction>, .. } || None
        
        :return     <XMenu> || None
        """
        try:
            xdata = ElementTree.fromstring(xmlstring)
            
        except ExpatError, e:
            logger.exception(e)
            return None
        
        return XMenu.fromXml(parent, xdata, actions)