Please help! Javascript step: Unexpected error & java.lang.NullPointerException

[acbonnemaison]

Hello,

I have created a transformation that parses MS Excel 2003 files and loads them into our staging database. This morning, our production load failed with this error in a Javascript step:

2012/08/02 20:47:34 - Js 1.0 - ERROR (version 3.2.0-GA, build 10572 from 2009-05-12 08.45.26 by buildguy) : Unexpected error : 
2012/08/02 20:47:34 - Js 1.0 - ERROR (version 3.2.0-GA, build 10572 from 2009-05-12 08.45.26 by buildguy) : java.lang.NullPointerException
2012/08/02 20:47:34 - Js 1.0 - ERROR (version 3.2.0-GA, build 10572 from 2009-05-12 08.45.26 by buildguy) :     at org.pentaho.di.trans.steps.scriptvalues_mod.ScriptValuesMetaMod.getFields(ScriptValuesMetaMod.java:332)
2012/08/02 20:47:34 - Js 1.0 - ERROR (version 3.2.0-GA, build 10572 from 2009-05-12 08.45.26 by buildguy) :     at org.pentaho.di.trans.steps.scriptvalues_mod.ScriptValuesMod.addValues(ScriptValuesMod.java:145)
2012/08/02 20:47:34 - Js 1.0 - ERROR (version 3.2.0-GA, build 10572 from 2009-05-12 08.45.26 by buildguy) :     at org.pentaho.di.trans.steps.scriptvalues_mod.ScriptValuesMod.processRow(ScriptValuesMod.java:667)
2012/08/02 20:47:34 - Js 1.0 - ERROR (version 3.2.0-GA, build 10572 from 2009-05-12 08.45.26 by buildguy) :     at org.pentaho.di.trans.step.BaseStep.runStepThread(BaseStep.java:2889)
2012/08/02 20:47:34 - Js 1.0 - ERROR (version 3.2.0-GA, build 10572 from 2009-05-12 08.45.26 by buildguy) :     at org.pentaho.di.trans.steps.scriptvalues_mod.ScriptValuesMod.run(ScriptValuesMod.java:730)

The Javascript step simply assigns `short_filename` to a field to be loaded into our db. Another field concatenates the filename to another variable for email generation. Very simple stuff. I did a google search and found nothing relevant to this problem. The layout of the MS Excel files has not changed and the data types are unchanged as well.

What causes this error? Is there a way to workaround it?

Our production environment runs 3.2.0-GA (upgrade to newer version is not possible) and the database on the back end is IBM DB2 v9.7. OS is Linux Red Hat. I have attached to this post the transformation as well as a sample MS Excel 2003 file.

Thanks in advance.

[Ato]

Check the excel input step (All Rows), and fill in the sheet tab.
HTH

[acbonnemaison]

Check the excel input step (All Rows), and fill in the sheet tab.
HTH

I cannot fill in the sheet tab for the name since it is tied to a container number, which changes every time.

[acbonnemaison]

On a whim, I restored this transformation from a week old backup. It worked without error.

Go figure.