apache/beam · error · IllegalArgumentException

Format not supported. Only supported formats are

Error message

Format %s not supported. Only supported formats are %s

What it means

PubsubWriteSchemaTransformProvider.from() throws IllegalArgumentException when the configuration's format is null or not in VALID_DATA_FORMATS (e.g. RAW, JSON, AVRO). This validates the Pubsub write SchemaTransform configuration before building the transform. The message lists the valid formats so the caller can correct it.

Solutions

1. Set format to one of the supported values (uppercase-insensitive): check VALID_DATA_FORMATS in the provider, e.g. "RAW", "JSON", "AVRO".
2. Fix the spelling/case in your YAML or config payload and redeploy.
3. If you need a format not in the list, transform your data to a supported format upstream (e.g. encode to JSON bytes yourself).

Example fix

// before
PubsubWriteSchemaTransformConfiguration.newBuilder().setFormat("text").build();
// after
PubsubWriteSchemaTransformConfiguration.newBuilder().setFormat("JSON").build();

if (format == null || !Set.of("RAW","JSON","AVRO").contains(format.toUpperCase())) throw new IllegalArgumentException("unsupported format: " + format);

null

try { provider.from(config); } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { LOG.error("config error: {}", e.getMessage()); }

When it happens

Trigger: Configuring a Pubsub write SchemaTransform (e.g. from YAML/SQL runner) with format "json " (case handled via toUpperCase, but typos like "text", "csv", "proto" are not), or omitting format entirely.

Common situations: YAML pipeline configs with a mistyped format value; documentation drift after supported formats changed; dynamic config from a variable containing an empty or legacy format string.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• A schema was provided without a data format (or viceversa)…
• Can't set both the topic and the subscription for a…
• Configuration schema provided does not match expected
• Could not determine port for pubsub root url
• Could not parse pubsub root url

AI-assisted analysis of apache/beam@12126d8942 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8571ed830cf2e2d5. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sdks/java/io/google-cloud-platform/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/gcp/pubsub/PubsubWriteSchemaTransformProvider.java:144

            .get(OUTPUT_TAG)
            .output(new PubsubMessage(valueMapper.apply(payloadRow), messageAttributes));
      } catch (Exception e) {
        if (useErrorOutput) {
          receiver
              .get(ERROR_TAG)
              .output(Row.withSchema(errorSchema).addValues(e.toString(), row).build());
        } else {
          throw e;
        }
      }
    }
  }

  @Override
  public SchemaTransform from(PubsubWriteSchemaTransformConfiguration configuration) {
    String format = checkArgumentNotNull(configuration.getFormat(), "Format must be specified");
    if (!VALID_DATA_FORMATS.contains(format.toUpperCase())) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException(
          String.format(
              "Format %s not supported. Only supported formats are %s", format, VALID_FORMATS_STR));
    }
    return new PubsubWriteSchemaTransform(configuration);
  }

  private static class PubsubWriteSchemaTransform extends SchemaTransform implements Serializable {
    final PubsubWriteSchemaTransformConfiguration configuration;

    PubsubWriteSchemaTransform(PubsubWriteSchemaTransformConfiguration configuration) {
      this.configuration = configuration;
    }

    @Override
    public PCollectionRowTuple expand(PCollectionRowTuple input) {
      PubsubWriteSchemaTransformConfiguration.ErrorHandling errorHandling =
          configuration.getErrorHandling();
      String errorOutput = errorHandling == null ? null : errorHandling.getOutput();

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