flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

Event definition id is null

Error message

Event definition id is null

What it means

SetEventDefinitionCategoryCmd throws FlowableIllegalArgumentException when the eventDefinitionId passed to the command is null. This is a fail-fast guard at the start of execute() before any database lookup is attempted.

Solutions

1. Ensure a non-null eventDefinitionId is passed; resolve it via EventRepositoryService.createEventDefinitionQuery() first.
2. Add a caller-side null/blank check before invoking the command and fail early with your own message.
3. Trace where the id originates (config, previous API response) and fix the upstream resolution.

Example fix

// before
eventRepositoryService.setEventDefinitionCategory(eventDefinitionId, "myCategory");
// after
if (eventDefinitionId != null && !eventDefinitionId.isBlank()) {
    eventRepositoryService.setEventDefinitionCategory(eventDefinitionId, "myCategory");
}

if (eventDefinitionId == null || eventDefinitionId.isBlank()) throw new IllegalArgumentException("eventDefinitionId required");

try { svc.setEventDefinitionCategory(id, cat); } catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) { log.error("Null event definition id"); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling eventRepositoryService.setEventDefinitionCategory(null, category) or building SetEventDefinitionCategoryCmd with a null id, typically when the id comes from an unset variable, a failed lookup, or an unpopulated DTO.

Common situations: Programmatically assembling commands where the event definition id was never resolved, copying code from process definitions (same API shape) but passing a process definition id variable that is null, or deserialization producing null fields.

Related errors

• eventDefinitionKey and eventDefinitionId are null
• A channel key detection value is required for the channel…
• A resource name is mandatory
• An event definition key is mandatory
• appsDefinitionIds is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0d997a6583edcc81. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-event-registry/src/main/java/org/flowable/eventregistry/impl/cmd/SetEventDefinitionCategoryCmd.java:42

/**
 * @author Tijs Rademakers
 * @author Joram Barrez
 */
public class SetEventDefinitionCategoryCmd implements Command<Void> {

    protected String eventDefinitionId;
    protected String category;

    public SetEventDefinitionCategoryCmd(String eventDefinitionId, String category) {
        this.eventDefinitionId = eventDefinitionId;
        this.category = category;
    }

    @Override
    public Void execute(CommandContext commandContext) {

        if (eventDefinitionId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Event definition id is null");
        }

        EventDefinitionEntity eventDefinition = CommandContextUtil.getEventDefinitionEntityManager(commandContext).findById(eventDefinitionId);

        if (eventDefinition == null) {
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("No event definition found for id = '" + eventDefinitionId + "'");
        }

        // Update category
        eventDefinition.setCategory(category);

        // Remove form from cache, it will be refetch later
        DeploymentCache<EventDefinitionCacheEntry> eventDefinitionCache = CommandContextUtil.getEventRegistryConfiguration().getEventDefinitionCache();
        if (eventDefinitionCache != null) {
            eventDefinitionCache.remove(eventDefinitionId);
        }

        CommandContextUtil.getEventDefinitionEntityManager(commandContext).update(eventDefinition);

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