Navigation Menu View Helper does not support templates.

bal-zend-view-helper-navigation-menu.patch

--- zend-1.10.3-lib/Zend/View/Helper/Navigation/Menu.php	2010-04-02 17:08:46.000000000 +0800
+++ balphp-lib/Zend/View/Helper/Navigation/Menu.php	2010-04-29 23:32:42.000000000 +0800
@@ -198,6 +198,31 @@ class Zend_View_Helper_Navigation_Menu
     // Public methods:
 
     /**
+     * Simple template to use in the htmlify process if specified
+     *
+     * @var string
+     */
+    protected $_template = null;
+
+    /**
+     * Set a simple template to use in the htmlify process
+     * @param string $template
+     * @return $this
+     */
+    public function setTemplate ( $template ) {
+        $this->_template = $template;
+        return $this;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Get the simple template to use in the htmlify process if specified
+     * @return string
+     */
+    public function getTemplate ( ) {
+        return $this->_template;
+    }
+
+    /**
      * Returns an HTML string containing an 'a' element for the given page if
      * the page's href is not empty, and a 'span' element if it is empty
      *
@@ -238,8 +263,23 @@ class Zend_View_Helper_Navigation_Menu
             $element = 'span';
         }
 
+        // put together
+        $template = $this->getTemplate();
+        if ( !$template ) {
+            $renderedTemplate = $this->view->escape($label);
+        } else {
+            $renderedTemplate = populate($template,
+                array(
+                    'label' => $this->view->escape($label),
+                    'title' => $this->view->escape($title),
+                    'Page' => $page
+                )
+            );
+        }
+
+        // return
         return '<' . $element . $this->_htmlAttribs($attribs) . '>'
-             . $this->view->escape($label)
+             . $renderedTemplate
              . '</' . $element . '>';
     }
 
@@ -645,3 +685,4 @@ class Zend_View_Helper_Navigation_Menu
         }
     }
 }
+

dependencies.php

<?php
// This is the populate function mentioned in the patch.
// Included here as was unsure where the best place to put it in Zend Framework would be.

	/**
	 * Populates some text with a set of params
	 * @version 1, January 30, 2010
	 * @param array $array
	 * @return mixed
	 * @author Benjamin "balupton" Lupton <[email protected]> - {@link http://www.balupton.com/}
	 */
	function populate ( $text, $params = null, $sprintf = null ) {
		# Prepare
		$result = '';
		
		# Ensure params is an array
		if ( !$params ) $params = array(); elseif ( !is_array($params) ) $params = array($params);
		
		# Use sprintf?
		if ( $sprintf === null ) {
			# Detect
			$sprintf = is_simple_array($params);
		}
		
		# Apply sprintf?
		if ( $sprintf ) {
			# Populate simple
			$result = vsprintf($text, $params);
		}
		else {
			# Populate advanced
			$result = ' '.$text;
			$result = preg_replace('/([^\\\\])?\\$([a-zA-Z0-9_\\.]+)/ie', 'preg_unescape("${1}") . delve(\\$params, preg_unescape("${2}"))', $result);
			$result = substr($result,1);
			$result = str_replace(array('\\$','\\.'), array('$','.'), $result);
		}
		
		# Return result
		return $result;
	}

	/**
	 * Unescape a string a pregex replace function
	 * @version 1, February 01, 2010
	 * @param string	$value
	 * @return string
	 * @author Benjamin "balupton" Lupton <[email protected]> - {@link http://www.balupton.com/}
	 */
	function preg_unescape ( $value ) {
		/*
		 * When using the e modifier, this function escapes some characters (namely ', ", \ and null) in the strings that replace the backreferences.
		 * This is done to ensure that no syntax errors arise from backreference usage with either single or double quotes (e.g. 'strlen(\'$1\')+strlen("$2")').
		 * Make sure you are aware of PHP's string syntax to know exactly how the interpreted string will look like.
		 */
		$result = str_replace(array("\\'", '\\"', '\\\\', '\\0'), array("'", '"', '\\', '\0'), $value);
		return $result;
	}

	/**
	 * Checks if the array is a simple array
	 * @version 1, January 30, 2010
	 * @param array $array
	 * @return mixed
	 * @author Benjamin "balupton" Lupton <[email protected]> - {@link http://www.balupton.com/}
	 */
	function is_simple_array ( array $array ) {
		return is_numeric(implode('',array_keys($array)));
	}

usage.php

<?=$this->menu('front.actions')
	->setTemplate('<span class="title">$label</span>')
	->render()?>

Related Zend Framework Issue:
http://framework.zend.com/issues/browse/ZF-10346