flowable/flowable-engine · error · ActivitiIllegalArgumentException

identityIdType allowed values are 1 and 2

Error message

identityIdType allowed values are 1 and 2

What it means

AddIdentityLinkCmd accepts identityIdType as an int flag: 1 = user, 2 = group. Any other value is rejected with ActivitiIllegalArgumentException because the command cannot tell what kind of identity link is being created.

Solutions

1. Pass AddIdentityLinkCmd.IDENTITY_USER (1) or IDENTITY_GROUP (2) instead of a literal
2. Prefer the newer userId/group-based constructors that do not take the int flag
3. Add an enum or constants wrapper so callers cannot pass arbitrary ints

Example fix

// before
new AddIdentityLinkCmd(taskId, identityId, 3, identityType);
// after
new AddIdentityLinkCmd(taskId, identityId, AddIdentityLinkCmd.IDENTITY_USER, identityType);

if (identityIdType != 1 && identityIdType != 2) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("identityIdType must be 1 (user) or 2 (group)");
}

try {
    new AddIdentityLinkCmd(taskId, identityId, identityIdType, type).execute(ctx);
} catch (ActivitiIllegalArgumentException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("identityIdType")) {
        // map or reject the value before retrying
    } else { throw e; }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Constructing AddIdentityLinkCmd directly with identityIdType of 0, 3, -1, or an uninitialized default; mapping a boolean/string id type to the wrong int.

Common situations: Using 0 as a 'none/default' value; passing IdentityLinkType string constants into the int parameter; off-by-one errors in a custom mapping.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• identityIdType allowed values are 1 and 2
• Incompatible usage: cannot use type
• Invalid action: ''.
• A group or a user is required to create an identity link.
• A group or a user is required to create an identity link.

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a3e52e2733baaba3. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable5-engine/src/main/java/org/activiti/engine/impl/cmd/AddIdentityLinkCmd.java:61

    }

    protected void validateParams(String taskId, String identityId, int identityIdType, String identityType) {
        if (taskId == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("taskId is null");
        }

        if (identityType == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("type is required when adding a new task identity link");
        }

        if (identityId == null && (identityIdType == IDENTITY_GROUP ||
                (!IdentityLinkType.ASSIGNEE.equals(identityType) && !IdentityLinkType.OWNER.equals(identityType)))) {

            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("identityId is null");
        }

        if (identityIdType != IDENTITY_USER && identityIdType != IDENTITY_GROUP) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("identityIdType allowed values are 1 and 2");
        }
    }

    @Override
    protected Void execute(CommandContext commandContext, TaskEntity task) {

        boolean assignedToNoOne = false;
        if (IdentityLinkType.ASSIGNEE.equals(identityType)) {
            task.setAssignee(identityId, true, true);
            assignedToNoOne = identityId == null;
        } else if (IdentityLinkType.OWNER.equals(identityType)) {
            task.setOwner(identityId, true);
        } else if (IDENTITY_USER == identityIdType) {
            task.addUserIdentityLink(identityId, identityType);
        } else if (IDENTITY_GROUP == identityIdType) {
            task.addGroupIdentityLink(identityId, identityType);
        }

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