def setMenuTemplate( self, template ):
        """
        Sets the menu template for this widget to the inputed string template.
        
        :param      template | <str>
        """
        try:
            xtree = ElementTree.fromstring(nativestring(template))
        except ExpatError, e:
            logger.exception(e)
            return
        
        self.uiMenuTREE.setUpdatesEnabled(False)
        self.uiMenuTREE.blockSignals(True)
        
        self.uiMenuTREE.clear()
        for xaction in xtree:
            self.uiMenuTREE.addTopLevelItem(self.loadXml(xaction))
        
        self.uiMenuTREE.setUpdatesEnabled(True)
        self.uiMenuTREE.blockSignals(False)