diff --git a/etemplate/inc/class.etemplate_widget_tree.inc.php b/etemplate/inc/class.etemplate_widget_tree.inc.php
index fff89f473a..5dedd40c8f 100644
--- a/etemplate/inc/class.etemplate_widget_tree.inc.php
+++ b/etemplate/inc/class.etemplate_widget_tree.inc.php
@@ -15,6 +15,28 @@
  * eTemplate tree widget
  *
  * @see /phpgwapi/js/dhtmlxtree/docsExplorer/dhtmlxtree/dhtmlxtree___syntax_templates.html Tree syntax
+ *
+ * Example initialisation of tree via $sel_options array:
+ *
+ * 	$sel_options['tree'] = array(
+ * 		'id' => 0, 'item' => array(
+ * 			array('id' => '/INBOX', 'text' => 'INBOX', 'tooltip' => 'Your inbox', 'open' => 1, 'im1' => 'kfm_home.png', 'im2' => 'kfm_home.png', 'child' => '1', 'item' => array(
+ * 				array('id' => '/INBOX/sub', 'text' => 'sub', 'im0' => 'folderClosed.gif'),
+ * 				array('id' => '/INBOX/sub2', 'text' => 'sub2', 'im0' => 'folderClosed.gif'),
+ * 			)),
+ * 			array('id' => '/user', 'text' => 'user', 'child' => '1', 'item' => array(
+ * 				array('id' => '/user/birgit', 'text' => 'birgit', 'im0' => 'folderClosed.gif'),
+ * 			)),
+ * 	));
+ *
+ * Please note:
+ * - id of root-item has to be 0, ids of sub-items can be strings or numbers
+ * - item has to be an array (not json object: numerical keys 0, 1, ...)
+ * - im0: leaf image (default: leaf.gif), im1: open folder image (default: folderOpen.gif), im2: closed folder (default: folderClosed.gif)
+ * - for arbitrary image eg. $icon = common::image($app, 'navbar') use following code:
+ * 		list(,$icon) = explode($GLOBALS['egw_info']['server']['webserver_url'], $icon);
+ *		$icon = '../../../../..'.$icon;
+ * - json autoloading uses identical data-structur
  */
 egw_framework::includeCSS('/phpgwapi/js/dhtmlxtree/css/dhtmlXTree.css');
 class etemplate_widget_tree extends etemplate_widget
diff --git a/etemplate/js/et2_widget_tree.js b/etemplate/js/et2_widget_tree.js
index 320210c827..6a407597a2 100644
--- a/etemplate/js/et2_widget_tree.js
+++ b/etemplate/js/et2_widget_tree.js
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@
 /**
  * Tree widget
  * 
+ * For syntax of nodes supplied via sel_optons or autoloading refer to etemplate_widget_tree class.
+ * 
  * @augments et2_inputWidget
  */
 var et2_tree = et2_inputWidget.extend(
@@ -265,8 +267,11 @@ var et2_tree = et2_inputWidget.extend(
 			f(data,f);
 			options = data;
 		}
-
-		this.input.loadJSONObject(options);
+		// if no options given, but autoloading url, use that to load initial nodes
+		if (!options.id && this.input.XMLsource)
+			this.input.loadJSON(this.input.XMLsource);
+		else
+			this.input.loadJSONObject(options);
 	},
 
 	set_value: function(new_value) {