pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleXMLException

Unable to load job entry of type 'special' from XML node

Error message

Unable to load job entry of type 'special' from XML node

What it means

JobEntrySpecial.loadXML wraps any KettleException raised while parsing the 'special' (scheduler) job entry's XML tags (e.g. intervalMinutes, hour, minutes, weekDay, dayOfMonth, repeat flags) and rethrows as KettleXMLException 'Unable to load job entry of type special from XML node'. The schedule metadata in the job file could not be parsed.

Solutions

  1. Inspect the .kjb XML around the 'special' entry and fix malformed tags or values.
  2. Restore the job file from backup or version control.
  3. Recreate the Start/scheduler entry in Spoon and re-save the job.
  4. Verify file encoding and that the file was not altered in transfer (line-ending or BOM corruption).
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

DocumentBuilder db = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder();
db.parse(new File("job.kjb")); // reject malformed job XML before kettle loads it

Try / catch

try {
  entry.loadXML(entryNode, databases, slaveServers, rep, metaStore);
} catch (KettleXMLException e) {
  logger.error("'special' entry XML invalid: " + e.getMessage(), e);
  // fall back to default schedule or abort load
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Loading a .kjb whose <special> entry node has malformed XML or throws while XMLHandler.getTagValue/Const.toInt conversion runs inside the try block.

Common situations: Hand-edited job file with broken tags; truncated/corrupted download or transfer; old-format job file opened in a newer Pentaho version with changed node structure.

Understand the failure class

Background: JSON parse error: "Unexpected token" / "not valid JSON" / "failed to parse" — what JSON parsers are really complaining about — this error's family across 45 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3ddeb551c3a6b27e. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at engine/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/job/entries/special/JobEntrySpecial.java:114

    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 );
      start = "Y".equalsIgnoreCase( XMLHandler.getTagValue( entrynode, "start" ) );
      dummy = "Y".equalsIgnoreCase( XMLHandler.getTagValue( entrynode, "dummy" ) );
      repeat = "Y".equalsIgnoreCase( XMLHandler.getTagValue( entrynode, "repeat" ) );
      setSchedulerType( Const.toInt( XMLHandler.getTagValue( entrynode, "schedulerType" ), NOSCHEDULING ) );
      setIntervalSeconds( Const.toInt( XMLHandler.getTagValue( entrynode, "intervalSeconds" ), 0 ) );
      setIntervalMinutes( Const.toInt( XMLHandler.getTagValue( entrynode, "intervalMinutes" ), 0 ) );
      setHour( Const.toInt( XMLHandler.getTagValue( entrynode, "hour" ), 0 ) );
      setMinutes( Const.toInt( XMLHandler.getTagValue( entrynode, "minutes" ), 0 ) );
      setWeekDay( Const.toInt( XMLHandler.getTagValue( entrynode, "weekDay" ), 0 ) );
      setDayOfMonth( Const.toInt( XMLHandler.getTagValue( entrynode, "dayOfMonth" ), 0 ) );
    } catch ( KettleException e ) {
      throw new KettleXMLException( "Unable to load job entry of type 'special' from XML node", e );
    }
  }

  public void loadRep( Repository rep, IMetaStore metaStore, ObjectId id_jobentry, List<DatabaseMeta> databases,
    List<SlaveServer> slaveServers ) throws KettleException {
    try {
      start = rep.getJobEntryAttributeBoolean( id_jobentry, "start" );
      dummy = rep.getJobEntryAttributeBoolean( id_jobentry, "dummy" );
      repeat = rep.getJobEntryAttributeBoolean( id_jobentry, "repeat" );
      schedulerType = (int) rep.getJobEntryAttributeInteger( id_jobentry, "schedulerType" );
      intervalSeconds = (int) rep.getJobEntryAttributeInteger( id_jobentry, "intervalSeconds" );
      intervalMinutes = (int) rep.getJobEntryAttributeInteger( id_jobentry, "intervalMinutes" );
      hour = (int) rep.getJobEntryAttributeInteger( id_jobentry, "hour" );
      minutes = (int) rep.getJobEntryAttributeInteger( id_jobentry, "minutes" );
      weekDay = (int) rep.getJobEntryAttributeInteger( id_jobentry, "weekDay" );
      dayOfMonth = (int) rep.getJobEntryAttributeInteger( id_jobentry, "dayOfMonth" );
    } catch ( KettleDatabaseException dbe ) {
      throw new KettleException( "Unable to load job entry of type 'special' from the repository for id_jobentry="

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