Activiti/Activiti · error · PropertyNotFoundException

Cannot find property

Error message

Cannot find property {property}

What it means

RootPropertyResolver resolves top-level identifiers in JUEL expressions against a map of root properties. When resolve() marks the property as handled but no property with that name exists (and no null-property was registered), getValue throws PropertyNotFoundException.

Solutions

1. Register the missing property via setProperty("name", value) or the resolver constructor map before evaluating.
2. Correct the property name in the EL expression to match a registered root property.
3. If lookups may be optional, wrap resolution logic so undefined properties return null instead of resolving through this resolver.

Example fix

// before
resolver.getValue(ctx, null, "customer"); // PropertyNotFoundException

// after
resolver.setProperty("customer", customerObj);
Object v = resolver.getValue(ctx, null, "customer");

if (!resolver.isProperty(propertyName)) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown root property: " + propertyName); }

try { return resolver.getValue(ctx, null, name); } catch (PropertyNotFoundException e) { log.warn("Missing root property {}", name); return null; }

When it happens

Trigger: Evaluating an EL expression like ${unknown} where 'unknown' is not a registered root property; the resolver accepted the (null base, property) resolution but isProperty((String) property) returned false.

Common situations: Typos in property names inside process expressions; a root property registered under a different name or removed; expression evaluation in a fresh resolver that never had the property set.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• error.identifier.method.notamethod
• error.property.base.null
• error.property.property.notfound
• error.value.set.rvalue
• Cannot coerce ' ' of to (incompatible type)

AI-assisted analysis of Activiti/Activiti@56435b1a97 (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2999c82e9fef2302. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at activiti-core-common/activiti-juel-jakarta/src/main/java/org/activiti/core/el/juel/util/RootPropertyResolver.java:79

        context.setPropertyResolved(isResolvable(base) && property instanceof String);
        return context.isPropertyResolved();
    }

    @Override
    public Class<?> getCommonPropertyType(ELContext context, Object base) {
        return isResolvable(context) ? String.class : null;
    }

    @Override
    public Class<?> getType(ELContext context, Object base, Object property) {
        return resolve(context, base, property) ? Object.class : null;
    }

    @Override
    public Object getValue(ELContext context, Object base, Object property) {
        if (resolve(context, base, property)) {
            if (!isProperty((String) property)) {
                throw new PropertyNotFoundException("Cannot find property " + property);
            }
            return getProperty((String) property);
        }
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isReadOnly(ELContext context, Object base, Object property) {
        return resolve(context, base, property) ? readOnly : false;
    }

    @Override
    public void setValue(ELContext context, Object base, Object property, Object value)
        throws PropertyNotWritableException {
        if (resolve(context, base, property)) {
            if (readOnly) {
                throw new PropertyNotWritableException("Resolver is read only!");
            }

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