flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableException

problem reading zip input stream

Error message

problem reading zip input stream

What it means

addZipInputStream wraps any Exception raised while iterating zip entries (getNextEntry, read, close) in a FlowableException with this message, preserving the cause. It signals corrupted or unreadable zip content rather than a programming error.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-app-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/app/engine/impl/repository/AppDeploymentBuilderImpl.java:128

    }
    
    @Override
    public AppDeploymentBuilder addZipInputStream(ZipInputStream zipInputStream) {
        try {
            ZipEntry entry = zipInputStream.getNextEntry();
            while (entry != null) {
                if (!entry.isDirectory()) {
                    String entryName = entry.getName();
                    byte[] bytes = IoUtil.readInputStream(zipInputStream, entryName);
                    AppResourceEntity resource = resourceEntityManager.create();
                    resource.setName(entryName);
                    resource.setBytes(bytes);
                    deployment.addResource(resource);
                }
                entry = zipInputStream.getNextEntry();
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            throw new FlowableException("problem reading zip input stream", e);
        }
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public AppDeploymentBuilder name(String name) {
        deployment.setName(name);
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public AppDeploymentBuilder category(String category) {
        deployment.setCategory(category);
        return this;
    }
    
    @Override
    public AppDeploymentBuilder key(String key) {

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped cause (e.getCause()) to find the underlying zip error.
2. Verify the file is a valid, complete zip (unzip -t / ZipFile test) before deploying.
3. Re-download or re-export the artifact.
4. Ensure the stream is fresh and not closed before addZipInputStream runs; keep construction and deployment in the same scope.

Example fix

// before
builder.addZipInputStream(new java.util.zip.ZipInputStream(closedStream));
// after
try (InputStream in = new java.io.FileInputStream(zipFile)) {
    builder.addZipInputStream(new java.util.zip.ZipInputStream(in));
} catch (FlowableException e) {
    logger.error("bad app zip: {}", e.getCause());
    throw e;
}

// verify the stream is a readable zip before deploying
if (!zipFile.getName().endsWith(".zip") && !zipFile.getName().endsWith(".bar"))
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("not a zip artifact: " + zipFile);

try {
    builder.addZipInputStream(new java.util.zip.ZipInputStream(in));
} catch (org.flowable.common.engine.api.FlowableException e) {
    Throwable cause = e.getCause();
    logger.error("Zip deploy failed: {}", cause == null ? e : cause);
    throw new IllegalStateException("Invalid app zip artifact", e);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a corrupt/truncated zip stream, a stream of wrong format (e.g. gzip), an already-closed stream, or an entry read that throws IOException while deploying an app bar file via addZipInputStream.

Common situations: Incomplete upload of an app .zip/.bar artifact, file renamed to .zip without being a zip, stream closed by a try-with-resources before the builder consumes it, or an interrupted download.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to read file", EACCES, ENOENT and "could not read <path>" errors: when a program can't read a file from disk — this error's family across 49 libraries.

Related errors

• problem reading zip input stream
• Failed to read resource ${resource}
• text is null
• bytes array is null
• deploymentId is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b9ea3a39fcc4bcf3. Report an issue: GitHub.