flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

resourceName is null

Error message

resourceName is null

What it means

FlowableIllegalArgumentException thrown by CaseDefinitionQueryImpl.caseDefinitionResourceName(String) when the resource name is null. The resource name is the path of the .cmmn/.cmmn.xml file inside the deployment; filtering by a null resource name is invalid and rejected at query-build time.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/cmmn/engine/impl/repository/CaseDefinitionQueryImpl.java:197

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

    @Override
    public CaseDefinitionQueryImpl caseDefinitionKeyLike(String keyLike) {
        if (keyLike == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("keyLike is null");
        }
        this.keyLike = keyLike;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public CaseDefinitionQueryImpl caseDefinitionResourceName(String resourceName) {
        if (resourceName == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("resourceName is null");
        }
        this.resourceName = resourceName;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public CaseDefinitionQueryImpl caseDefinitionResourceNameLike(String resourceNameLike) {
        if (resourceNameLike == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("resourceNameLike is null");
        }
        this.resourceNameLike = resourceNameLike;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public CaseDefinitionQueryImpl caseDefinitionVersion(Integer version) {
        checkVersion(version);
        this.version = version;

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

  1. Pass the actual resource name as deployed, e.g. caseDefinitionResourceName("my-case.cmmn.xml").
  2. Apply the filter conditionally only when the resource name is non-null.
  3. Verify the deployment actually contains the resource and that the path variable was populated correctly.

Example fix

// before
query.caseDefinitionResourceName(resourceName); // may be null

// after
if (resourceName != null) {
    query.caseDefinitionResourceName(resourceName);
}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (resourceName != null) {
    query.caseDefinitionResourceName(resourceName);
}

Type guard

boolean hasResource = resourceName != null && !resourceName.isEmpty();

Try / catch

try {
    query.caseDefinitionResourceName(resourceName);
} catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) {
    // resource name unknown — query without resource filter or rethrow
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling caseDefinitionQuery.caseDefinitionResourceName(null), typically when the resource path variable was not initialized or a file lookup returned null.

Common situations: Tooling that maps a deployed resource back to its case definition; the resource path was missing from the deployment record or the config used a wrong property name yielding null.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ad8748721a895c28. Report an issue: GitHub.