flowable/flowable-engine · warning

Error parsing input values

Error message

Error parsing input values

What it means

Warning logged by InputValuesParser.parseChildElement when an exception is thrown while parsing the <inputValues> element (allowed input values list) of a DMN input clause. The exception is swallowed; the clause keeps a null or partial inputValues, so validation of input entry values against allowed values is skipped for that column.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-dmn-xml-converter/src/main/java/org/flowable/dmn/converter/child/InputValuesParser.java:57

        UnaryTests inputValues = new UnaryTests();

        boolean readyWithInputValues = false;
        try {
            while (!readyWithInputValues && xtr.hasNext()) {
                xtr.next();
                if (xtr.isStartElement() && ELEMENT_TEXT.equalsIgnoreCase(xtr.getLocalName())) {
                    String inputValuesText = xtr.getElementText();
                    inputValues.setText(inputValuesText);

                    List<Object> splitInputValues = splitAndFormatInputOutputValues(inputValuesText);
                    inputValues.setTextValues(splitInputValues);
                } else if (xtr.isEndElement() && getElementName().equalsIgnoreCase(xtr.getLocalName())) {
                    readyWithInputValues = true;
                }
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            LOGGER.warn("Error parsing input values", e);
        }

        clause.setInputValues(inputValues);
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Check the attached stack trace for the concrete parsing exception.
2. Fix the <inputValues> block: values should be a comma-separated list inside <text>, e.g. <text>"A","B"</text>.
3. Validate the .dmn against the DMN XSD before deployment.
4. Re-export from the DMN tool to regenerate standard XML.

Example fix

<!-- before -->
<inputValues><text></text></inputValues> <!-- malformed/unclosed structure -->
<!-- after -->
<inputValues><text>"standard","premium"</text></inputValues>

// check inputValues format before deployment
String text = inputValuesText.trim();
if (!text.isEmpty() && !Pattern.compile("^(\\\"[^\"]*\\\"|[^,\\\"]+)(\\s*,\\s*(\\\"[^\"]*\\\"|[^,\\\"]+))*$").matcher(text).matches()) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("inputValues must be a comma-separated list: " + text);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Parsing <inputValues> contents where splitInputValues processing or the XMLStreamReader itself throws (malformed XML, unexpected token, bad CDATA/text structure) before the </inputValues> end element is reached.

Common situations: Malformed comma-separated value lists in .dmn XML edited by hand; exporter quirks nesting <text> differently than expected; corrupted or truncated files.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• Error parsing input expression
• Error determine output clause for position: {}
• Error parsing input entry
• Error parsing input expression
• Error parsing output entry

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b38921255a02d498. Report an issue: GitHub.