pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleXMLException

DenormaliserMeta.Exception.UnableToLoadStepInfoFromXML

DenormaliserMeta.Exception.UnableToLoadStepInfoFromXML

Error message

DenormaliserMeta.Exception.UnableToLoadStepInfoFromXML

What it means

DenormaliserMeta.loadXML reads the step's configuration from the .ktr XML via readData. Any exception while parsing the <denormaliser> block (target field nodes, aggregation types, etc.) is wrapped in a KettleXMLException with this generic message and the original cause preserved.

Solutions

Inspect the cause chain of the KettleXMLException for the exact parse failure.
Validate the .ktr XML and confirm the denormaliser step block contains complete target field nodes.
Recreate the Denormaliser step in Spoon and re-save the transformation to regenerate valid XML.
Open and re-save the file in the same Pentaho version it will run under.

Example fix

// before (truncated node)
<field><field_name>amount</field_name>
// after (complete node)
<field><field_name>amount</field_name><target_aggregation_type>SUM</target_aggregation_type>...</field>

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// Validate XML well-formedness before loading
DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder().parse(new File(ktrPath));

Try / catch

try { denormMeta.loadXML(node, databases, metaStore); } catch (KettleXMLException e) {
  log.error("Denormaliser XML load failed: {}", e.getCause(), e);
}

Prevention

Edit transformations only through Spoon, never by hand-editing XML.
Version-control .ktr files to detect corruption quickly.
Re-save transformations when migrating between Pentaho versions.
Check the cause chain to locate the malformed node.

When it happens

Trigger: loadXML -> readData hits an Exception while reading denormaliserTargetField nodes via XMLHandler.getTagValue (missing nodes, malformed XML, incompatible attributes).

Common situations: Hand-edited or truncated .ktr file; XML produced by a different Pentaho version with a changed schema; corrupted save; copy-pasted step XML missing required child nodes.

Understand the failure class

Background: JSON parse error: "Unexpected token" / "not valid JSON" / "failed to parse" — what JSON parsers are really complaining about — this error's family across 45 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/64279ad483d5e529. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/denormaliser/DenormaliserMeta.java:246

        denormaliserTargetField[i].setTargetName( XMLHandler.getTagValue( fnode, "target_name" ) );
        denormaliserTargetField[i].setTargetType( XMLHandler.getTagValue( fnode, "target_type" ) );
        denormaliserTargetField[i].setTargetFormat( XMLHandler.getTagValue( fnode, "target_format" ) );
        denormaliserTargetField[i].setTargetLength( Const.toInt(
          XMLHandler.getTagValue( fnode, "target_length" ), -1 ) );
        denormaliserTargetField[i].setTargetPrecision( Const.toInt( XMLHandler.getTagValue(
          fnode, "target_precision" ), -1 ) );
        denormaliserTargetField[i]
          .setTargetDecimalSymbol( XMLHandler.getTagValue( fnode, "target_decimal_symbol" ) );
        denormaliserTargetField[i].setTargetGroupingSymbol( XMLHandler.getTagValue(
          fnode, "target_grouping_symbol" ) );
        denormaliserTargetField[i].setTargetCurrencySymbol( XMLHandler.getTagValue(
          fnode, "target_currency_symbol" ) );
        denormaliserTargetField[i].setTargetNullString( XMLHandler.getTagValue( fnode, "target_null_string" ) );
        denormaliserTargetField[i].setTargetAggregationType( XMLHandler.getTagValue(
          fnode, "target_aggregation_type" ) );
      }
    } catch ( Exception e ) {
      throw new KettleXMLException( BaseMessages.getString(
        PKG, "DenormaliserMeta.Exception.UnableToLoadStepInfoFromXML" ), e );
    }
  }

  public String getXML() {
    StringBuilder retval = new StringBuilder();

    retval.append( "      " + XMLHandler.addTagValue( "key_field", keyField ) );

    retval.append( "      <group>" + Const.CR );
    for ( int i = 0; i < groupField.length; i++ ) {
      retval.append( "        <field>" + Const.CR );
      retval.append( "          " + XMLHandler.addTagValue( "name", groupField[i] ) );
      retval.append( "          </field>" + Const.CR );
    }
    retval.append( "        </group>" + Const.CR );

    retval.append( "      <fields>" + Const.CR );

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