pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleException

e.getMessage()

Error message

e.getMessage()

What it means

getRequestBodyParamsAsStr encodes parameter pairs with URLEncoder.encode using a charset; if that charset is not supported by the JVM, UnsupportedEncodingException is caught and rethrown as KettleException whose message is e.getMessage() (the unsupported charset name).

Solutions

  1. Set the step Encoding to a valid charset name such as 'UTF-8' or 'ISO-8859-1'.
  2. Leave the encoding blank to fall back to DEFAULT_ENCODING when unsure.
  3. Verify supported names via Charset.availableCharsets() or java.nio.charset docs.
  4. Fix any environment variable supplying the encoding value.

Example fix

// before (dialog config)
encoding="utf_8"; // invalid
// after
encoding="UTF-8"; // valid IANA charset name
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

String enc = meta.getEncoding();
if (enc != null && !enc.isEmpty() && !java.nio.charset.Charset.isSupported(enc))
  throw new KettleException("Unsupported encoding: " + enc);

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: bodyParams or getRequestBodyParametersAsStringWithNullEncoding call getRequestBodyParamsAsStr; the step's configured encoding (meta.getEncoding(), via data.realEncoding/charset) is not a supported charset name (e.g. misspelled 'utf_8', 'utf-8859-1').

Common situations: Typo in the 'Encoding' field of the step dialog; using an encoding name not present on the JVM; passing user/env-provided encoding strings like '${ENC}' that resolve incorrectly.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c1324d3659dc0297. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/httppost/HTTPPOST.java:521

    StringBuffer buf = new StringBuffer();
    try {
      for ( int i = 0; i < pairs.length; ++i ) {
        NameValuePair pair = pairs[ i ];
        if ( pair.getName() != null ) {
          if ( i > 0 ) {
            buf.append( "&" );
          }

          buf.append( URLEncoder.encode( pair.getName(), !StringUtil.isEmpty( charset ) ? charset : DEFAULT_ENCODING ) );
          buf.append( "=" );
          if ( pair.getValue() != null ) {
            buf.append( URLEncoder.encode( pair.getValue(), !StringUtil.isEmpty( charset ) ? charset : DEFAULT_ENCODING ) );
          }
        }
      }
      return buf.toString();
    } catch ( UnsupportedEncodingException e ) {
      throw new KettleException( e.getMessage(), e.getCause() );
    }
  }

  public boolean init( StepMetaInterface smi, StepDataInterface sdi ) {
    meta = (HTTPPOSTMeta) smi;
    data = (HTTPPOSTData) sdi;

    if ( super.init( smi, sdi ) ) {
      // get authentication settings once
      data.realProxyHost = environmentSubstitute( meta.getProxyHost() );
      data.realProxyPort = Const.toInt( environmentSubstitute( meta.getProxyPort() ), 8080 );
      data.realHttpLogin = environmentSubstitute( meta.getHttpLogin() );
      data.realHttpPassword = Utils.resolvePassword( variables, meta.getHttpPassword() );

      data.realSocketTimeout = Const.toInt( environmentSubstitute( meta.getSocketTimeout() ), -1 );
      data.realConnectionTimeout = Const.toInt( environmentSubstitute( meta.getSocketTimeout() ), -1 );
      data.realcloseIdleConnectionsTime =
        Const.toInt( environmentSubstitute( meta.getCloseIdleConnectionsTime() ), -1 );

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