Amazon DynamoDB - Create item

Declaration

<AMAWSDYNAMODB ACTIVITY="create_item" 
ACCESSKEY="text" 
SECRETKEY="text (encrypted)" 
USERAGENT="text" MAXERRORRETRY="number" 
SERVICEURL="text" 
PROXYHOST="text" 
PROXYPORT="number" 		 
PROXYUSER="text" 
PROXYPWD="text (encrypted)" 
SIGNMETHOD="text" SIGNVERSION="number" TABLE="text">
<ATTRIBUTE TYPE="text (options)" NAME="text" VALUE="text" />
</AMAWSDYNAMODB>

Description: Creates a new item or replaces an old item with a new one (including all attributes). If an item already exists in the specified table with the same primary key, the new item completely replaces the existing one.

IMPORTANT: DynamoDB activities are performed using Amazon's DynamoDB engine, therefore, launching and managing DynamoDB requires a valid Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.

Practical Usage

Perform this activity to insert a new item if one with the specified primary key doesn't exist or replace an existing item if it has certain attribute values. Each attribute in an item can be single or multi-valued.

Connection Parameters

Property

Type

Required

Default

Markup

Description

Connection

 

 

 

 

Indicates where user credentials and preferences should originate from. This is a design mode parameter used only during task construction and configuration, thus, comprises no markup. The available options are:

  • Session - Specifies that user credentials and/or advanced preferences are obtained from a pre-configured session created in an earlier step with the use of the DynamoDB - Create session activity. Normally chosen if a combination of activities within the same action group are required. Linking several activities to a single session eliminates redundancy and improves efficiency. Several sessions can exist in a single task. Multiple sessions can run simultaneously without interference.

Session

Text

Yes if connection is session-based

DynamoDB

Session1

SESSION="myDynamoDBsession"

The name of an existing session to associate this activity with. The default value is DynamoDBSession1. This parameter is active only if the Connection parameter is set to Session.

Access key

Text

Yes if connection is host-based

(Empty)

ACCESSKEY="[accessKey]"

The ID that uniquely identifies the owner of the AWS service account (similar to a username). Together, the Access Key and Secret Access Key are the main credentials used to access and control basic AWS services through the API. This parameter is active only if the Connection parameter is set to Host.    

Secret access key

Text

Yes if connection is host-based

(Empty)

SECRETKEY="[SecretKey]"

The secret ID that corresponds with the Access Key (similar to a password). When a request is sent, AWS verifies that this key corresponds with the Access Key to authenticate the signature and confirm that the request sender is legitimate. This parameter is active only if the Connection parameter is set to Host.  

User agent

Text

No

AutoMate

USERAGENT="AutoMate"

The name of the client or application initiating requests to AWS. The default value is AutoMate. 

Maximum retries on error

Number

No

(Empty)

MAXERRORRETRY="7"

The amount of times this activity should retry sending the request to the sever before returning an error. Network components can generate errors anywhere in the life of a given request, therefore, implementing retries can increase reliability. 

Service URL

Text

No

(Empty)

SERVICEURL=

"https://sdb.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com"

The URL that provides the service region endpoint. To make the service call to a different region, simply specify the region-specific endpoint. For example, entering https://dynamodb.us-east-1.amazonaws.com would point to US East (Northern Virginia) region. A complete list of DynamoDB regions and their associated endpoints  can be found below under DynamoDB Regions and Endpoints.  

Proxy host

Text

No

(Empty)

PROXYHOST="proxy.host.com"

The host name (e.g., server.domain.com) or IP address (e.g., xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) of the proxy server to use when connecting to AWS.  

Proxy port

Number

No

(Empty)

PROXYPORT="1028"

The port number to use to connect to the proxy server. 

Proxy username

Text

No

(Empty)

PROXYUSERNAME="Username"

The username to authenticate with the proxy server.

Proxy password

Text

No

(Empty)

PROXYPWD="encrypted"

The password to authenticate with the proxy server. 

Signature method

Text

No

(Empty)

SIGNMETHOD="HmacSHA256"

The signature method to use for signing the request. This provides a valid hashing algorithm for signature calculation. Valid AWS signature methods are HmacSHA1 and HmacSHA256.

