flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableException

Errors while parsing:\n" + errorBuilder

Error message

Errors while parsing:\n" + errorBuilder

What it means

BpmnParse.execute() runs schema validation and semantic checks on the BPMN XML. When any validation errors were collected, it aggregates them into errorBuilder and throws a single FlowableException listing all problems, aborting the parse/deployment.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/engine/impl/bpmn/parser/BpmnParse.java:177

                    List<ValidationError> validationErrors = processValidator.validate(bpmnModel);
                    if (validationErrors != null && !validationErrors.isEmpty()) {

                        StringBuilder warningBuilder = new StringBuilder();
                        StringBuilder errorBuilder = new StringBuilder();

                        for (ValidationError error : validationErrors) {
                            if (error.isWarning()) {
                                warningBuilder.append(error);
                                warningBuilder.append("\n");
                            } else {
                                errorBuilder.append(error);
                                errorBuilder.append("\n");
                            }
                        }

                        // Throw exception if there is any error
                        if (errorBuilder.length() > 0) {
                            throw new FlowableException("Errors while parsing:\n" + errorBuilder);
                        }

                        // Write out warnings (if any)
                        if (warningBuilder.length() > 0) {
                            LOGGER.warn("Following warnings encountered during process validation: {}", warningBuilder);
                        }

                    }
                }
            }

            bpmnModel.setSourceSystemId(sourceSystemId);
            bpmnModel.setEventSupport(new FlowableEventSupport());

            // Validation successful (or no validation)

            // Attach logic to the processes (eg. map ActivityBehaviors to bpmn model elements)
            applyParseHandlers();

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Read the aggregated error list in the exception message — it contains line numbers for each problem
2. Fix each reported XML issue (element names, required attributes, valid references)
3. Validate locally against the Flowable XSD (or run the process through a validating parser) before deploying
4. Check that the process was exported from a compatible modeler/Flowable version

Example fix

// before
<userTask id="t1"><flowable:extensionElemens>...</flowable:extensionElemens></userTask>
// after
<userTask id="t1"><extensionElements>...</extensionElements></userTask>

try {
    repositoryService.createDeployment().addClasspathResource("process.bpmn20.xml").deploy();
} catch (FlowableException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().startsWith("Errors while parsing:")) {
        log.error("BPMN validation failed:\n{}", e.getMessage());
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Deploying a BPMN file that fails XSD schema validation or Flowable semantic validation — e.g. unknown elements/attributes, invalid references (sequenceFlow to missing activity), malformed conditional expressions.

Common situations: Hand-edited process XML; XML from an older Flowable version using removed elements; a process referencing an undefined variable expression caught by validation; deploy() of a broken .bpmn20.xml resource.

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 parsing BPMN model.
• Error parsing XML
• invalid: multiple sources " + this.streamSource + " and " +
• The default BPMN parse handlers should only support one type
• Error while parsing BPMN model.

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3353f7d6088c3819. Report an issue: GitHub.