flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

The decision table id is mandatory, but '<decisionTableId>'

Error message

The decision table id is mandatory, but '<decisionTableId>' has been provided.

What it means

GetDeploymentDmnResourceCmd's constructor requires a non-empty decision table id and throws FlowableIllegalArgumentException with the offending (blank) value otherwise. It is the same fail-fast pattern as the DRD diagram command, applied when fetching the raw DMN resource for a decision table.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-dmn-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/dmn/engine/impl/cmd/GetDeploymentDmnResourceCmd.java:37

import org.flowable.common.engine.api.FlowableIllegalArgumentException;
import org.flowable.common.engine.impl.interceptor.Command;
import org.flowable.common.engine.impl.interceptor.CommandContext;
import org.flowable.dmn.engine.impl.persistence.entity.DecisionEntity;
import org.flowable.dmn.engine.impl.util.CommandContextUtil;

/**
 * Gives access to a deployed decision table model, e.g., a DMN XML file, through a stream of bytes.
 * 
 * @author Tijs Rademakers
 */
public class GetDeploymentDmnResourceCmd implements Command<InputStream>, Serializable {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    protected String decisionTableId;

    public GetDeploymentDmnResourceCmd(String decisionTableId) {
        if (decisionTableId == null || decisionTableId.length() < 1) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("The decision table id is mandatory, but '" + decisionTableId + "' has been provided.");
        }
        this.decisionTableId = decisionTableId;
    }

    @Override
    public InputStream execute(CommandContext commandContext) {
        DecisionEntity decisionTable = CommandContextUtil.getDmnEngineConfiguration().getDeploymentManager().findDeployedDecisionById(decisionTableId);
        String deploymentId = decisionTable.getDeploymentId();
        String resourceName = decisionTable.getResourceName();
        InputStream processModelStream = new GetDeploymentResourceCmd(deploymentId, resourceName).execute(commandContext);
        return processModelStream;
    }

}

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Supply the decision table id from a real deployment: DmnDecisionTable.getId() from a repository query
2. Validate non-null/non-empty before constructing the command
3. If ids are generated client-side, ensure the generation step actually ran (check for empty string rather than just null)

Example fix

// before
new GetDeploymentDmnResourceCmd(tableIdOrEmpty); // may be ""
// after
if (tableId == null || tableId.isEmpty()) {
    throw new BadRequestException("decisionTableId is required");
}
new GetDeploymentDmnResourceCmd(tableId);

if (decisionTableId == null || decisionTableId.isEmpty()) throw new IllegalArgumentException("decision table id is required");

try { new GetDeploymentDmnResourceCmd(id); } catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) { if (e.getMessage().startsWith("The decision table id is mandatory")) { throw new BadRequestException("decisionTableId required"); } throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: new GetDeploymentDmnResourceCmd(null) or length < 1 — e.g. dmnRepositoryService.getDecisionTableResource? or getDeploymentResource flow invoked with a null decisionTableId.

Common situations: Passing the id from an unset variable or empty optional; REST layer accepting blank path segments; migrating code from another engine API where empty ids were tolerated.

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

• decisionKey is null
• The decision id is mandatory, but '<decisionId>' has been pr
• Cannot find case definition for id:
• DMN repository service is not available
• The query is already in an or statement

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d9559e95a061f072. Report an issue: GitHub.