pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleException

Unexpected error reading back a ResultFile object from XML

Error message

Unexpected error reading back a ResultFile object from XML

What it means

The Result(Node) XML-deserialization constructor throws KettleException when a ResultFile node cannot be reconstructed — its ResultFile constructor raised a KettleFileException (missing/invalid attributes such as file type, encoding, or timestamp).

Solutions

  1. Validate the source XML against the expected Result schema (result-files nodes with file/type/timestamp children)
  2. Regenerate the XML from a successful run instead of trusting stored/corrupted XML
  3. Check PDI version compatibility of the XML producer and consumer
  4. Wrap the Result(Node) construction and handle KettleException to skip/repair bad result-file entries

Example fix

// before
Result result = new Result(resultNode);
// after
try {
  Result result = new Result(resultNode);
} catch (KettleException e) {
  log.warn("Result XML contains invalid result-file entries", e);
  result = new Result();
}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// pre-check the XML before constructing Result
Node filesNode = XMLHandler.getSubNode(node, "result-files");
if (filesNode != null && XMLHandler.countNodes(filesNode, "result-file") > 0) {
  for (int i = 0; i < XMLHandler.countNodes(filesNode, "file"); i++) {
    Node f = XMLHandler.getSubNodeByNr(filesNode, "file", i);
    if (XMLHandler.getNodeValue(XMLHandler.getSubNode(f, "path")) == null) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid result-file entry at index " + i);
    }
  }
}

Try / catch

try {
  Result result = new Result(node);
} catch (KettleException e) {
  // regenerate result or fall back to an empty Result
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Reading a Result XML blob (e.g. from job executor results or serialized job entry output) where the <result-file> element lacks required child nodes or has invalid values, causing new ResultFile(Node) to fail.

Common situations: Hand-edited or truncated result XML, XML produced by a different PDI version with a changed ResultFile schema, XML stored in a database/repo and corrupted, copying result XML between environments.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8814a67f745e7902. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at core/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/core/Result.java:702

    logChannelId = XMLHandler.getTagValue( node, "log_channel_id" );
    String tagText = XMLHandler.getTagValue( node, "log_text" );
    if ( tagText != null ) {
      logText = new StringBuilder( tagText );
    }
    elapsedTimeMillis = Const.toLong( XMLHandler.getTagValue( node, "elapsedTimeMillis" ), 0L );
    executionId = XMLHandler.getTagValue( node, "executionId" );

    // Now read back the result files...
    //
    Node resultFilesNode = XMLHandler.getSubNode( node, XML_FILES_TAG );
    int nrResultFiles = XMLHandler.countNodes( resultFilesNode, XML_FILE_TAG );
    for ( int i = 0; i < nrResultFiles; i++ ) {
      try {
        ResultFile resultFile = new ResultFile( XMLHandler.getSubNodeByNr( resultFilesNode, XML_FILE_TAG, i ) );
        resultFiles.put( resultFile.getFile().toString(), resultFile );
      } catch ( KettleFileException e ) {
        throw new KettleException( "Unexpected error reading back a ResultFile object from XML", e );
      }
    }

    // Let's also read back the result rows...
    //
    Node resultRowsNode = XMLHandler.getSubNode( node, XML_ROWS_TAG );
    List<Node> resultNodes = XMLHandler.getNodes( resultRowsNode, RowMeta.XML_DATA_TAG );
    if ( !resultNodes.isEmpty() ) {
      // OK, get the metadata first...
      //
      RowMeta rowMeta = new RowMeta( XMLHandler.getSubNode( resultRowsNode, RowMeta.XML_META_TAG ) );
      for ( Node resultNode : resultNodes ) {
        Object[] rowData = rowMeta.getRow( resultNode );
        rows.add( new RowMetaAndData( rowMeta, rowData ) );
      }
    }

  }

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