apache/dolphinscheduler · warning · ServiceException

WORKFLOW_DEFINITION_CODES_IS_EMPTY

WORKFLOW_DEFINITION_CODES_IS_EMPTY

Error message

WORKFLOW_DEFINITION_CODES_IS_EMPTY: workflow definition codes is empty

What it means

Thrown by the workflow move/copy endpoints (moveWorkflowDefinition/copyWorkflowTo) when the required workflowDefinitionCodes parameter is an empty string. Moving or copying requires at least one workflow code to operate on.

Source

Thrown at dolphinscheduler-api/src/main/java/org/apache/dolphinscheduler/api/service/impl/WorkflowDefinitionServiceImpl.java:1323

        checkBatchOperateResult(projectCode, targetProjectCode, failedWorkflowList, false);
    }

    private void checkParams(User loginUser,
                             long projectCode,
                             String workflowDefinitionCodes,
                             long targetProjectCode,
                             String perm,
                             boolean requireSourceWritePermission) {
        Project project = projectDao.queryByCode(projectCode);
        if (requireSourceWritePermission) {
            projectService.checkHasProjectWritePermissionThrowException(loginUser, project);
        } else {
            projectService.checkProjectAndAuthThrowException(loginUser, project, perm);
        }

        if (StringUtils.isEmpty(workflowDefinitionCodes)) {
            log.error("Parameter workflowDefinitionCodes is empty, projectCode is {}.", projectCode);
            throw new ServiceException(Status.WORKFLOW_DEFINITION_CODES_IS_EMPTY);
        }

        if (projectCode != targetProjectCode) {
            Project targetProject = projectDao.queryByCode(targetProjectCode);
            projectService.checkHasProjectWritePermissionThrowException(loginUser, targetProject);
        } else if (!requireSourceWritePermission) {
            projectService.checkHasProjectWritePermissionThrowException(loginUser, project);
        }
    }

    protected void doBatchOperateWorkflowDefinition(User loginUser,
                                                    long sourceProjectCode,
                                                    long targetProjectCode,
                                                    List<String> failedWorkflowList,
                                                    String workflowDefinitionCodes,
                                                    boolean isCopy) {
        Set<Long> definitionCodes = Arrays.stream(workflowDefinitionCodes.split(Constants.COMMA)).map(Long::parseLong)
                .collect(Collectors.toSet());

View on GitHub (pinned to 02eac45a1b)

Solutions

1. Provide a non-empty, comma-separated workflowDefinitionCodes value (e.g. '123,456').
2. Add a client-side check: if the selected workflow list is empty, disable/blocked the copy/move action.
3. Verify the request body encoding (form field name must be exactly workflowDefinitionCodes).
4. Fix scripts/templates so they never issue the call with zero selected workflows.

Example fix

// before
POST .../workflow/copy  body: workflowDefinitionCodes=
// after
POST .../workflow/copy  body: workflowDefinitionCodes=4860899582432&targetProjectCode=456

if (selectedWorkflowCodes == null || selectedWorkflowCodes.trim().isEmpty()) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("select at least one workflow to copy/move");
}

try {
    client.moveWorkflows(projectCode, codes, targetProjectCode);
} catch (ServiceException e) {
    if (e.getCode() == Status.WORKFLOW_DEFINITION_CODES_IS_EMPTY.getCode()) {
        // prompt user to select workflows
    } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: POST /projects/{projectCode}/workflow/copy or /move with empty or missing workflowDefinitionCodes body/form parameter (StringUtils.isEmpty check).

Common situations: Client sends an empty selection (user checked no workflows); a script building the request drops the parameter when the list is empty; UI state desync producing an empty codes string.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• 10158
• REQUEST_PARAMS_NOT_VALID_ERROR
• NEGTIVE_SIZE_NUMBER_ERROR
• Cannot format the date

AI-assisted analysis of apache/dolphinscheduler@02eac45a1b (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ba8f7edf808f9037. Report an issue: GitHub.