flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

Provided display name is null

Error message

Provided display name is null

What it means

FlowableIllegalArgumentException thrown by UserQueryImpl.userDisplayName when the displayName argument is null. The method sets an exact-match criterion on the user's display name and requires a concrete non-null string. The engine throws eagerly so misconfigured queries fail at the call site rather than during execution.

Solutions

1. Pass a concrete display name: userDisplayName("John Doe")
2. Apply the criterion conditionally: if (displayName != null) query.userDisplayName(displayName)
3. Verify the configuration/source actually contains the display-name value before querying
4. Use userDisplayNameLike("%doe%") with a valid pattern when only a partial match is known

Example fix

// before
User user = identityService.createUserQuery().userDisplayName(config.getDisplayName()).singleResult();

// after
if (config.getDisplayName() == null) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("display-name must be configured");
}
User user = identityService.createUserQuery().userDisplayName(config.getDisplayName()).singleResult();

if (displayName == null) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("displayName is required"); }
identityService.createUserQuery().userDisplayName(displayName);

boolean isPresent(String v) { return v != null && !v.trim().isEmpty(); }

try {
    query.userDisplayName(displayName);
} catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) {
    log.warn("Missing display-name criterion: {}", e.getMessage());
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling createUserQuery().userDisplayName(null), or chaining it with a value resolved from configuration, a tenant setting, or an entity attribute that was null.

Common situations: Tenant/organization display-name lookups where the configured name is missing; copying display names from users/records that lack the attribute; property files with the key absent yielding null.

Related errors

• Provided full name is null
• Provided last name is null
• activatedBefore is null
• activity tenant id is null
• after time is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c5c49b47431bd43a. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-idm-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/idm/engine/impl/UserQueryImpl.java:168

            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Provided full name is null");
        }
        this.fullNameLike = fullNameLike;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public UserQuery userFullNameLikeIgnoreCase(String fullNameLikeIgnoreCase) {
        if (fullNameLikeIgnoreCase == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Provided full name is null");
        }
        this.fullNameLikeIgnoreCase = fullNameLikeIgnoreCase.toLowerCase();
        return this;
    }
    
    @Override
    public UserQuery userDisplayName(String displayName) {
        if (displayName == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Provided display name is null");
        }
        this.displayName = displayName;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public UserQuery userDisplayNameLike(String displayNameLike) {
        if (displayNameLike == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Provided display name is null");
        }
        this.displayNameLike = displayNameLike;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public UserQuery userDisplayNameLikeIgnoreCase(String displayNameLikeIgnoreCase) {
        if (displayNameLikeIgnoreCase == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("Provided display name is null");

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