flowable/flowable-engine · error · ActivitiIllegalArgumentException

Task descriptionlike is null

Error message

Task descriptionlike is null

What it means

Fluent-setter validation in flowable5 TaskQueryImpl.taskDescriptionLike: a null LIKE pattern was passed for the task-description filter and rejected.

Solutions

1. Apply the filter conditionally only when the pattern is non-null
2. Trim/coerce empty strings to no-filter at the boundary instead of null
3. Centralize query building in a helper that handles optional criteria uniformly

Example fix

// before
query.taskDescriptionLike(criteria.getDescriptionLike()); // may be null
// after
String descriptionLike = criteria.getDescriptionLike();
if (descriptionLike != null) {
    query.taskDescriptionLike(descriptionLike);
}

if (descriptionLike == null) { /* skip filter */ }

void addDescriptionLike(TaskQuery query, String pattern) {
    if (pattern != null && !pattern.isEmpty()) {
        query.taskDescriptionLike(pattern);
    }
}

try {
    query.taskDescriptionLike(pattern);
} catch (org.activiti.engine.ActivitiIllegalArgumentException e) {
    // no pattern supplied: build query without description filter
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling taskDescriptionLike(null) with a pattern sourced from an unset request field or variable.

Common situations: Advanced-search endpoints where the descriptionLike parameter is optional and passed through unchecked; map lookups returning null for missing keys; Optional.orElse(null) usage.

Related errors

• Description is null
• None of the given process categories can be null
• Priority is null
• Task descriptionLikeIgnoreCase is null
• Task namelike is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9652523bfb5c58f6. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at modules/flowable5-engine/src/main/java/org/activiti/engine/impl/TaskQueryImpl.java:274

    @Override
    public TaskQueryImpl taskDescription(String description) {
        if (description == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("Description is null");
        }

        if (orActive) {
            currentOrQueryObject.description = description;
        } else {
            this.description = description;
        }
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public TaskQuery taskDescriptionLike(String descriptionLike) {
        if (descriptionLike == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("Task descriptionlike is null");
        }
        if (orActive) {
            currentOrQueryObject.descriptionLike = descriptionLike;
        } else {
            this.descriptionLike = descriptionLike;
        }
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public TaskQuery taskDescriptionLikeIgnoreCase(String descriptionLikeIgnoreCase) {
        if (descriptionLikeIgnoreCase == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("Task descriptionLikeIgnoreCase is null");
        }
        if (orActive) {
            currentOrQueryObject.descriptionLikeIgnoreCase = descriptionLikeIgnoreCase.toLowerCase();
        } else {
            this.descriptionLikeIgnoreCase = descriptionLikeIgnoreCase.toLowerCase();

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