flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

process definition info node is null

Error message

process definition info node is null

What it means

SaveProcessDefinitionInfoCmd.execute throws FlowableIllegalArgumentException when the infoNode (an ObjectNode holding the process definition info JSON) is null. The node is the payload to persist, so without it there is nothing to save. This guard runs after the processDefinitionId null check.

Solutions

1. Pass a non-null ObjectNode as the info node; create one with the engine's ObjectMapper if needed.
2. Check the result of whatever produced the node (e.g. objectMapper.readTree) for null before calling the API.
3. If there is truly no info to save, skip the call instead of passing null.

Example fix

// before
managementService.saveProcessDefinitionInfo(pdId, null);
// after
ObjectNode infoNode = CommandContextUtil.getProcessEngineConfiguration().getObjectMapper().createObjectNode();
infoNode.put("field", "value");
managementService.saveProcessDefinitionInfo(pdId, infoNode);

if (infoNode == null) {
    infoNode = objectMapper.createObjectNode(); // or skip the call entirely
}
managementService.saveProcessDefinitionInfo(processDefinitionId, infoNode);

boolean hasInfoNode = infoNode != null && infoNode instanceof ObjectNode;

When it happens

Trigger: Calling managementService.saveProcessDefinitionInfo(processDefinitionId, null) or executing new SaveProcessDefinitionInfoCmd(id, null).

Common situations: Parsing the info JSON failed and the caller forwarded a null node; a builder/parse method returned null silently; a variable holding the JSON node was never initialized.

Related errors

• appsDefinitionIds is null
• at least one of userId or groups must be provided
• Business status is null
• Candidate user is null
• Case definition keys is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/501e3a12c08901fc. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/engine/impl/cmd/SaveProcessDefinitionInfoCmd.java:50

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

    protected String processDefinitionId;
    protected ObjectNode infoNode;

    public SaveProcessDefinitionInfoCmd(String processDefinitionId, ObjectNode infoNode) {
        this.processDefinitionId = processDefinitionId;
        this.infoNode = infoNode;
    }

    @Override
    public Void execute(CommandContext commandContext) {
        if (processDefinitionId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("process definition id is null");
        }

        if (infoNode == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("process definition info node is null");
        }

        ProcessDefinitionInfoEntityManager definitionInfoEntityManager = CommandContextUtil.getProcessDefinitionInfoEntityManager(commandContext);
        ProcessDefinitionInfoEntity definitionInfoEntity = definitionInfoEntityManager.findProcessDefinitionInfoByProcessDefinitionId(processDefinitionId);
        if (definitionInfoEntity == null) {
            definitionInfoEntity = definitionInfoEntityManager.create();
            definitionInfoEntity.setProcessDefinitionId(processDefinitionId);
            CommandContextUtil.getProcessDefinitionInfoEntityManager().insertProcessDefinitionInfo(definitionInfoEntity);
        }

        try {
            ObjectWriter writer = CommandContextUtil.getProcessEngineConfiguration(commandContext).getObjectMapper().writer();
            CommandContextUtil.getProcessDefinitionInfoEntityManager().updateInfoJson(definitionInfoEntity.getId(), writer.writeValueAsBytes(infoNode));
        } catch (Exception e) {
            throw new FlowableException("Unable to serialize info node " + infoNode, e);
        }

        return null;

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)