Variations requires SharePoint Web Parts
These last few days we have become aware of an important limitation regarding variations in SharePoint Server. The thing is that when using variations, web parts need to be inherited from the SharePoint WebPart class (Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart) and not from the ASP.NET WebPart class (System.Web.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart). If it is inherited from ASP.NET WebPart class, you will receive an InvalidCastException exception during variation propagation. This occurs when variations tries to cast your Web Part class to Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart before calling the PublishingPage.FixWebPartUrlsForVariation() method. I consider this a bug since it could easily be fixed by checking the type before trying to cast.
