Unresolved reference causes deploy issue

Hello everyone.
I’m beginning modeling in BPMN in the Camunda Modeler, and it displays a warning, indicating a unresolved reference

It seems I can’t know what’s going on until I deploy my compiled .war file in my server. Then it indicates me at deployment :

29-Mar-2017 13:11:06.027 INFO [localhost-startStop-4] org.camunda.commons.logging.BaseLogger.logInfo ENGINE-08023 Deployment summary for process archive ‘refundreq’:

    RefundManagement.bpmn

29-Mar-2017 13:11:06.045 SEVERE [localhost-startStop-4] org.camunda.commons.logging.BaseLogger.logError ENGINE-01004 Unexpected Exception with message: null
29-Mar-2017 13:11:06.045 SEVERE [localhost-startStop-4] org.camunda.commons.logging.BaseLogger.logError ENGINE-16004 Exception while closing command context: ENGINE-09005 Could not parse BPMN process. Errors:

Since I’m new to this forum, please let me know if my question has already been asked, but I don’t think so. Thanks ! :slight_smile:

Hi @pvermeil,

it seems that a connection to a DataObjectReference is broken. You can switch to the XML view and remove the bpmn:dataInputAssociation and bpmn:dataOutputAssociation elements manually.

Best regards,
Philipp

Thanks. I removed it manually and this error disappeared. Now remains missing “messageRef” attribute error in my intermediate catch event. Seems my diagram is somehow not clean, I looked at my XML and the messageEventDefinition markups in my events remain empty despite my explicit links between send and receive messages in my BPMN.
BTW, if there is a way to directly fly to the concerned XML markup from the diagram in Camunda modeler, please let me know :slight_smile:

The stand-alone Camunda modeler (i.e. camunda-modeler.exe) has a tab in bottom left that lets you switch between XML/Model - not sure if has in-xml validation.

A quick way that I worked around the “receive message” or “receive task” issues associated with missing references is to generate a new ID within the item’s definition.

This isn’t ideal… but, better than fishing through potentially lengthy XML files.

Alternately, search/replace in a dedicated XML editor. But, make sure the Camunda Modeler is closed while directly editing these XML files! And, validate XML before/after XML editing… (such as with xmlSpy).

Another work-around I’ve used is to minimize sending and receiving task-messages within a collaboration model. For example, a “message-start-event” would instead be a simple “start-event” without any reference to message IDs.

Thank you all for your tips. I finally managed deploying my .war file after solving this reference issue and missing gateway output conditions !