flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

keyLike is null

Error message

keyLike is null

What it means

DmnDeploymentQueryImpl.decisionKeyLike(String) throws FlowableIllegalArgumentException when the like-pattern argument is null. The value is inserted into a SQL LIKE clause, so Flowable requires a non-null string pattern and fails fast at the builder call.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-dmn-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/dmn/engine/impl/DmnDeploymentQueryImpl.java:157

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

    @Override
    public DmnDeploymentQueryImpl decisionKey(String key) {
        if (key == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("key is null");
        }
        this.decisionKey = key;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public DmnDeploymentQueryImpl decisionKeyLike(String keyLike) {
        if (keyLike == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("keyLike is null");
        }
        this.decisionKeyLike = keyLike;
        return this;
    }

    // sorting ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

    @Override
    public DmnDeploymentQuery orderByDeploymentId() {
        return orderBy(DeploymentQueryProperty.DEPLOYMENT_ID);
    }

    @Override
    public DmnDeploymentQuery orderByDeploymentTime() {
        return orderBy(DeploymentQueryProperty.DEPLOY_TIME);
    }

    @Override

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Pass a non-null LIKE pattern such as "prefix%" or "%suffix%"
2. Skip the decisionKeyLike(...) call when no filter is intended
3. Normalize empty user input to null-and-skip semantics before building the query

Example fix

// before
String pattern = searchForm.getDecisionKeyPattern();
query.decisionKeyLike(pattern);
// after
String pattern = searchForm.getDecisionKeyPattern();
if (pattern != null && !pattern.isEmpty()) {
    query.decisionKeyLike(pattern);
}

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

boolean isUsablePattern(String p) { return p != null && !p.isEmpty(); }

try { query.decisionKeyLike(pattern); } catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) { log.debug("decisionKeyLike not applied: {}", e.getMessage()); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling dmnRepositoryService.createDeploymentQuery().decisionKeyLike(null), commonly when the pattern is composed from optional user filter input that was never populated.

Common situations: Wildcard search screens where the user did not enter a decision-key filter; dynamically assembled patterns where an intermediate variable was null; porting queries from process-engine code that allowed null like-criteria.

Related errors

• parentDeploymentIdLike is null
• nameLike is null
• keyLike is null
• parentDeploymentId is null
• key is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/44e6533479df02c7. Report an issue: GitHub.