flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableException

Error parsing XML

Error message

Error parsing XML

What it means

CmmnParserImpl.parse catches any exception during CMMN XML parsing/conversion/validation. FlowableException and CmmnXMLException are rethrown as-is; anything else is wrapped in this generic FlowableException("Error parsing XML", e) so callers get a consistent exception type with the original as cause.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/cmmn/engine/impl/parser/CmmnParserImpl.java:75

            CmmnModel cmmnModel = convertToCmmnModel(context, cmmnSource);
            cmmnParseResult.setCmmnModel(cmmnModel);

            if (context.validateCmmnModel()) {
                validateCmmnModel(context.caseValidator(), cmmnModel);
            }

            processCmmnElements(cmmnModel, cmmnParseResult);

            return cmmnParseResult;

        } catch (Exception e) {
            if (e instanceof FlowableException) {
                throw (FlowableException) e;
            } else if (e instanceof CmmnXMLException) {
                throw (CmmnXMLException) e;
            } else {
                throw new FlowableException("Error parsing XML", e);
            }
        }
    }

    protected CmmnModel convertToCmmnModel(CmmnParseContext context, StreamSource cmmnSource) {
        boolean enableSafeBpmnXml = context.enableSafeXml();
        String encoding = context.xmlEncoding();
        boolean validateCmmnXml = context.validateXml();

        return new CmmnXmlConverter().convertToCmmnModel(cmmnSource, validateCmmnXml, enableSafeBpmnXml, encoding);
    }

    protected void validateCmmnModel(CaseValidator caseValidator, CmmnModel cmmnModel) {
        if (caseValidator == null) {
            logger.warn("Case should be validated, but no case validator is configured on the case engine configuration!");
        } else {
            List<ValidationEntry> validationEntries = caseValidator.validate(cmmnModel);
            if (validationEntries != null && !validationEntries.isEmpty()) {

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Inspect the cause chain for the underlying SAX/Jackson/runtime error with the real location.
2. Validate the .cmmn XML against the CMMN 1.1 XSD and ensure it is well-formed before deployment.
3. Fix XML special characters/encoding issues (unescaped &, wrong encoding declarations).
4. If a specific element triggers it, check element attributes/extensions against supported Flowable CMMN constructs.

Example fix

// before
<case id="c1"> <stage id="s1"> </stage></case> <!-- mismatched/invalid markup -->
// after
<case id="c1" xmlns="http://www.omg.org/spec/CMMN/20151109/MODEL"> ... well-formed ... </case>

DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder().parse(new InputSource(cmmnXml)); // well-formedness pre-check

try { parser.parse(context, source); } catch (FlowableException e) { log("CMMN XML parse failed", e.getCause()); throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Parsing a .cmmn/.cmmn.xml resource whose XML is malformed, whose schema content triggers a non-Flowable runtime exception (e.g. NPE in a converter), or with SAX/stax issues during convertToCmmnModel.

Common situations: Broken XML in a case definition deployed via repository service; XML not well-formed after templating; resource read truncation; unexpected runtime error in parsing handlers.

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 while reading the CMMN 1.1 XML
• Error converting condition
• Error converting decision reference expression
• Error parsing XML
• Error processing CMMN document

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5f6df5af8be64bfe. Report an issue: GitHub.