flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

form tenantId is null

Error message

form tenantId is null

What it means

ChannelDefinitionQueryImpl.tenantId() throws FlowableIllegalArgumentException with message 'form tenantId is null' when the tenantId argument is null. (The 'form' prefix is a copy-paste artifact from FormDefinitionQueryImpl; the check applies to channel definitions.) A null tenant id is rejected up front because it would produce an invalid equality filter.

Solutions

  1. Pass a valid non-null tenant id string
  2. Guard: call tenantId() only when the resolved tenant is non-null
  3. Use tenantIdLike("%") or omit the filter to query across all tenants

Example fix

// before
query.tenantId(tenantId);
// after
if (tenantId != null) { query.tenantId(tenantId); }
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

Objects.requireNonNull(tenantId, "tenantId must not be null");

Type guard

null

Try / catch

null

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling tenantId(null) on a ChannelDefinitionQuery, commonly when the tenant id is resolved from an unauthenticated context or a missing tenant header/property.

Common situations: Multi-tenant apps where the current tenant is optional and code passes null unconditionally; TenantContext or request attribute not populated.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c9191c1409d5a2a5. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-event-registry/src/main/java/org/flowable/eventregistry/impl/ChannelDefinitionQueryImpl.java:312

            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("resourceName is null");
        }
        this.resourceName = resourceName;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public ChannelDefinitionQueryImpl channelDefinitionResourceNameLike(String resourceNameLike) {
        if (resourceNameLike == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("resourceNameLike is null");
        }
        this.resourceNameLike = resourceNameLike;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public ChannelDefinitionQueryImpl tenantId(String tenantId) {
        if (tenantId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("form tenantId is null");
        }
        this.tenantId = tenantId;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public ChannelDefinitionQueryImpl tenantIdLike(String tenantIdLike) {
        if (tenantIdLike == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("form tenantId is null");
        }
        this.tenantIdLike = tenantIdLike;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public ChannelDefinitionQueryImpl withoutTenantId() {
        this.withoutTenantId = true;
        return this;

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