flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableObjectNotFoundException

Could not find an app definition with id '<appDefinitionId>'

Error message

Could not find an app definition with id '<appDefinitionId>'.

What it means

Thrown by taskNameInIgnoreCase(Collection) when the query already has an exact taskName filter set. A historic task query may combine the ignore-case IN list with only one name-matching strategy, and an exact-name equality filter is incompatible with it. This fail-fast check prevents contradictory SQL.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-app-engine-rest/src/main/java/org/flowable/app/rest/service/api/repository/AppDefinitionResource.java:90

            notes = "Execute actions for an app definition (Update category)")
    @ApiResponses(value = {
            @ApiResponse(code = 200, message = "Indicates action has been executed for the specified app definition. (category altered)"),
            @ApiResponse(code = 400, message = "Indicates no category was defined in the request body."),
            @ApiResponse(code = 404, message = "Indicates the requested app definition was not found.")
    })
    @PutMapping(value = "/app-repository/app-definitions/{appDefinitionId}", produces = "application/json")
    public AppDefinitionResponse executeAppDefinitionAction(
            @ApiParam(name = "appDefinitionId") @PathVariable String appDefinitionId,
            @ApiParam(required = true) @RequestBody AppDefinitionActionRequest actionRequest) {

        if (actionRequest == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("No action found in request body.");
        }

        AppDefinition appDefinition = appRepositoryService.getAppDefinition(appDefinitionId);

        if (appDefinition == null) {
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("Could not find an app definition with id '" + appDefinitionId + "'.", AppDefinition.class);
        }
        
        if (restApiInterceptor != null) {
            restApiInterceptor.accessAppDefinitionInfoById(appDefinition);
        }

        if (actionRequest.getCategory() != null) {
            // Update of category required
            appRepositoryService.setAppDefinitionCategory(appDefinition.getId(), actionRequest.getCategory());

            // No need to re-fetch the AppDefinition entity, just update category in response
            AppDefinitionResponse response = appRestResponseFactory.createAppDefinitionResponse(appDefinition);
            response.setCategory(actionRequest.getCategory());
            return response;
        }
        
        throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Invalid action: '" + actionRequest.getAction() + "'.");
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Remove the taskName(...) call and keep only taskNameInIgnoreCase.
2. If both an exact match and an IN list are needed, add the exact name to the IN list instead of a separate taskName call.
3. Make filter-building logic mutually exclusive (if/else) so only one name criterion is applied.

Example fix

// before
query.taskName("Invoice");
query.taskNameInIgnoreCase(List.of("Invoice", "Receipt")); // throws

// after
query.taskNameInIgnoreCase(List.of("Invoice", "Receipt"));

if (query.getTaskName() != null) {
    names = new ArrayList<>(names); names.add(query.getTaskName()); // merge instead of mixing
}
query.taskNameInIgnoreCase(names);

try {
    query.taskNameInIgnoreCase(names);
} catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("Conflicting name filters on historic task query", e);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling taskName("x") (or historicProcessVariables-style name setters) followed by taskNameInIgnoreCase(...), or the reverse order, on the same HistoricTaskInstanceQuery instance.

Common situations: Incremental query building where optional filters from different code paths both get applied; copying a template query that already sets taskName and then adding the IN filter.

Related errors

• baseUrl can not be null
• Invalid action: '<action>'.
• Could not find an app definition with id '<appDefinitionId>
• Cannot combine onlyExternalWorkers() with onlyMessages() in
• Cannot combine onlyMessages() with onlyExternalWorkers() in

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/de148bdd5534d6fd. Report an issue: GitHub.