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Published Jul. 2, 2025

macro buildChildrenNavItems not found after an upgrade to 7.3

Written By

Roberto Díaz

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Issue

  • After an upgrade if a Site Navigation Menu Widget is added to a page with its default configuration you could see the following error: 
    The following has evaluated to null or missing:
==> buildChildrenNavItems  [in template "10114#26427#18786775" at 
    line 67, column 67]

Environment

  • Liferay DXP 7.3+

Resolution

  • The root cause of this problem is that this macro was added to the file portlet_display_template_navigation_menu_macro.ftl under LPS-113994 but this template was customized manually in your system in previous versions.
  • In this case the system will use this custom value instead of the default one (the ftl file) and if a template tries to use the macro (for example, Site Navigation Menu Widget default template) this error appears.
  • To solve it:
    • Go to Design > Widget Templates
    • Search for "macro" in the search bar
    • Check if the Navigation Common Macros template has the buildChildrenNavItems macro.
    • If the macro is not in the Widget Template code, click on edit button and copy and paste the macro from this link: buildChildrenNavItems macro
    • Save

Additional Information

 

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