How to delete navigation nodes with AuthoringLink types programmatically in Sharepoint

If you use structural navigation on your publishing Sharepoint site and navigation nodes are created as headings (NodeType = Heading), then it is quite straightforward to delete such navigation nodes programmatically. Here is how it can be done:

var web = ...
var pweb = PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(web);
var globalNavigation = pweb.Navigation.GlobalNavigationNodes;
var nodePage = globalNavigation.Cast<SPNavigationNode>().FirstOrDefault(n => (n.Title == "Test"));
if (nodePage != null)
{
	nodePage.Delete();
}

In this example we delete navigation node with title “Test”. However if you will try to delete navigation nodes which were created as AuthoredLink* (see NodeTypes Enum):

• AuthoredLink
• AuthoredLinkPlain
• AuthoredLinkToPage
• AuthoredLinkToWeb

using the same code you will find that link is not get deleted. The workaround is to change NodeType property first to Heading and then delete the node:

var web = ...
var pweb = PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(web);
var globalNavigation = pweb.Navigation.GlobalNavigationNodes;
var nodePage = globalNavigation.Cast<SPNavigationNode>().FirstOrDefault(n => (n.Title == "Test" &&
	(n.Properties != null && n.Properties["NodeType"] != null && n.Properties["NodeType"] is string &&
		(n.Properties["NodeType"] as string == "AuthoredLink" || (n.Properties["NodeType"] as string).StartsWith("AuthoredLink"))));

if (nodePage != null)
{
	nodePage.Properties["NodeType"] = "Heading";
	nodePage.Update();

	// reinitialize navigation nodes
	pweb = PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(web);
	globalNavigation = pweb.Navigation.GlobalNavigationNodes;
	nodePage = globalNavigation.Cast<SPNavigationNode>().FirstOrDefault(n => (n.Title == "Test);
	if (nodePage != null)
	{
		nodePage.Delete();
	}
}

After that AuthoredLink navigation node will be successfully deleted.