flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

nameLike is null

Error message

nameLike is null

What it means

Flowable throws FlowableIllegalArgumentException when processDefinitionNameLike(null) is called on a ProcessDefinitionQuery. The query API validates its builder arguments eagerly so that bad filters fail at query-construction time instead of producing confusing empty results or SQL issues later. A null 'like' pattern is meaningless as a name filter.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/engine/impl/ProcessDefinitionQueryImpl.java:139

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

    @Override
    public ProcessDefinitionQueryImpl processDefinitionName(String name) {
        if (name == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("name is null");
        }
        this.name = name;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public ProcessDefinitionQueryImpl processDefinitionNameLike(String nameLike) {
        if (nameLike == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("nameLike is null");
        }
        this.nameLike = nameLike;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public ProcessDefinitionQueryImpl processDefinitionNameLikeIgnoreCase(String nameLikeIgnoreCase) {
        if (nameLikeIgnoreCase == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("nameLikeIgnoreCase is null");
        }
        this.nameLikeIgnoreCase = nameLikeIgnoreCase;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public ProcessDefinitionQueryImpl deploymentId(String deploymentId) {
        if (deploymentId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("id is null");

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Pass a non-null like pattern, e.g. processDefinitionNameLike("%order%").
2. Only add the nameLike filter when the value is non-null: if (nameLike != null) query.processDefinitionNameLike(nameLike);
3. Wrap the call in try-catch for FlowableIllegalArgumentException if the value comes from untrusted input, and surface a clear validation message.

Example fix

// before
String nameFilter = request.getName(); // may be null
ProcessDefinitionQuery q = repoService.createProcessDefinitionQuery()
    .processDefinitionNameLike(nameFilter);
// after
String nameFilter = request.getName();
ProcessDefinitionQuery q = repoService.createProcessDefinitionQuery();
if (nameFilter != null) {
    q = q.processDefinitionNameLike(nameFilter);
}

if (nameLike == null || nameLike.isEmpty()) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("nameLike must be a non-empty string"); }
query.processDefinitionNameLike(nameLike);

boolean isValidPattern(String s) { return s != null && !s.isEmpty(); }

try {
    query.processDefinitionNameLike(nameLike);
} catch (org.flowable.common.engine.api.FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) {
    throw new BadRequestException("Invalid nameLike filter: " + e.getMessage());
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling new ProcessDefinitionQueryImpl().processDefinitionNameLike(null) or the public API repositoryService.createProcessDefinitionQuery().processDefinitionNameLike(nameLike) with nameLike == null (e.g. when a user-supplied filter string was never initialized).

Common situations: Building dynamic queries from optional UI filters where the name filter variable stays null; deserializing query criteria from JSON where the field is absent; refactoring code that used processDefinitionName (which may also reject null) into the like variant.

Related errors

• Error retrieving app engine info
• No deployment id available
• No resource name available
• variableNames are null or empty
• nameLikeIgnoreCase is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4039d684fb52a672. Report an issue: GitHub.