This is a follow up to MDL-35713.

There are a number of functions in the global_navigation object that are marked as protected but could very useful when extending the navigation (e.g. in a course format).

In the first instance the generate_sections_and_activities() & load_Session-activities() functions would be my candidates...

These are great functions as they're already doing most of the heavy lifting and they return the navigation object nodes to to further putzing with, before we actually set them on the navigation object!

Also being able to check some of the navigation object's properties (such as showemptysections which is marked as protected but doesn't have a getter method) would be helpful.