quarkusio/quarkus · error · MojoExecutionException

Failed to locate element <name>

Error message

Failed to locate element <name>

What it means

CreateUtils.getElement scans a NodeList for an element matching the given local/node name. If no matching ELEMENT_NODE is found after iterating all children, it throws a MojoExecutionException 'Failed to locate element <name>'. It is a strict lookup: the caller (e.g. pluginNode, node) expects a structurally required element.

Source

Thrown at devtools/maven/src/main/java/io/quarkus/maven/CreateUtils.java:94

    private static String getChildElementTextValue(final Node parentNode, String childName) throws MojoExecutionException {
        final Node node = getElement(parentNode.getChildNodes(), childName);
        final String text = getText(node);
        if (text.isEmpty()) {
            throw new MojoExecutionException(
                    "The " + parentNode.getNodeName() + " element description is missing child " + childName);
        }
        return text;
    }

    private static Node getElement(NodeList nodeList, String name) throws MojoExecutionException {
        for (int i = 0; i < nodeList.getLength(); ++i) {
            final Node item = nodeList.item(i);
            if (item.getNodeType() == Node.ELEMENT_NODE
                    && (name.equals(item.getNodeName()) || name.equals(item.getLocalName()))) {
                return item;
            }
        }
        throw new MojoExecutionException("Failed to locate element " + name);
    }

    private static String getText(Node node) {
        if (!node.hasChildNodes()) {
            return "";
        }
        StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer();
        NodeList list = node.getChildNodes();
        for (int i = 0; i < list.getLength(); i++) {
            Node subnode = list.item(i);
            if (subnode.getNodeType() == Node.TEXT_NODE) {
                result.append(subnode.getNodeValue());
            } else if (subnode.getNodeType() == Node.CDATA_SECTION_NODE) {
                result.append(subnode.getNodeValue());
            } else if (subnode.getNodeType() == Node.ENTITY_REFERENCE_NODE) {
                // Recurse into the subtree for text
                // (and ignore comments)
                result.append(getText(subnode));

View on GitHub (pinned to e1c734241f)

Solutions

1. Add the missing element with the exact expected name to the XML document
2. Check for namespace issues — the element must match getNodeName() or getLocalName()
3. Validate the document structure against a known-good working example (e.g. from a freshly generated project)

Example fix

// before
<pluginInfo>
  <!-- <description> missing -->
</pluginInfo>
// after
<pluginInfo>
  <description>My plugin description</description>
</pluginInfo>

// Check required elements exist before running the goal
var doc = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder().parse(pomFile);
var required = java.util.List.of("expectedElementName");
for (String name : required) {
    if (doc.getElementsByTagName(name).getLength() == 0) {
        throw new IllegalStateException("Missing required element <" + name + ">");
    }
}

static boolean containsElement(Node parent, String name) {
    var nodes = parent.getChildNodes();
    for (int i = 0; i < nodes.getLength(); i++) {
        Node n = nodes.item(i);
        if (n.getNodeType() == Node.ELEMENT_NODE
                && (name.equals(n.getNodeName()) || name.equals(n.getLocalName()))) {
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}

try {
    mojo.execute();
} catch (MojoExecutionException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().startsWith("Failed to locate element")) {
        String element = e.getMessage().substring(e.getMessage().lastIndexOf(' ') + 1);
        // add the missing element <element> to the document and re-run
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling a Quarkus Maven create-style goal whose resolvePluginInfo path invokes getElement (directly or via getChildElementTextValue/pluginNode) on an XML document that lacks the required element entirely.

Common situations: pom.xml or plugin descriptor missing an expected element after manual edits or an upgrade; wrong namespace so getLocalName() does not match; typos in element names; XML malformed or an entirely different document passed for parsing.

Related errors

• The <parentNodeName> element description is missing child <c
• Unable to parse pom file: ${pom}
• Failed to build enhanced artifact
• Failed to build quarkus application
• Failed to parse <pluginXml>

AI-assisted analysis of quarkusio/quarkus@e1c734241f (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c4a408b46d9b901e. Report an issue: GitHub.