flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

referenceScopeType is empty

Error message

referenceScopeType is empty

What it means

Fluent-setter validation in InternalEntityLinkQueryImpl.referenceScopeType: the reference scope type filter is null or empty; the builder refuses it because entity-link type discrimination requires a non-blank value.

Solutions

1. Pass a valid constant from org.flowable.common.engine.impl.scope.ScopeTypes.
2. Validate non-blank before invoking the query builder.
3. Fix the upstream data/mapping that yields the empty scope type.

Example fix

// before
query.referenceScopeType(refType); // empty

// after
if (StringUtils.isNotBlank(refType)) {
    query.referenceScopeType(refType).list();
}

if (StringUtils.isBlank(referenceScopeType)) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("referenceScopeType required"); }

try {
    links = entityLinkQuery.referenceScopeType(refType).list();
} catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) {
    links = Collections.emptyList();
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling InternalEntityLinkQuery.referenceScopeType("") or referenceScopeType(null).

Common situations: Deriving the type of the referenced entity from data that was absent; passing an empty string default instead of a ScopeTypes constant.

Understand the failure class

Background: "must not be empty", "cannot be empty" — required-field validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• referenceScopeDefinitionId is empty
• referenceScopeId is empty
• scopeDefinitionId is empty
• scopeId is empty
• scopeIds is empty

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8de63ebcc452b63c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-entitylink-service/src/main/java/org/flowable/entitylink/service/impl/InternalEntityLinkQueryImpl.java:112

            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("referenceScopeId is empty");
        }
        this.referenceScopeId = referenceScopeId;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public InternalEntityLinkQuery<E> referenceScopeDefinitionId(String referenceScopeDefinitionId) {
        if (StringUtils.isEmpty(referenceScopeDefinitionId)) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("referenceScopeDefinitionId is empty");
        }
        this.referenceScopeDefinitionId = referenceScopeDefinitionId;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public InternalEntityLinkQuery<E> referenceScopeType(String referenceScopeType) {
        if (StringUtils.isEmpty(referenceScopeType)) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("referenceScopeType is empty");
        }
        this.referenceScopeType = referenceScopeType;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public InternalEntityLinkQuery<E> rootScopeId(String rootScopeId) {
        if (StringUtils.isEmpty(rootScopeId)) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("rootScopeId is empty");
        }
        this.rootScopeId = rootScopeId;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public InternalEntityLinkQuery<E> rootScopeType(String rootScopeType) {
        if (StringUtils.isEmpty(rootScopeType)) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("rootScopeType is empty");

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