pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleException

No data location defined

Error message

No data location defined

What it means

During AvroInput.initializeSource, when the data location type is FIELD_NAME the input comes from a named incoming field; otherwise it must come from a configured data location (file/stream). If meta.getDataLocation() is null the step has no idea where to read Avro data from, so it aborts with a KettleException.

Solutions

  1. Open the Avro Input step dialog and set the data location (file name or stream source)
  2. If the location is a variable, verify the variable is defined at runtime
  3. If building StepMeta in code, call meta.setDataLocation(...) before execution

Example fix

// before
meta.setDataLocationType(AvroInputMetaBase.LocationDescriptor.FILENAME);
// no location set
// after
meta.setDataLocationType(AvroInputMetaBase.LocationDescriptor.FILENAME);
meta.setDataLocation("${Internal.Transformation.Filename.Directory}/data.avro");
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (!AvroInputMetaBase.LocationDescriptor.FIELD_NAME.equals(meta.getDataLocationType())
    && (meta.getDataLocation() == null || meta.getDataLocation().isEmpty())) {
  throw new KettleException("Avro Input step requires a data location (file/stream) unless reading from a field");
}

Type guard

boolean hasDataLocation(AvroInputMetaBase meta) {
  return meta.getDataLocationType() == AvroInputMetaBase.LocationDescriptor.FIELD_NAME
      || (meta.getDataLocation() != null && !meta.getDataLocation().isEmpty());
}

Try / catch

try {
  initializeSource(inputToStepRow);
} catch (KettleException e) {
  logError("Avro input source is not configured: " + e.getMessage(), e);
  setErrors(1);
  stopAll();
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Running the Avro Input step with a location type other than FIELD_NAME while the 'data location' (filename/stream source) was never set in the step metadata.

Common situations: Transformation copied between environments where the file path variable is undefined; step created programmatically without setDataLocation; a repository/XML load that lost the location attribute.

Understand the failure class

Background: "is required", "must be set", "missing required field": configuration validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 36 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/06b15ffbe648fff9. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/avro-format/core/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/avro/input/AvroInput.java:178

    in.setInputSchemaFile( schemaPath );
    in.setInputFile( dataPath );
    in.setBowl( bowl );
    return in.getLeafFields();
  }

  /**
   * @return false if no rows to process
   * @throws Exception
   */
  private boolean initializeSource() throws Exception {
    inputToStepRow = getRow();
    if ( inputToStepRow == null && ( meta.getDataLocationType()
      == AvroInputMetaBase.LocationDescriptor.FIELD_NAME ) ) {
      fileFinishedHousekeeping();
      return false;
    }
    if ( meta.getDataLocation() == null ) {
      throw new KettleException( "No data location defined" );
    }

    // setup the output row meta
    RowMetaInterface outRowMeta = null;
    outRowMeta = getInputRowMeta();
    if ( outRowMeta != null ) {
      outRowMeta = outRowMeta.clone();
    } else {
      outRowMeta = new RowMeta();
    }

    data.input = new PentahoAvroInputFormat();
    meta.getFields( getTransMeta().getBowl(), outRowMeta, getStepname(), null, null, this, null, null );
    data.input.setIncomingRowMeta( getInputRowMeta() );
    data.input.setOutputRowMeta( outRowMeta );
    data.input.setBowl( getTransMeta().getBowl() );
    Boolean isDatum = false;
    Boolean useFieldAsSchema = false;

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