Signature version

Number

No

(Empty)

SIGNVERSION="2"

The signature version for signing the request. Valid AWS signature versions are 2 and 4. The difference with version 4 is that it allows you to sign your message using a key that is derived from your secret access key rather than using the secret access key itself.

Item Parameters

Property

Type

Required

Default

Markup

Description

Table

Text

Yes

(Empty)

TABLE="myTable"

The name of the table in which the new item should be placed.

[Attribute] Type

Text (options)

Yes

(Empty)

  1. TYPE="Type"

  2. TYPE="Number"

  3. TYPE="StringSet"

  4. TYPE="NumberSet"

In Amazon DynamoDB, a table is a collection of items and each item is a collection of attributes. Item attributes consists of type and name-value pair. In visual mode, select Click here to add new row... to expose a grid in which to enter one or more rows of attributes to set for the new item. The available attribute types to set for an tem are:

  • String - Unicode with UTF8 binary encoding (e.g., store name)

  • Number - Positive or negative exact-value decimals and integers (e.g., invoice or order number.)

  • StringSet - Multi-valued string (e.g., item1, item2, item3).

  • NumberSet - Multi-valued number (e.g., item1 product number, item2 product number)

[Attribute] Name

Text

Yes

(Empty)

NAME="Phone"

Specifies the 'name' portion of the name-value pair to set for the new item. In visual mode, select Click here to add new row... to expose a grid in which to enter one or more rows of attributes to set for the new item.

NOTE: An item can have multiple attributes and an attribute can have multiple values.   

[Attribute] Value

Text

Yes

(Empty)

VALUE=714-555-1212

Specifies the value' portion of the name-value pair to set for the new item. In visual mode, select Click here to add new row... to expose a grid in which to enter one or more rows of attributes to set for the new item.

NOTE: An item can have multiple attributes and an attribute can have multiple values.   

Description tab - A custom description can be provided on the Description tab to convey additional information or share special notes about a task step.

Error Causes tab - Specify how this step should behave upon the occurrence of an error. (Refer to Task Builder > Error Causes Tab for details.)

On Error tab - Specify what AWE should do if this step encounters an error as defined on the Error Causes tab. (Refer to Task Builder > On Error Tab for details.)

DynamoDB Regions and Endpoints

This table contains a complete list of DynamoDB endpoints, associated regions and supported protocols.

Endpoint

Region

Protocol

elasticmapreduce.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

US East (Northern Virginia) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

elasticmapreduce.us-west-2.amazonaws.com

US West (Oregon) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

elasticmapreduce.us-west-1.amazonaws.com

US West (Northern California) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

elasticmapreduce.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com

EU (Ireland) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

elasticmapreduce.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com

Asia Pacific (Singapore) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

elasticmapreduce.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com

Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

elasticmapreduce.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com

Asia Pacific (Tokyo) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

elasticmapreduce.sa-east-1.amazonaws.com

South America (Sao Paulo) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

Example

The sample AML code below can be copied and pasted directly into the Steps panel of the Task Builder.

Description: Simple DynamoDB task that creates a new table and new item in the table. Step by step description is embedded in the task.

<!-- Create session -->
<AMAWSDYNAMODB ACTIVITY="create_session" 
SESSION="DBSession1" ACCESSKEY="AKIAJ25JAKOPAC7123457" 
SECRETKEY="AM3i6P77pVEBOw=aME" />
<!-- Create table -->
<AMAWSDYNAMODB ACTIVITY="create_table" 
PROVIDER="session_based" SESSION="DBSession1" 
NAME="mytable" HASH="HashKeyName" />
<!-- Create item -->
<AMAWSDYNAMODB ACTIVITY="create_item" 
PROVIDER="session_based" SESSION="DBSession1" 
TABLE="mytable"><ATTRIBUTE TYPE="String" 
NAME="gameName" VALUE="myGame" /><ATTRIBUTE 
TYPE="Number" NAME="gameId" VALUE="41021234" />
<ATTRIBUTE TYPE="String" NAME="gameCost" VALUE="20" />
</AMAWSDYNAMODB>
<!-- End session -->
<AMAWSDYNAMODB ACTIVITY="end_session" SESSION="DBSession1" />