pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · ContentCreationException

Failed to create the content-location

Error message

Failed to create the content-location

What it means

In createLocation, after child.createFile() succeeds, constructing the new FileObjectContentLocation wrapper may itself throw ContentIOException; this is rethrown as ContentCreationException 'Failed to create the content-location' with the original exception chained.

Solutions

1. Inspect the chained ContentIOException cause for the actual wrap failure.
2. Verify the VFS scheme/provider used supports folder semantics (prefer file/local providers for output dirs).
3. Delete the just-created child and retry, or use a different output location.
4. Avoid createLocation on providers known to treat everything as files; use createItem for leaf outputs instead.

Example fix

// before
ContentLocation sub = location.createLocation("exports");
// after
try {
  sub = location.createLocation("exports");
} catch (ContentCreationException e) {
  // child may have been created as a plain file; remove and retry
  location.getEntry("exports").delete();
  sub = location.createLocation("exports");
}

try {
  sub = location.createLocation(name);
} catch (ContentCreationException e) {
  Throwable cause = e.getCause(); // ContentIOException from wrapper construction
  // cleanup partially created child and retry or abort with clear message
}

When it happens

Trigger: new FileObjectContentLocation(this, child) throwing ContentIOException — typically because the freshly created child does not behave as a folder in the backing VFS (e.g. provider created it as a plain file).

Common situations: Filesystem providers that don't distinguish folders from files (createFile produced a file, not a folder), so wrapping fails; unusual VFS schemes or corrupted temp output directories.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to write file", "Could not save figure", "Error saving remote file" — file write failed: causes and fixes across languages and libraries — this error's family across 38 libraries.

Related errors

• File already exists:
• File already exists.
• folder [
• Not File nor directory.
• AbstractFileErrorHandler.Exception.CouldNotCreateFileErrorHandlerForFile

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0f98ecbc334f4881. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/pentaho-reporting/impl/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/pentahoreporting/urlrepository/FileObjectContentLocation.java:195

   * @param name the name of the new entity.
   * @return the newly created entity, never null.
   * @throws ContentCreationException if the item could not be created.
   */
  public ContentLocation createLocation( final String name ) throws ContentCreationException {
    if ( RepositoryUtilities.isInvalidPathName( name ) ) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException( "The name given is not valid." );
    }
    try {
      final FileObject file = getBackend();
      final FileObject child = file.resolveFile( name );
      if ( child.exists() ) {
        throw new ContentCreationException( "File already exists." );
      }
      child.createFile();
      try {
        return new FileObjectContentLocation( this, child );
      } catch ( ContentIOException e ) {
        throw new ContentCreationException( "Failed to create the content-location", e );
      }
    } catch ( FileSystemException e ) {
      throw new RuntimeException( e );
    }
  }

  /**
   * Checks, whether an content entity with the given name exists in this content location. This method will report
   * invalid filenames as non-existent.
   *
   * @param name the name of the new entity.
   * @return true, if an entity exists with this name, false otherwise.
   */
  public boolean exists( final String name ) {
    if ( RepositoryUtilities.isInvalidPathName( name ) ) {
      return false;
    }
    try {

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