flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

scopeType is null

Error message

scopeType is null

What it means

FlowableIllegalArgumentException thrown by DmnHistoricDecisionExecutionQuery.scopeType(String) when the caller passes a null scope type. The DMN historic query API requires every filter criterion to be non-null so the underlying query builder can construct a valid WHERE clause. It is an immediate fail-fast guard, not a state corruption.

Solutions

1. Pass a valid non-null scope type string (e.g. the scope type of the execution, such as 'bpmn' or 'cmmn') instead of null.
2. If no scope filtering is desired, omit the scopeType() call entirely — it is an optional filter.
3. Null-check the source of the value (config, request param, variable) before invoking scopeType().

Example fix

// before
query.scopeType(config.get("scopeType"));
// after
String scopeType = config.get("scopeType");
if (scopeType != null) {
    query.scopeType(scopeType);
}

if (scopeType == null || scopeType.isEmpty()) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("scopeType must be a non-empty string"); }

boolean isValidScopeType(Object v) { return v instanceof String s && !s.isEmpty(); }

try {
    query.scopeType(scopeType);
} catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) {
    log.warn("Ignoring scopeType filter: {}", e.getMessage());
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling dmnHistoryService.createHistoricDecisionExecutionQuery().scopeType(null), typically when the scope type variable comes from an unset configuration value, a deserialized map entry, or an unassigned method parameter.

Common situations: Building the query programmatically from config properties or request parameters where the scope-type key is absent; refactoring that renames a constant leaving a field null; passing a variable that was never initialized instead of omitting the scopeType filter entirely.

Related errors

• activityId is null
• decisionDefinitionId is null
• decisionKey is null
• deploymentId is null
• executionId is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5f69bac117e159fd. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable-dmn-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/dmn/engine/impl/HistoricDecisionExecutionQueryImpl.java:135

            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("executionId is null");
        }
        this.executionId = executionId;
        return this;
    }
    
    @Override
    public DmnHistoricDecisionExecutionQuery activityId(String activityId) {
        if (activityId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("activityId is null");
        }
        this.activityId = activityId;
        return this;
    }
    
    @Override
    public DmnHistoricDecisionExecutionQuery scopeType(String scopeType) {
        if (scopeType == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("scopeType is null");
        }
        this.scopeType = scopeType;
        return this;
    }
    
    @Override
    public DmnHistoricDecisionExecutionQuery withoutScopeType() {
        this.withoutScopeType = true;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public DmnHistoricDecisionExecutionQuery processInstanceIdWithChildren(String processInstanceId) {
        this.processInstanceIdWithChildren = processInstanceId;
        return this;
    }

    @Override

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