flowable/flowable-engine · error · ActivitiException

no activiti tables in db. set <property name="databaseSchema

Error message

no activiti tables in db. set <property name="databaseSchemaUpdate" to value="true" or value="create-drop" (use create-drop for testing only!) in bean processEngineConfiguration in flowable.cfg.xml for automatic schema creation

What it means

Inside dbSchemaCheckVersion()'s catch block, if the underlying exception looks like a 'missing tables' error (isMissingTablesException), it is rethrown as this ActivitiException with the hint to enable automatic schema creation. It means the schema check could not even find the Activiti tables — the database has none of the engine tables at all.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable5-engine/src/main/java/org/activiti/engine/impl/db/DbSqlSession.java:946

            if (!ProcessEngine.VERSION.equals(dbVersion)) {
                throw new ActivitiWrongDbException(ProcessEngine.VERSION, dbVersion);
            }

            String errorMessage = null;
            if (!isEngineTablePresent()) {
                errorMessage = addMissingComponent(errorMessage, "engine");
            }
            if (dbSqlSessionFactory.isDbHistoryUsed() && !isHistoryTablePresent()) {
                errorMessage = addMissingComponent(errorMessage, "history");
            }

            if (errorMessage != null) {
                throw new ActivitiException("Activiti database problem: " + errorMessage);
            }

        } catch (Exception e) {
            if (isMissingTablesException(e)) {
                throw new ActivitiException(
                        "no activiti tables in db. set <property name=\"databaseSchemaUpdate\" to value=\"true\" or value=\"create-drop\" (use create-drop for testing only!) in bean processEngineConfiguration in flowable.cfg.xml for automatic schema creation",
                        e);
            } else {
                if (e instanceof RuntimeException) {
                    throw (RuntimeException) e;
                } else {
                    throw new ActivitiException("couldn't get db schema version", e);
                }
            }
        }

        LOGGER.debug("activiti db schema check successful");
    }

    protected String addMissingComponent(String missingComponents, String component) {
        if (missingComponents == null) {
            return "Tables missing for component(s) " + component;
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Set <property name="databaseSchemaUpdate" value="true"/> (or create-drop in tests) in flowable.cfg.xml and restart so the schema is created automatically.
2. Run the distribution's create scripts for your database manually, then boot with schema update off.
3. Double-check the JDBC URL points at the database you initialized, and the user has access to the schema containing ACT_* tables.

Example fix

// before
<property name="databaseSchemaUpdate" value="false"/> // empty db

// after
<property name="databaseSchemaUpdate" value="true"/> // creates tables on first boot

// Detect an empty Activiti schema before boot
Integer n = jdbcTemplate.queryForObject(
    "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_name LIKE 'ACT_%'", Integer.class);
if (n == null || n == 0) {
    // create schema: set databaseSchemaUpdate=true or run create scripts
}

try {
    ProcessEngines.buildProcessEngine();
} catch (ActivitiException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().startsWith("no activiti tables in db")) {
        // enable databaseSchemaUpdate=true or run create scripts, then retry
    }
    throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: get_dbversion or a table-presence probe fails because the ACT_* tables don't exist at all (e.g. query against ACT_GE_PROPERTY throws 'table not found'), with databaseSchemaUpdate disabled so nothing creates them.

Common situations: First boot against a brand-new empty database with databaseSchemaUpdate=false; pointing the engine at the wrong (empty) database; DB user permissions hiding the schema.

Related errors

• Flowable database problem: ${errorMessage}
• Flowable database problem: ${errorMessage}
• Flowable IDM database problem: ${errorMessage}
• no flowable tables in db. set <property name="databaseSchema
• Activiti database problem: <errorMessage>

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ec66c82dcf5aeaff. Report an issue: GitHub.