pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleStepException

Unable to parse shape type

Error message

Unable to parse shape type [${shapeType}] : not yet implemented.

What it means

ShapeFileReader.processRow throws this KettleStepException when a shape record has an ESRI shape type the step has no parsing branch for (the switch's default case). The shapefile format defines many geometry types, but this step only implements a subset; anything else is unparseable. The same message is also printed to stdout before throwing.

Solutions

1. Identify the shape type in the .shp file (e.g. with ogrinfo -so or a GIS tool) and re-export/convert the data to a supported type such as Polygon or Polyline.
2. Use a different input step (e.g. a GDAL/OGR-based or CSV export) for unsupported geometry types.
3. Patch ShapeFileReader.processRow to add a case for the needed shape type and rebuild the plugin.
4. Filter out or preprocess records with unsupported types before the step.

Example fix

// before
switch ( type ) {
  case Shape.SHAPE_TYPE_POLYGON:
    ...
  default:
    throw new KettleStepException( "Unable to parse shape type ..." );
}
// after
switch ( type ) {
  case Shape.SHAPE_TYPE_POLYGON:
    ...
  case Shape.SHAPE_TYPE_POINT_Z: // newly supported
    si = new ShapePointZ( content );
    break;
  default:
    throw new KettleStepException( "Unable to parse shape type ..." );
}

int shapeType = si.getType();
Set<Integer> supported = Set.of( Shape.SHAPE_TYPE_POINT, Shape.SHAPE_TYPE_POLYGON, Shape.SHAPE_TYPE_POLYLINE );
if ( !supported.contains( shapeType ) ) {
  throw new KettleException( "Unsupported shape type " + Shape.getEsriTypeDesc( shapeType ) + " — convert the file first" );
}

When it happens

Trigger: Processing a .shp whose shape header type (Shape.getEsriTypeDesc(si.getType())) is not one of the implemented types in the switch (e.g. PointM, PointZ, MultiPatch, MultiPoint variants). Occurs mid-transformation while iterating shapes via processRow.

Common situations: Users point the ShapeFileReader step at modern or exotic shapefiles (Z/M geometries, MultiPatch from 3D GIS exports) that contain geometry types the plugin was never extended to support.

Understand the failure class

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

• Error reading shape file
• shape type : not recognized! ( )
• Unable to clone row
• Unable to read from DBF file
• Unable to read from DBF file: no filename specfied

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/eeb3317ed62eb7aa. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/shapefilereader/core/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/shapefilereader/ShapeFileReader.java:334

        Object[] dbfData = si.getDbfData();
        RowMetaInterface dbfMeta = si.getDbfMeta();
        for ( int d = 0; d < dbfMeta.size(); d++ ) {
          outputRow[ outputIndex++ ] = dbfData[ d ];
        }

        linesInput++;

        // Put it out to the rest of the world...
        try {
          putRow( data.outputRowMeta, data.outputRowMeta.cloneRow( outputRow ) );
        } catch ( KettleValueException e ) {
          throw new KettleStepException( "Unable to clone row", e );
        }
        break;
      default:
        System.out.println(
          "Unable to parse shape type [" + Shape.getEsriTypeDesc( si.getType() ) + "] : not yet implemented." );
        throw new KettleStepException(
          "Unable to parse shape type [" + Shape.getEsriTypeDesc( si.getType() ) + "] : not yet implemented." );
    }

    // Next shape please!
    data.shapeNr++;

    if ( ( linesInput % Const.ROWS_UPDATE ) == 0 ) {
      logBasic( "linenr " + linesInput );
    }

    return retval;
  }

  public boolean init( StepMetaInterface smi, StepDataInterface sdi ) {
    meta = (ShapeFileReaderMeta) smi;
    data = (ShapeFileReaderData) sdi;

    if ( super.init( meta, data ) ) {

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