SmooksException: Failed to filter source for EDI processing class

[impend]

Hi all,

I'm trying to validate and process an EDI 834 file using Smooks 2.x in a Java test automation framework.

I'm loading raw EDI content (starting with ISA*) into a String, and configuring Smooks with a smooks-config.xml file and a programmatic registration of EDIReaderConfigurator. My goal is to map EDI segments into JavaBeans and validate them after parsing.

In my EDIProcessor class, I:

• Read the EDI file into a string

• Initialize Smooks using new Smooks(SMOOKS_CONFIG)

• Register a DefaultResourceConfig for "edi:reader" with the correct parameters and EDIReaderConfigurator

• Set up a JavaResult

• Attempt to filter using smooks.filterSource(...)

However, I'm getting this error:

org.smooks.api.SmooksException: Failed to filter source Caused by: com.ctc.wstx.exc.WstxUnexpectedCharException: Unexpected character 'I' (code 73) in prolog; expected '<'

It appears Smooks is attempting to parse the EDI file as XML. After some digging, I realized I was using StringSource, which seems intended for XML. I'm switching to StreamSource with a StringReader instead.

Can you confirm this is the correct approach for non-XML EDI input in Smooks 2.x? And is JavaResult still supported when filtering via ExecutionContext, or do I need to work directly with the BeanContext?

Thanks in advance — happy to share code snippets if helpful.

[impend]

Here's the code snippet of my method:

private void parseWithSmooks(String ediData) throws IOException, SAXException {
System.out.println("Initializing Smooks...");

// Use try-with-resources with Smooks directly via config path
try (Smooks smooks = new Smooks(SMOOKS_CONFIG)) {

System.out.println("Smooks loaded from: " + SMOOKS_CONFIG);

Properties ediParams = new Properties();
ediParams.setProperty("mappingModelUri", "xml mapping file path");
ediParams.setProperty("segmentSeparator", "~");
ediParams.setProperty("elementSeparator", "*");

DefaultResourceConfig ediReaderConfig = new DefaultResourceConfig(
"edi:reader",
ediParams
);

ediReaderConfig.setResource("org.smooks.cartridges.edi.reader.EDIReaderConfigurator");
smooks.addResourceConfig(ediReaderConfig);

ExecutionContext executionContext = smooks.createExecutionContext();
JavaResult result = new JavaResult();
executionContext.getBeanContext().addBean(JavaResult.class.getName(), result);

Source source = new StreamSource(new StringReader(ediData));

System.out.println("Smooks filtering started...");
smooks.filterSource(source);
System.out.println("Smooks filtering completed successfully!");

validateSegments(result);

} catch (Exception e) {
System.err.println("❌ ERROR: Smooks filtering failed!");
e.printStackTrace();
throw e;
}
}

[Claude Mamo]

Can't see how this would work. Was this written with the help of a LLM? There are several problems with your code. We don't have a specific example of an EdiReaderConfigurator, and unfortunately documentation is sparse to say the least, but you can find how it's being used in one of the EDI cartridge tests: https://github.com/smooks/smooks-edi-cartridge/blob/v2.1.0/edi-cartridge/src/test/java/org/smooks/cartridges/edi/EdiReaderConfiguratorTestCase.java#L59

It appears Smooks is attempting to parse the EDI file as XML. After some digging, I realized I was using StringSource, which seems intended for XML. I'm switching to StreamSource with a StringReader instead.

You can use StringSource for both XML and non-XML data, however, you should have a reader configured for non-XML data.

Claude

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[impend]

Yes, it was. I'm trying to validate an EDI (834) file, and assumed smooks could help with setting up some basic reading of the EDI file and I could use Java to perform some schema comparisons.

[Claude Mamo]

It's certainly possible to configure programmatically the EDI reader and map the ingested EDI to Java beans. It might not be exactly what you want but take a look at the EDI-to-Java example: https://github.com/smooks/smooks-examples/tree/v6/edi-to-java

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/smooks-user/2c4ba378-fce2-429e-a952-8f45618dc36fn%40googlegroups.com.