pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleXMLException

YamlInputMeta.Exception.ErrorLoadingXML

Error message

YamlInputMeta.Exception.ErrorLoadingXML

What it means

YamlInputMeta.readData wraps XML deserialization of the step's settings; any exception while reading tags from the step XML node is rethrown as a KettleXMLException with this message, including the underlying exception's toString. It protects the loader from partially corrupt step metadata.

Solutions

  1. Read the nested exception in the message to identify which tag/value failed to parse.
  2. Open the .ktr in a text editor and fix or remove the malformed tag for this step (e.g. non-numeric <limit>).
  3. Recreate the YAML Input step in Spoon and re-enter its settings.
  4. Align PDI versions between the environment that wrote and the one reading the transformation.

Example fix

// before: corrupt XML
<limit>abc</limit>
// after: valid numeric value
<limit>0</limit>
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// validate XML before handing it to Kettle
try { Document d = XMLHandler.loadXMLString(xml); if (d == null) throw new IllegalArgumentException("null step node"); }
catch (KettleXMLException e) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("malformed step XML", e); }

Try / catch

try { meta.loadXML(stepNode, databases, metaStore, transMeta, null); }
catch (KettleXMLException e) {
  log.error("Corrupt YAML Input step XML: " + e.getMessage(), e);
  meta = new YamlInputMeta(); // fall back to defaults and reconfigure
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: loadXML -> readData: any XMLHandler.getTagValue call or conversion (e.g. Const.toLong on 'limit', boolean parsing of 'IsInFields') throws because the XML fragment is malformed or an unexpected value is present.

Common situations: Hand-edited .ktr files, transformations written by a different PDI version with an incompatible schema, truncated/corrupt repository export, copy-paste of XML between transformations with mismatched tags.

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/6fbcfb1883865a01. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/yaml-input/impl/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/yamlinput/YamlInputMeta.java:513

        fileName[i] = XMLHandler.getNodeValue( filenamenode );
        fileMask[i] = XMLHandler.getNodeValue( filemasknode );
        fileRequired[i] = XMLHandler.getNodeValue( fileRequirednode );
        includeSubFolders[i] = XMLHandler.getNodeValue( includeSubFoldersnode );
      }

      for ( int i = 0; i < nrFields; i++ ) {
        Node fnode = XMLHandler.getSubNodeByNr( fields, "field", i );
        YamlInputField field = new YamlInputField( fnode );
        inputFields[i] = field;
      }

      // Is there a limit on the number of rows we process?
      rowLimit = Const.toLong( XMLHandler.getTagValue( stepnode, "limit" ), 0L );
      inFields = "Y".equalsIgnoreCase( XMLHandler.getTagValue( stepnode, "IsInFields" ) );
      IsAFile = "Y".equalsIgnoreCase( XMLHandler.getTagValue( stepnode, "IsAFile" ) );
      yamlField = XMLHandler.getTagValue( stepnode, "YamlField" );
    } catch ( Exception e ) {
      throw new KettleXMLException( BaseMessages.getString( PKG, "YamlInputMeta.Exception.ErrorLoadingXML", e
        .toString() ) );
    }
  }

  public void allocate( int nrfiles, int nrfields ) {
    fileName = new String[nrfiles];
    fileMask = new String[nrfiles];
    fileRequired = new String[nrfiles];
    includeSubFolders = new String[nrfiles];
    inputFields = new YamlInputField[nrfields];
  }

  @Override
  public void setDefault() {
    IsIgnoreEmptyFile = false;
    doNotFailIfNoFile = true;
    includeFilename = false;
    filenameField = "";

View on GitHub (pinned to f3058517a1)