pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleXMLException

JobEntryEval.UnableToLoadFromXml

Error message

JobEntryEval.UnableToLoadFromXml

What it means

JobEntryEval.loadXML() reads the <script> tag from a job entry's XML node; any Exception during XML parsing (including from super.loadXML) is rethrown as a KettleXMLException with the localized message 'JobEntryEval.UnableToLoadFromXml'. It means the Eval (JavaScript) job entry could not be deserialized from a .kjb job file.

Solutions

  1. Inspect the chained cause to find the exact XML parse failure and tag involved.
  2. Open the .kjb in Spoon; if it fails, repair or recreate the Eval job entry node so the <script> element is well-formed.
  3. Check the file was not truncated or corrupted in transit and re-export the job.
  4. Confirm the Pentaho/Kettle version that produced the XML matches the runtime version.
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// Validate job XML before loading
Document doc = XMLHandler.loadXMLFile(jobFile);
if (XMLHandler.getSubNode(doc, "job") == null) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("Not a valid Kettle job XML");
}

Try / catch

try {
  JobMeta meta = new JobMeta(jobFile, rep, metaStore);
} catch (KettleXMLException e) {
  logError("Failed to load Eval entry from XML: " + e.getMessage(), e);
  // fall back to re-exported job or backup copy
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Loading a job (JobMeta constructed from an XML file or stream) that contains a JobEntryEval node whose XML is malformed, whose 'script' tag cannot be read, or whose parent JobEntryBase.loadXML fails.

Common situations: Corrupted or hand-edited .kjb file; XML produced by a newer Pentaho version with an incompatible layout; truncation of the file during transfer; missing tags after a merge conflict.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to unmarshal" / json.Unmarshal errors: why parsing a response into a Go struct fails and how to fix it — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/39a9827ad64d753d. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/job/entries/eval/JobEntryEval.java:85

    return je;
  }

  public String getXML() {
    StringBuilder retval = new StringBuilder( 50 );

    retval.append( super.getXML() );
    retval.append( "      " ).append( XMLHandler.addTagValue( "script", script ) );

    return retval.toString();
  }

  public void loadXML( Node entrynode, List<DatabaseMeta> databases, List<SlaveServer> slaveServers,
    Repository rep, IMetaStore metaStore ) throws KettleXMLException {
    try {
      super.loadXML( entrynode, databases, slaveServers );
      script = XMLHandler.getTagValue( entrynode, "script" );
    } catch ( Exception e ) {
      throw new KettleXMLException( BaseMessages.getString( PKG, "JobEntryEval.UnableToLoadFromXml" ), e );
    }
  }

  public void loadRep( Repository rep, IMetaStore metaStore, ObjectId id_jobentry, List<DatabaseMeta> databases,
    List<SlaveServer> slaveServers ) throws KettleException {
    try {
      script = rep.getJobEntryAttributeString( id_jobentry, "script" );
    } catch ( KettleDatabaseException dbe ) {
      throw new KettleException( BaseMessages.getString( PKG, "JobEntryEval.UnableToLoadFromRepo", String
        .valueOf( id_jobentry ) ), dbe );
    }
  }

  // Save the attributes of this job entry
  //
  public void saveRep( Repository rep, IMetaStore metaStore, ObjectId id_job ) throws KettleException {
    try {
      rep.saveJobEntryAttribute( id_job, getObjectId(), "script", script );

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