pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleXMLException

TransDependency.Exception.UnableToLoadTransformation

Error message

TransDependency.Exception.UnableToLoadTransformation

What it means

A KettleXMLException (message key TransDependency.Exception.UnableToLoadTransformation) thrown when a TransDependency cannot be parsed from its XML node: reading the 'connection', 'table', or 'field' tags failed. The original exception is attached as the cause.

Solutions

  1. Open the .ktr in Spoon and fix or delete the broken dependency entry under <dependencies>
  2. Validate the XML well-formedness of the transformation file
  3. Ensure each <dependency> has <connection>, <table>, and <field> child tags
  4. Re-save the transformation with a matching Kettle version

Example fix

// before: malformed
<dependency><connection>db</connection></dependency>
// after
<dependency><connection>db</connection><table>lookup</table><field>id</field></dependency>
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// validate each dependency node has required tags before constructing
for (Node dep : deps) {
  if (XMLHandler.getTagValue(dep, "connection") == null) throw new KettleException("dependency missing <connection>");
}

Try / catch

try { TransDependency dep = new TransDependency(depNode, databases); } catch (KettleXMLException e) { log.error("Bad dependency XML: " + e.getCause(), e); }

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Constructing TransDependency(Node depnode, List<DatabaseMeta> databases) from a .ktr XML where the dependency block is malformed or the XMLHandler calls throw.

Common situations: Hand-edited or truncated .ktr files; dependency XML generated by a different Kettle version with changed tags; corrupted repository export/import.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/40be7c860ad2f32a. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/TransDependency.java:73

    StringBuilder xml = new StringBuilder( 200 );

    xml.append( "      " ).append( XMLHandler.openTag( XML_TAG ) ).append( Const.CR );
    xml.append( "        " ).append( XMLHandler.addTagValue( "connection", db == null ? "" : db.getName() ) );
    xml.append( "        " ).append( XMLHandler.addTagValue( "table", tablename ) );
    xml.append( "        " ).append( XMLHandler.addTagValue( "field", fieldname ) );
    xml.append( "      " ).append( XMLHandler.closeTag( XML_TAG ) ).append( Const.CR );

    return xml.toString();
  }

  public TransDependency( Node depnode, List<DatabaseMeta> databases ) throws KettleXMLException {
    try {
      String depcon = XMLHandler.getTagValue( depnode, "connection" );
      db = DatabaseMeta.findDatabase( databases, depcon );
      tablename = XMLHandler.getTagValue( depnode, "table" );
      fieldname = XMLHandler.getTagValue( depnode, "field" );
    } catch ( Exception e ) {
      throw new KettleXMLException( BaseMessages.getString(
        PKG, "TransDependency.Exception.UnableToLoadTransformation" ), e );
    }
  }

  @Override
  public Object clone() throws CloneNotSupportedException {
    return super.clone();
  }

  public void setObjectId( ObjectId id ) {
    this.id = id;
  }

  public ObjectId getObjectId() {
    return id;
  }

  public void setDatabase( DatabaseMeta db ) {

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