flowable/flowable-engine · error · FlowableIllegalArgumentException

userId is null

Error message

userId is null

What it means

SetUserPictureCmd stores a Picture for a user identified by userId. The userId is the lookup key for the target user, so a null value is rejected up front with FlowableIllegalArgumentException before querying the identity service.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-idm-engine/src/main/java/org/flowable/idm/engine/impl/cmd/SetUserPictureCmd.java:43

/**
 * @author Tom Baeyens
 */
public class SetUserPictureCmd implements Command<Object>, Serializable {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    protected String userId;
    protected Picture picture;

    public SetUserPictureCmd(String userId, Picture picture) {
        this.userId = userId;
        this.picture = picture;
    }

    @Override
    public Object execute(CommandContext commandContext) {
        if (userId == null) {
            throw new FlowableIllegalArgumentException("userId is null");
        }

        User user = CommandContextUtil.getIdmEngineConfiguration().getIdmIdentityService()
                .createUserQuery().userId(userId)
                .singleResult();

        if (user == null) {
            throw new FlowableObjectNotFoundException("user " + userId + " doesn't exist", User.class);
        }

        CommandContextUtil.getUserEntityManager(commandContext).setUserPicture(user, picture);
        return null;
    }

}

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Set the userId variable/parameter before invoking the behavior or service call
2. Guard the call: only setUserPicture when userId != null
3. Ensure the calling ActivityBehavior initializes its fields in the setter/constructor

Example fix

// before
identityService.setUserPicture(userId, picture);
// after
if (userId != null) {
    identityService.setUserPicture(userId, picture);
}

if (userId == null || userId.isEmpty()) throw new IllegalArgumentException("userId is required to set a picture");

boolean canSetPicture(String userId, Picture p) { return userId != null && !userId.trim().isEmpty() && p != null; }

try { identityService.setUserPicture(userId, picture); } catch (FlowableIllegalArgumentException e) { log.warn("Cannot set picture: missing userId"); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling identityService.setUserPicture(null, picture) or executing new SetUserPictureCmd(null, picture); also reached from executeActivityBehavior when the userId process variable is unset.

Common situations: Delegates/behavior classes reading a userId variable that was never set on the execution; image-upload endpoints that drop the user id parameter.

Related errors

• userId is null
• userId is null
• user is null
• Provided email is null
• Provided emailLike is null

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bfebb486935ccf32. Report an issue: GitHub.