'couldn’t publish the app definition , please check the validity of the referenced process models'

[jonnyg]

We've gotten this error message before when importing and publishing to a new server.
"couldn’t publish the app definition , please check the validity of the referenced process models"

This is hardly helpful. We need some details with this - even in a stacktrace in the logs.
Which class is throwing this error? Can we enable debugging on that class?

[martin_grofcik]

Hi JonnyG,

Could you create jUnit test please?
https://forums.activiti.org/content/sticky-how-write-unit-test

Regards
Martin

[jonnyg]

Can you please tell me which part of the code is throwing this error – and shed light on why there is no error dump to the logs whatsoever?
I can't create a JUnit test where I don't know the method being called.

[jbarrez]

There should be a stacktrace in the logs for this. Did you check all log files (in some configs there are different logfiles).
if not, can you share your app zip with us?

[paulhh1]

Also, best that this is done via the Support channel for Alfresco Activiti Enterprise.

Thanks
Paul.

[jonnyg]

Joram - no stacktrace here; I checked.
Paul – we have an open case on this.  My main point in posting here was to see if anyone else had run into this.

[douglascrp]

I'm facing the same issue using activiti6 beta2.

I've been following the steps from this blog post http://bpmn20inaction.blogspot.com.br/2015/09/getting-started-with-new-activiti-6-ui.html

When I try to publish the developed app, the only information I get is the message "Couldn’t publish the app definition , please check the validity of the referenced process models"

Nothing in the logs.

Isn't there any option to validate the model somewhere?

[douglascrp]

I've just found what my problem was.

Error messages were not being printed into catalina.out file, but I found some interesting errors into localhost-<date>.log file.
In my case, the problem was related with a flow without a targetRef:

28-Apr-2016 11:54:40.066 SEVERE [http-nio-8080-exec-5] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke Servlet.service() for servlet [appDispatcher] in context with path [/activiti-app] threw exception [Request processing failed; nested exception is org.activiti.bpmn.exceptions.XMLException: cvc-complex-type.4: Attribute 'targetRef' must appear on element 'sequenceFlow'.] with root cause
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 36; columnNumber: 118; cvc-complex-type.4: Attribute 'targetRef' must appear on element 'sequenceFlow'.
at org.apache.xerces.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.createSAXParseException(Unknown Source)
With that information, I went back to the process design interface, and by selecting each flow, I noticed a really small red circle, and that was the wrong flow.

Why not to give that more emphasis?

Thank you

[jbarrez]

"Why not to give that more emphasis?"

Which product version are you using? The latest version should give a clear emphasis and catch this on validation.