site pages variation: The Site Navigation Menu Item could not be imported because of the following error: null

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Resolution: No Longer Reproducible
• Affects Version/s: 7.1.X
• Fix Version/s: None
• Component/s: Staging
• Labels:
  • 7.1-should
• Fix Priority: 4

Publish fails with:
An unexpected error occurred with the publication process. Please check your portal and publishing configuration.
The Site Navigation Menu Item could not be imported because of the following error: null.

steps to reproduce

1. switch on local staging with page versioning
2. add a site pages variation
3. add a new page
4. Click on Publish to Live

Expected result

Publishing without failure or meaningful error message without exception in the logs

Actual result

Exception in the log:

java.lang.NullPointerException
	at com.liferay.site.navigation.menu.item.layout.internal.type.LayoutSiteNavigationMenuItemType.importData(LayoutSiteNavigationMenuItemType.java:253)
	at com.liferay.site.navigation.internal.exportimport.data.handler.SiteNavigationMenuItemStagedModelDataHandler.doImportStagedModel(SiteNavigationMenuItemStagedModelDataHandler.java:184)

hint

In LayoutSiteNavigationMenuItemType.java _getLayout returns with null.