This function can be used to grab a url and variables from $PAGE->button in Moodle 2.X. Working through a string and deconstructing the variables seemed to be a backwards approach to me, but in practice this is much quicker than going through the Navigati

edit_to_query.php

/**
 * Gets URL and actions from the old-style $PAGE->button
 *
 * It may not look it but this is lightening fast, 10x quicker than getting the button
 * from the Settings Navigation through navigation API on Moodle 2.1!
 *
 * @param string $button The page's edit button from $PAGE->button
 * @return array containing the 'url' and 'actions'
 */

function edit_to_query($button){
    global $CFG, $PAGE;
    if ($button == null){
        return null;
    }

    $active = '';
    $i = 0;
    $type = '';
    $url = '';
    $query = array();
    $finalquery = array();
    if($button != ''){
        $parts = explode("=", $button);
        foreach ($parts as $part){
            $part = explode('"', $part);
            if($i > 0){
                switch ($type){
                    case 'post':
                        $url = $part[1];
                        break;
                    case 'name':
                        $name = $part[1];
                        break;
                    case 'query':
                        $query[] = $part[1];
                        break;
                }
                $i--;
            }
            if (isset($part[1])){
                switch($part[1]){
                    case 'post': 
                        $i = 1;
                        $type = 'post';
                        break;
                    case 'submit':
                        $i = 1;
                        $type = 'name';
                        break;
                    case 'hidden':
                        $i = 2;
                        $type = 'query';
                        break;
                }
            }
        }
    }
    if ($PAGE->user_is_editing()){
        $active = " active";
    }
    foreach ($query as $key => $qelement){
        if ($key % 2 != 0){
            $finalquery[$query[$key- 1]] = $query[$key];
        }
    }
    
    $result['url'] = $url;
    $result['actions'] = $finalquery;

    return $result;
 

This function can be used to grab a url and variables from $PAGE->button in Moodle 2.X. Working through a string and deconstructing the variables seemed to be a backwards approach to me, but in practice this is much quicker than going through the Navigation API. On average this executes for me in 0.000017 seconds.