Move to new endpoint to list navigation nodes?

[milanholemans]

It might be interesting to move to another API when listing navigation nodes using spo navigation node list. The current output is quite limited. For example, currently it's not possible to check if the open link in new tab checkbox is checked. For migration tasks, this might be an issue.
Therefore, it might be wise to see if we can improve the endpoint. I found a different API that the UI is also using:

GET https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/Playground/_api/Navigation/MenuState

Important

The API above is only for the quick launch navigation. There is another one for the top navigation as well.

The only issue I currently see is that spo navigation node list is a list command, but the new endpoint doesn't return an array, while that's the output you expect from a list command.

Current command output

[
  {
    "AudienceIds": null,
    "CurrentLCID": 1033,
    "Id": 1031,
    "IsDocLib": true,
    "IsExternal": false,
    "IsVisible": true,
    "ListTemplateType": 0,
    "Title": "Home",
    "Url": "/sites/Playground"
  }
]

New endpoint output

{
  "AudienceIds": [],
  "FriendlyUrlPrefix": "",
  "IsAudienceTargetEnabledForGlobalNav": false,
  "Nodes": [
    {
      "AudienceIds": [],
      "CurrentLCID": 1033,
      "CustomProperties": [],
      "FriendlyUrlSegment": "",
      "IsDeleted": false,
      "IsHidden": false,
      "IsTitleForExistingLanguage": false,
      "Key": "1031",
      "Nodes": [],
      "NodeType": 0,
      "OpenInNewWindow": true,
      "SimpleUrl": "/sites/Playground",
      "Title": "Home",
      "Translations": []
    }
  ],
  "SimpleUrl": "",
  "SPSitePrefix": "/sites/Playground",
  "SPWebPrefix": "/sites/Playground",
  "StartingNodeKey": "1025",
  "StartingNodeTitle": "Quick launch",
  "Version": "2026-02-21T00:12:03.6643426Z"
}

[Jwaegebaert]

That surely seems like a good idea. What I do notice is that the current output has a few params that the new one doesn't have. Like IsDocLib, IsExternal and ListTemplateType

[milanholemans]

I have no idea what IsDocLib refers to. This property is always true for me, doesn't matter if I enter a SP URL, an external URL, or even just a label, it's always true.
IsExternal should indicate whether the link points to an external page or stays within SP. However, in my environment, it seems to be rather random. I still have a few SharePoint URLs that have IsExternal: true.
Imo, the ListTemplateType doesn't add much value. It shows the template type ID (100, 101) of the connected list. Is this useful? If really needed people can still retrieve this using the spo list get command I guess, no?

[Jwaegebaert]

I’m also fairly sure those properties aren’t relevant, but we should be careful not to strip out too much of the existing output.