This is a short article on some of the problems you might encounter when working with Pentaho Data Integration on Mac OS X:
Cannot start Spoon via the app launcher
When starting Spoon via the app launcher you might get asked to install Java 6 (although you have already Java installed) or you might get an error message like this: “Data Integration is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to trash.”
Currently there doesn’t seem to be a way around this problem. You can only start Spoon via the shell script.
Fixing the unresponsive file dialog
When opening or saving a file, you might see the spinning wheel for ages in the file dialog - nothing is happening. This is usually happening on Mac OS X Mavericks and jre 1.7.
Download the latest stable Mac SWT jar file from Eclipse Standard Widget Toolkit website and add it to <pdi-root>/libswt/osx64.
Download the latest Oracle Java Version. As Nelson points out in the jira case mentioned above, version 1.7.0_51-b13 and later seem to have fixed this problem.
Useful keyboard shortcuts
I just list shortcuts here which are not listed in the UI:
| keyborad shortcut | description |
|---|---|
| SHIFT + CMD + Space | Show variables list |
| SHIFT + CMD + arrow OR ALT + CMD + arrow | Align steps/job entries |
| ALT + CMD + up or down arrow | Move row up or down in a config table (e.g. Select Values step) |
| fn + DEL | Delete row in a config table |
| Ctrl+ Cmd + F5 | Open Metastore Browser |
Text and icons too small on the Retina display
That’s an easy one: Just go to Tools > Options … > Look & Feel and adjust the icon and font size.
Data Grid and other configuration options
With the Data Grid step you will have to hit Enter once a value was entered, otherwise it will just disappear. Marcello Pontes also mentioned that you can use the Tab key instead as well.
Nelson Sousa mentioned: “When you have a field active to edit, press enter before clicking anywhere else. If not you get one of those array out of bounds things. Ignore it, continue with spoon, save and restart. :)”
The menu bar options have disappeared
To solve this issue, just switch to another app and then back again … voilà all menu bar options are back. Pure magic (no, not really).