flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

caseInstanceId is null

Error message

caseInstanceId is null

What it means

DeleteIdentityLinkForCaseInstanceCmd.validateParams throws FlowableIllegalArgumentException when caseInstanceId is null. Identity links on a case instance (e.g. participants) can only be removed for an identified case instance.

Solutions

1. Pass the actual running case instance id, obtained from createCaseInstanceQuery() or the case execution context.
2. Null-check the id at the call site before invoking the runtime service.

Example fix

// before
runtimeService.deleteUserIdentityLink(caseInstanceId, userId, IdentityLinkType.PARTICIPANT);
// after
if (caseInstanceId == null) throw new IllegalArgumentException("caseInstanceId required");
runtimeService.deleteUserIdentityLink(caseInstanceId, userId, IdentityLinkType.PARTICIPANT);

Objects.requireNonNull(caseInstanceId, "caseInstanceId is required");

boolean hasInstanceId(String id) { return id != null && !id.trim().isEmpty(); }

try { runtimeService.deleteUserIdentityLink(caseInstanceId, userId, type); } catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) { log.error("Invalid case identity-link delete: {}", e.getMessage()); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling CmmnRuntimeService.deleteUserIdentityLink/deleteGroupIdentityLink with a null caseInstanceId, typically from an unpopulated variable.

Common situations: Event-driven code where the case instance id is extracted from context that is absent (e.g. outside a case execution); forms submitted without the instance reference.

Related errors

• caseDefinitionId is null
• groupId is null
• groupIds are null
• identityLinkType is null
• involvedUser is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c224c04c29e298d7. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/cmmn/engine/impl/cmd/DeleteIdentityLinkForCaseInstanceCmd.java:52

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

    protected String caseInstanceId;
    protected String userId;
    protected String groupId;
    protected String type;

    public DeleteIdentityLinkForCaseInstanceCmd(String caseInstanceId, String userId, String groupId, String type) {
        
        validateParams(userId, groupId, caseInstanceId, type);
        this.caseInstanceId = caseInstanceId;
        this.userId = userId;
        this.groupId = groupId;
        this.type = type;
    }

    protected void validateParams(String userId, String groupId, String caseInstanceId, String type) {
        if (caseInstanceId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("caseInstanceId is null");
        }

        if (type == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("type is required when deleting a process identity link");
        }

        if (userId == null && groupId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("userId and groupId cannot both be null");
        }
    }

    @Override
    public Void execute(CommandContext commandContext) {
        CmmnEngineConfiguration cmmnEngineConfiguration = CommandContextUtil.getCmmnEngineConfiguration(commandContext);
        CaseInstance caseInstance = cmmnEngineConfiguration.getCaseInstanceEntityManager().findById(caseInstanceId);

        if (caseInstance == null) {
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("Cannot find case instance with id " + caseInstanceId, CaseInstanceEntity.class);

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