flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

deploymentName is null

Error message

deploymentName is null

What it means

AppDeploymentQueryImpl.deploymentName() throws FlowableIllegalArgumentException when the deploymentName argument is null. The exact-name filter must be a concrete string; null is rejected eagerly by the fluent query API.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-app-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/app/engine/impl/repository/AppDeploymentQueryImpl.java:78

            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Deployment id is null");
        }
        this.deploymentId = deploymentId;
        return this;
    }
    
    @Override
    public AppDeploymentQueryImpl deploymentIds(List<String> deploymentIds) {
        if (deploymentIds == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Deployment ids is null");
        }
        this.deploymentIds = deploymentIds;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public AppDeploymentQueryImpl deploymentName(String deploymentName) {
        if (deploymentName == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("deploymentName is null");
        }
        this.name = deploymentName;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public AppDeploymentQueryImpl deploymentNameLike(String nameLike) {
        if (nameLike == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("deploymentNameLike is null");
        }
        this.nameLike = nameLike;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public AppDeploymentQueryImpl deploymentCategory(String deploymentCategory) {
        if (deploymentCategory == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("deploymentCategory is null");

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Check name != null before invoking deploymentName.
2. Only call deploymentName when the user actually supplied a name filter.
3. Use deploymentNameLike only with a non-null pattern.
4. Catch FlowableIllegalArgumentException and map to a client validation error.

Example fix

// before
query.deploymentName(request.name); // may be null
// after
if (request.name != null) query.deploymentName(request.name);

if (deploymentName != null) query.deploymentName(deploymentName);

try {
    query.deploymentName(name);
} catch (org.flowable.common.engine.api.FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) {
    logger.warn("Ignoring query: {}", e.getMessage());
    query = repoService.createDeploymentQuery(); // rebuild unfiltered
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling deploymentName(null) with a name sourced from config or a request parameter that is absent.

Common situations: Optional search field in a REST endpoint bound as null, or properties file missing the deployment.name key.

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

• Deployment id is null
• Deployment ids is null
• deploymentNameLike is null
• deploymentCategory is null
• deploymentCategoryExclude is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8deb112891f1627c. Report an issue: GitHub.