flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableException

Invalid event definition id : null

Error message

Invalid event definition id : null

What it means

findDeployedEventDefinitionById requires a non-null eventDefinitionId. When null is passed, it throws a plain FlowableException before any cache or database lookup. It is a fail-fast guard for a programming error on the caller side.

Solutions

1. Ensure the caller supplies a real event definition id before invoking the lookup
2. Null-check the id at the call site and return a meaningful error or skip the lookup
3. Trace where the null originates (request body, DB column, process variable) and fix the producer

Example fix

// before
EventDefinitionEntity def = deploymentManager.findDeployedEventDefinitionById(request.getDefinitionId());
// after
if (request.getDefinitionId() != null) {
    EventDefinitionEntity def = deploymentManager.findDeployedEventDefinitionById(request.getDefinitionId());
}

if (eventDefinitionId == null || eventDefinitionId.isEmpty()) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("eventDefinitionId is required");
}

boolean hasDefinitionId(String id) { return id != null && !id.trim().isEmpty(); }

try {
    def = deploymentManager.findDeployedEventDefinitionById(id);
} catch (org.flowable.common.engine.api.FlowableException e) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("event definition id must not be null", e);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling findDeployedEventDefinitionById(null), typically because the caller obtained the id from an unset field, a null map entry, or an upstream API response that lacked the id.

Common situations: Command classes (e.g. event-registry commands using it in execute) propagating null ids from request parameters; deserialization of incomplete deployment payloads; variable/property missing in a process context.

Related errors

• Invalid channel definition id : null
• after time is null
• Business key is null
• bytes array is null
• bytes is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4b56ec94d46846ac. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-event-registry/src/main/java/org/flowable/eventregistry/impl/persistence/deploy/EventDeploymentManager.java:71

    protected EventDeploymentEntityManager deploymentEntityManager;

    public EventDeploymentManager(DeploymentCache<EventDefinitionCacheEntry> eventDefinitionCache, 
                    DeploymentCache<ChannelDefinitionCacheEntry> channelDefinitionCache, EventRegistryEngineConfiguration engineConfig) {
        
        this.eventDefinitionCache = eventDefinitionCache;
        this.channelDefinitionCache = channelDefinitionCache;
        this.engineConfig = engineConfig;
    }

    public void deploy(EventDeploymentEntity deployment) {
        for (Deployer deployer : deployers) {
            deployer.deploy(deployment);
        }
    }

    public EventDefinitionEntity findDeployedEventDefinitionById(String eventDefinitionId) {
        if (eventDefinitionId == null) {
            throw new FlowableException("Invalid event definition id : null");
        }

        // first try the cache
        EventDefinitionCacheEntry cacheEntry = eventDefinitionCache.get(eventDefinitionId);
        EventDefinitionEntity eventDefinition = cacheEntry != null ? cacheEntry.getEventDefinitionEntity() : null;

        if (eventDefinition == null) {
            eventDefinition = engineConfig.getEventDefinitionEntityManager().findById(eventDefinitionId);
            if (eventDefinition == null) {
                throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("no deployed event definition found with id '" + eventDefinitionId + "'");
            }
            eventDefinition = resolveEventDefinition(eventDefinition).getEventDefinitionEntity();
        }
        return eventDefinition;
    }
    
    public ChannelDefinitionEntity findDeployedChannelDefinitionById(String channelDefinitionId) {
        if (channelDefinitionId == null) {

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