What causes "Invalid wildcard query" in OrchardCMS/OrchardCore?

Convert the value to a string: {"wildcard": {"Rating": "5"}}.

OrchardCMS/OrchardCore · error · ArgumentException

Invalid wildcard query

Error message

Invalid wildcard query

What it means

Reached at the end of Lucene's WildcardQueryProvider.CreateQuery when the query fragment matched neither the single-term shape nor the object shape with a 'value' property (and any earlier validation already passed). It indicates a wildcard query clause whose JSON structure is unrecognized — for example an array of terms or a property other than 'value'/'boost'.

Solutions

Convert the value to a string: {"wildcard": {"Rating": "5"}}.
Use the object form with "value": {"Rating": {"value": "5*"}}.
Coerce/validate JSON values to string kind before building the query.

Example fix

// before
{"wildcard": {"Price": 199}}
// after
{"wildcard": {"Price": "199*"}}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (wild.ValueKind != JsonValueKind.String && wild.ValueKind != JsonValueKind.Object)
    throw new InvalidOperationException("Wildcard value must be a string or an object with 'value'.");

Type guard

static bool IsValidWildcardValue(JsonElement el) =>
    el.ValueKind == JsonValueKind.String ||
    (el.ValueKind == JsonValueKind.Object && el.TryGetProperty("value", out var v) && v.ValueKind == JsonValueKind.String);

Try / catch

catch (ArgumentException ex) when (ex.Message == "Invalid wildcard query")
{
    // coerce value to string and retry or reject query
}

Prevention

Coerce numeric/boolean wildcard values to strings before building queries.
Remember Lucene wildcards operate on text; stringify numbers explicitly.
Validate query JSON shape in a central query-builder helper.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling CreateQuery with a wildcard query whose value is not a string or object, e.g. {"wildcard": {"Rating": 5}} or a null/numeric wildcard value.

Common situations: Assuming wildcard queries accept numbers or pre-serialized values; dynamic query construction that doesn't coerce values to strings.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of OrchardCMS/OrchardCore@4306c0717f (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/492d891cf5ef0eee. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/OrchardCore/OrchardCore.Lucene.Core/QueryProviders/WildcardQueryProvider.cs:41

            case JsonValueKind.Object:
                var obj = first.Value.AsObject();

                if (!obj.TryGetPropertyValue("value", out var value))
                {
                    throw new ArgumentException("Missing value in wildcard query");
                }

                var wildCardQuery = new WildcardQuery(new Term(first.Key, value.Value<string>()));

                if (obj.TryGetPropertyValue("boost", out var boost))
                {
                    wildCardQuery.Boost = boost.Value<float>();
                }

                return wildCardQuery;

            default: throw new ArgumentException("Invalid wildcard query");
        }
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4306c0717f)