pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleException

Unable to load image from classpath

Error message

Unable to load image from classpath : '<fileName>'

What it means

In SwingDirectGC.getImageIcon, when SVG support is enabled and the name is an .svg file, SvgSupport.loadSvgImage(inputStream) is invoked; any exception while parsing the SVG is wrapped in KettleException("Unable to load image from classpath : '<fileName>'", ex). Despite the wording, the stream here comes from FileInputStream on the given path, so the failure is usually a corrupt/unreadable SVG on disk.

Solutions

  1. Read the wrapped cause (ex.getCause()) to see the real parse/IO error and fix the SVG file.
  2. Validate the SVG opens in a browser/editor; re-export a clean SVG for the icon.
  3. Disable SVG support (use PNG/BMP icons) if the SVG renderer dependency is unavailable in your deployment.
  4. Check that the file at the path is readable by the process user.

Example fix

// before (corrupt icon.svg on disk)
// KettleException: Unable to load image from classpath : 'icon.svg'
// after
// replace icon.svg with a valid SVG, or switch to PNG:
String fileName = "icon.png"; // skips the SVG branch
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

File svg = new File(fileName);
if (!svg.isFile() || svg.length() == 0) throw new IOException("missing/empty svg: " + fileName);
if (!new String(java.nio.file.Files.readAllBytes(svg.toPath()), StandardCharsets.US_ASCII)
      .startsWith("<?xml") && !filesBytesStartsWith(svg, "<svg")) log.warn("file does not look like SVG");

Try / catch

try {
  gc.getImageIcon(fileName);
} catch (KettleException e) {
  Throwable cause = e.getCause();
  log.error("SVG load failed for " + fileName + ": " + cause, cause);
  image = loadPngFallback(fileName);
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: SVG support enabled (SvgSupport.isSvgEnabled() true) and fileName ends with an SVG extension, but loadSvgImage throws — corrupt SVG XML, file unreadable mid-read, unsupported SVG features, or a broken SVG renderer (e.g. missing BatX/SVGSalamander dependency).

Common situations: Deployments where the SVG rendering library is absent so SVG parsing fails; truncated or hand-edited .svg icon files; icons replaced with non-SVG content keeping the .svg extension.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to read file", EACCES, ENOENT and "could not read <path>" errors: when a program can't read a file from disk — this error's family across 49 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/19cb0d8de5e3fd96. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/core/gui/SwingDirectGC.java:270

      if ( inputStream == null ) {
        try {
          inputStream = new FileInputStream( "/" + fileName );
        } catch ( FileNotFoundException ex ) {
          // no need to fail
        }
      }
      if ( inputStream == null ) {
        inputStream = getClass().getResourceAsStream( fileName );
      }
      if ( inputStream == null ) {
        inputStream = getClass().getResourceAsStream( "/" + fileName );
      }
      if ( inputStream != null ) {
        try {
          SvgImage svg = SvgSupport.loadSvgImage( inputStream );
          image = new SwingUniversalImageSvg( svg );
        } catch ( Exception ex ) {
          throw new KettleException( "Unable to load image from classpath : '" + fileName + "'", ex );
        } finally {
          IOUtils.closeQuietly( inputStream );
        }
      }
    }

    if ( image == null ) {
      fileName = SvgSupport.toPngName( fileName );

      try {
        inputStream = new FileInputStream( fileName );
      } catch ( FileNotFoundException ex ) {
        // no need to fail
      }
      if ( inputStream == null ) {
        try {
          inputStream = new FileInputStream( "/" + fileName );
        } catch ( FileNotFoundException ex ) {

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