Feedback: Modeler/Documentation confusing for generic Error/Escalation

Hi there.
So I wanted to use boundary error and escalation events to catch any error/escalation that may appear within a subprocess (i.e. without defining an error/escalation code on the catching event).
I got myself pretty confused, but I have untied the knot and think the documentation and modeler might need some improvement. Maybe even the engine. Here’s my case:

I’m using Modeler 5.12.0 (target platform is 8.2) and Platform 8.2.5
The documentation (for 8.2) says:

  • “A catch event with an empty escalationCode will catch all thrown escalations.”
  • “A catch event with an empty errorCode will catch all thrown errors.”

In both cases, when I leave the error/escalation code empty, I get the error message “Code must be defined.” in the modeler’s properties panel.
I’m still able to deploy the process, but the process doesn’t work as expected, i.e. no error/escalation is caught.
I reckon this might be fixed for errors https://github.com/camunda/zeebe/pull/12840 in newer engine releases (not yet in 8.2.5 or 8.3.0-alpha2 per Operate) but I found no corresponding issue for escalation events.

I found that you actually have to set “Global error/escalation reference” to “< none>”.
This will work for both error and escalation. However, despite working in the engine, this will give two error messages for escalation events:

  1. “Element of type < bpmn:EscalationEventDefinition> must have property < escalationRef>” in the problems panel
  2. “Global escalation reference must be defined.” in the properties panel.

I hope this helps.
Kind regards.

error-and-escalation-code-empty.bpmn (13.8 KB)

Hi there.
I tested this again in 8.2.7 and 8.3-alpha3. Error events are now caught by catching error events without error code. However, the Modeler v5.13.0 still shows the same errors stated above.

Regarding this topic, I expeced some kind of feedback like “oh, yeah, we have to look into that”, but I reckon I didn’t really ask for that. Could you please share some insight?

Kind regards

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Hi @DatyEighty. Thanks for sharing this bug report. I apologize that this slipped our attention.

We’ll look into this topic and ensure that documentation and implementation are properly aligned, across modeler, and engine.

Hi @nikku
Thank you for looking into this.
Kind regards

To wrap up this thread: Catch-all events are events that do not reference a particular element (error or escalation).

Future versions of the documentation will be fixed: fix: clarify recommended catch all modeling by nikku · Pull Request #2471 · camunda/camunda-platform-docs · GitHub, our validation infrastructure will assist you accordingly, too.

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