Specification Facet is temporarily unavailable

Issue

• Specification Facets are not functioning correctly in certain search scenarios, resulting in the 'Specification Facet is temporarily unavailable' error in the UI and below errors in the Liferay logs.

  ERROR [http-nio-8080-exec-30][CPSpecificationOptionFacetsPortlet:74] null
  java.lang.NullPointerException: null
  at com.liferay.commerce.product.content.search.web.internal.display.context.builder.CPSpecificationOptionsFacetDisplayContextBuilder._buildCPSpecificationOptionsSearchFacetDisplayContext(CPSpecificationOptionsFacetDisplayContextBuilder.java:127) ~[bundleFile:?]

• Steps to reproduce:
  
  1. Setup a minium site and an account
  2. Go to Commerce/Specifications/Labels.
  3. From the 9 specifications already present, make sure to set as facetable those that are not.
  4. Then create new facetable specifications until have 20 of them. Since there are 9 specifications by default, create 11 additional ones: spec10, spec11,..., spec20

  5. Go to Commerce/Products/ABS Sensor. It has 5 specifications already added, with positions from 0 to 4.

  6. Add the rest of the 15 specifications to the product. Make sure to edit each and add a value (anything, e.g. 1) and an increasing position accordingly (so from 5 to 19).

  7. Go to Commerce/Specifications again and create one more facetable specification: spec21.

  8. Go to Commerce/Products/ Shock Absorber

  9. Add this spec21 to the Shock Absorber. Add also value to it, and a position (e.g. 20).
  10. Go to minium UI and search for "abs" (go to http://localhost:8080/web/minium/catalog?q=abs)
  11. Search for "shock" (go to http://localhost:8080/web/minium/catalog?q=shock)

  Expected Behavior: Both searches work and the user can use the specification facet.
  Actual Behavior: In the latter search case, the user cannot use the specification facet and sees the errors mentioned in the issue description.

Environment

• Liferay DXP 7.4 u90

Resolution

• The observed behavior is a known bug that has been addressed by: COMMERCE-12191, LPD-20339; however, it was fixed in 2024.Q1.1.
• Also, increase the maxTerms on the Specification Facet Portlet Configuration up to the number or more than that which number of specifications has been present in the environment.
• If a hotfix is required for this issue, please create a support ticket requesting a hotfix by attaching patch details.
• Installing Fix Packs and Hotfixes on Liferay DXP will guide you to install this hotfix in the respective environment.

Additional Information

• Quarterly-Release-Transitional-Support-Coverage