pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · ArgumentInvalidError

Module map contains an empty module identifier.

Error message

Module map contains an empty module identifier.

What it means

pentaho.lang.ArgumentInvalidError thrown by prepareModule in MetaService while validating a moduleSpecMap: a key in the map is an empty (falsy) module identifier. Every module entry in the map must be indexed by a non-empty id.

Solutions

1. Fix the key in the moduleSpecMap so every entry has a non-empty string id.
2. Log the incoming map before configuration to spot the empty key.
3. Skip or default empty ids at map construction time.

Example fix

// before
var map = {}; map[getConfig("moduleId")] = spec; // moduleId may be ""
// after
var id = getConfig("moduleId");
if(id) map[id] = spec;

Object.keys(moduleSpecMap).forEach(function(k) {
  if(!k) throw new Error("empty module id in moduleSpecMap");
});

function hasValidIds(map) { return Object.keys(map).every(function(k) { return typeof k === "string" && k.length > 0; }); }

try { metaService.__configure(map); } catch(e) { if(/empty module identifier/.test(e.message)) { console.error("bad keys:", Object.keys(map)); } else { throw e; } }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling __configure/metaService configuration with a map like {"": {...}} or {null: {...}}, typically from a computed key that evaluated to an empty string.

Common situations: Dynamically building the module map from config or variables where an id variable was empty; JSON config with an empty-string key; templated module definitions where substitution failed.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

• Module with id ' ' provides no specification.
• A module with id ' ' is not defined.
• A module with the id or alias
• ERROR_INVALID_ARGUMENT
• Expected module with id or alias

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/db2e4fb45356212c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/core-ui/src/main/resources/app/pentaho/_core/module/MetaService.js:86

        var me = this;

        var preparedModuleSpecMap = {};
        var preparedModuleIdList = [];

        O.eachOwn(moduleSpecMap, prepareModule, this);

        preparedModuleIdList.forEach(function(id) {
          moduleResolver(id);
        });

        return this;

        // ---

        // 1. Perform basic validation and index by id and alias.
        function prepareModule(moduleSpec, id) {
          if(!id) {
            throw new ArgumentInvalidError(
              "moduleSpecMap",
              "Module map contains an empty module identifier.");
          }

          if(!moduleSpec) {
            throw new ArgumentInvalidError(
              "moduleSpecMap",
              "Module with id '" + id + "' provides no specification.");
          }

          // ---

          var module = this.__get(id);
          if(module !== null) {
            module.__configure(moduleSpec);
          } else {

            if(O.hasOwn(preparedModuleSpecMap, id)) {

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