pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · RepositoryClientException

Client error creating folder

Error message

Client error creating folder

What it means

createFolder() wraps any JAX-RS WebApplicationException or ProcessingException raised while PUTting to the folder-creation service into RepositoryClientException("Client error creating folder"). It means the HTTP client-side call itself failed (connection problem, bad request, server 4xx/5xx surfaced as an exception).

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped cause (getCause()) to distinguish connection vs. HTTP-status failures
2. Verify the server URL, port, and network reachability (curl the service endpoint)
3. Ensure the parent folder path exists and the user has create permissions on the server
4. Check authentication credentials - a 401/403 from the server surfaces here

Example fix

// before
client.createFolder( new String[]{"a","b"} ); // parent 'a' missing -> exception
// after
RepositoryFileTreeDto root = client.getRoot();
client.createFolder( new String[]{"a"} );
if ( client.getFileInfo( new String[]{"a"} ).isPresent() ) {
  client.createFolder( new String[]{"a","b"} );
}

// Preflight: server reachable and parent exists
try ( Response r = client.target( url + "/api/" ).request().get() ) {
  if ( r.getStatus() != 200 ) throw new IllegalStateException( "Server unreachable, status " + r.getStatus() );
}
boolean parentExists = client.getFileInfo( parentPath ).isPresent();

boolean canCreateFolder( RepositoryClient c, String[] path ) {
  return c.getFileInfo( Arrays.copyOf( path, path.length - 1 ) ).isPresent();
}

try {
  client.createFolder( path );
} catch ( RepositoryClientException e ) {
  Throwable cause = e.getCause();
  log.error( "Folder creation failed: {} (cause: {})", e.getMessage(), cause );
  if ( cause instanceof ProcessingException ) { /* network: check server/URL */ }
}

When it happens

Trigger: PUT to url+service fails: server unreachable, network timeout, malformed URL, WebApplicationException from a 4xx/5xx response, or ProcessingException from serialization/connection issues.

Common situations: DI/Pentaho server down or wrong port; parent folder path does not exist server-side; authentication failure causing 401/403; firewall/proxy blocking the request.

Understand the failure class

Background: "API request failed": what wrapped HTTP errors from external APIs mean and how to find the real cause — this error's family across 29 libraries.

Related errors

• Carte.Error.NoServerFound
• Failed to fetch driver metadata for
• HTTP Status
• HTTP Status
• Auth error

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/78a6a10c064a495c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/repo-vfs/repo-vfs-ws/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/plugins/repovfs/ws/repo/RepositoryClient.java:166

    if ( tree == null || tree.getChildren() == null ) {
      return new RepositoryFileDto[0];
    }
    return tree.getChildren().stream().map( RepositoryFileTreeDto::getFile ).toArray( RepositoryFileDto[]::new );
  }

  /** Create folder with given path */
  public void createFolder( String filePath ) throws RepositoryClientException {
    try {
      String path = RepositoryPathEncoder.encodeRepositoryPath( filePath );
      String service = cfg.getCreateFolderSvc( path );

      WebTarget target = client.target( url + service );
      Response response = target.request( MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN ).put( Entity.text(" ") );
      if ( response.getStatus() != 200 ) {
        throw new RepositoryClientException( String.valueOf( response ) );
      }
    } catch ( WebApplicationException | ProcessingException e ) {
      throw new RepositoryClientException( "Client error creating folder", e );
    }
  }

  public RepositoryFileTreeDto getRoot() {
    return fetchChildTree( new String[0] ).orElse( null );
  }

  /** Download file contents */
  public InputStream getData( RepositoryFileDto fileDto ) {
    String urlPath = encodePath( fileDto.getPath() );
    // TODO: repo endpoint fails for unrecognized file types
    String endpoint = url + cfg.getDownloadSvc( urlPath );
    log.debug( "getData: " + endpoint );
    return client.target( endpoint ).request( MediaType.WILDCARD_TYPE ).get( InputStream.class );
  }

  /** Download file contents with a buffered input stream of the given size */
  public InputStream getData( RepositoryFileDto fileDto, int bufferSize ) {

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