[openbox] how to integrate other menu files into menu.xml/rc.xml/root-menu?

[turkuting]

hello all,
i don't usually write here, i hope i'm not interrupting any ongoing 
topic or sth.

i am really asking for advice with this thing.
in rc.xml it says:

   <menu>
     <!-- You can specify more than one menu file in here and they are 
all loaded,
        just don't make menu ids clash or, well, it'll be kind of 
pointless -->
     <!-- default menu file (or custom one in $HOME/.config/openbox/) -->
     <!-- system menu files on Debian systems
     <file>/var/lib/openbox/debian-menu.xml</file>
     <file>debian-menu.xml</file> -->
     <file>menu.xml</file>
     <file>/home/me/.config/openbox/bin/appmenu.xml</file>
...
</menu>

i remember this has worked in the past with the debian menu, however i 
never tried with a different file.
but now, on a non-debian install (archlinux) i'd like to achieve that 
but find it impossible?
i think i tried every possible syntax variation, i even tried to 
reproduce the syntax of the debian-menu.xml (every entry starts with 
/Debian, i replaced that with /amenu, since this was the id i had given 
that menu).

the ob wiki is clear and concise:
  <!-- this links to a sub menu -->
   <menu id="ID" />

i added lines like this to menu.xml:
	<menu id="link-103844"/>
	<menu id="appmenu" label="Appmenu" />
	<menu id="/amenu" />

either the menu does not show up at all or it's just empty, no submenus.
i don't get errors, also ~/.cache/openbox/openbox.log does not show 
anything helpful.

i even tried adding the submenu with obmenu, but the resulting syntax is 
pretty much the same as what i did manually.

what am i doing wrong?

thanx,

tt.