Connectors → Amazon Web Services (AWS) DynamoDB

About Amazon Web Services (AWS) DynamoDB

AWS DynamoDB is a fully managed, proprietary NoSQL database service that supports key-value and document data structures and is offered as part of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) portfolio. It is a multi-region, multi-active, durable database with built-in security, backup and restore, and in-memory caching for internet-scale applications.

About The AWS DynamoDB Connector

The AWS DynamoDB connector uses the incorta.connector.dynamodb.jar driver. The AWS DynamoDB connector supports the following Incorta specific functionality:

The AWS DynamoDB connector authentication methods

The AWS DynamoDB connector supports two methods for authentication:

• Access Key: in this method, Incorta uses Access Key ID and Secret Access Key to get access to resources in your AWS account. Access keys are long-term credentials for an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) user or the AWS account root user.
• Temporary Security Credentials: In this method, Incorta uses a temporary session token, in addition to an Access Key ID and Secret Access Key, to get access to resources in your AWS account. The temporary security credentials are short-term. After they expire, they are no longer valid, and you must get a new set of credentials.

For more information, see Understanding and getting your AWS credentials

Steps to connect AWS DynamoDB and Incorta

To connect AWS DynamoDB and Incorta, here are the high level steps, tools, and procedures:

• Create an external data source
• Create a schema with the Schema Wizard
• or, Create a schema with the Schema Designer
• Load the schema
• Explore the schema

Create an external data source

Here are the steps to create a external data source with the AWS DynamoDB connector:

• Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform™.
• In the Navigation bar, select Data.
• In the Action bar, select + New → Add Data Source.
• In the Choose a Data Source dialog, in Application, select DynamoDB.
• In the New Data Source dialog, specify the applicable connector properties.
• To test, select Test Connection.
• Select Ok to save your changes.

AWS DynamoDB connector properties

Here are the properties for the AWS DynamoDB connector:

Create a schema with the Schema Wizard

Here are the steps to create an AWS DynamoDB schema with the Schema Wizard:

• Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform™.
• In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
• In the Action bar, select + New → Schema Wizard
• In (1) Choose a Source, specify the following:
  • For Enter a name, enter the schema name.
  • For Select a Datasource, select the DynamoDB external data source.
  • Optionally, create a description.
• In the Schema Wizard footer, select Next.
• In (2) Manage Tables, in the Data Panel, first select the name of the Data Source, and then check the Select All checkbox.
• In the Schema Wizard footer, select Next.
• In (3) Finalize, in the Schema Wizard footer, select Create Schema.

Create a schema with the Schema Designer

Here are the steps to create an AWS DynamoDB schema using the Schema Designer:

• Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform™.
• In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
• In the Action bar, select + New → Create Schema.
• In Name, specify the schema name, and select Save.
• In Start adding tables to your schema, select DynamoDB.
• In the Data Source dialog, specify the DynamoDB table data source properties.
• Select Add.
• In the Table Editor, in the Table Summary section, enter the table name.
• To save your changes, select Done in the Action bar.

DynamoDB table data source properties

For a schema table in Incorta, you can define the following DynamoDB specific data source properties as follows:

For more information about the table properties, see Additional Considerations.

View the schema diagram with the Schema Diagram Viewer

Here are the steps to view the schema diagram using the Schema Diagram Viewer:

• Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform™.
• In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
• In the list of schemas, select the DynamoDB schema.
• In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Diagram.

Load the schema

Here are the steps to perform a Full Load of the DynamoDB schema using the Schema Designer:

• Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform™.
• In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
• In the list of schemas, select the DynamoDB schema.
• In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Load → Load Now → Full.
• To review the load status, in Last Load Status, select the date.

Explore the schema

With the full load of the DynamoDB schema complete, you can use the Analyzer to explore the schema, create your first insight, and save the insight to a new dashboard.

To open the Analyzer from the schema, follow these steps:

• In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
• In the Schema Manager, in the List view, select the DynamoDB schema.
• In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Explore Data.

For more information about how to use the Analyzer to create insights, see Analyzer and Visualizations.

Additional Considerations

Filter Expressions

• A filter expression is applied after a query finishes, but before the results are returned. Therefore, a query consumes the same amount of read capacity, regardless of whether a filter expression is present.
• A Query operation can retrieve a maximum of 1 MB of data. This limit applies before the filter expression is evaluated.
• In the table properties, in the filter expression, you can reference primary key or sort key attributes.
• The syntax of a filter expression consists of the attribute (column or field), the operator or function, and the pointer to or placeholder of the attribute values that you define in the Expression Attribute Values.

The following is an example of a filter expression:

Price >= :num and ProductStatus IN (:avail, :back, :disc)

• Price and ProductStatus are the columns or attributes
• >=, and and IN are the operators and functions in the expression
• :num, :avail, :back, :disc are the pointers to the expression attribute values

For more information, refer to Working with Queries in DynamoDB.

Expression Attribute Values

If you need to compare an attribute with a value, define an expression attribute value as a placeholder. Expression attribute values in AWS DynamoDB are substitutes for the actual values that you want to compare. An expression attribute value must begin with a colon : and be followed by one or more alphanumeric characters.

Examples of expression attribute values:

{":num":{"N":"200"}, ":avail":{"S":"Available"}, ":active":{"BOOL":"true"}}

• :num, :avail and active are pointers to the attribute values.
• N, S and BOOL are the data types of the attribute values, which are number, string, and boolean, respectively. For more information, see Supported Data Types.
• 200, Available, and true are the dereferenced attribute values.

You can then use these expression attribute values in an expression, for example, ProductStatus IN (:avail, :back, :disc).

Expression Attribute Names

An expression attribute name is a placeholder that you use in an AWS DynamoDB expression as an alternative to an actual attribute name. An expression attribute name must begin with a pound sign # and be followed by one or more alphanumeric characters.

The following are some use cases for using Expression Attribute Names:

• To access an attribute whose name conflicts with a DynamoDB reserved word.
• To create a placeholder for repeating occurrences of an attribute name in an expression.
• To prevent special characters in an attribute name from being misinterpreted in an expression.

{"#P":"Percentile"} and {"#N":"Name"} are examples of expression attribute names:

• #P and #N are the attribute substitutions.
• Percentile and Name are the actual attributes.

For more information, see Expression Attribute Names in DynamoDB.

Projection Expressions

A Projection Expression is a string that identifies one or more attributes (columns or fields) to retrieve from the specified table or index. These attributes can include scalars, sets, or elements of a JSON document. The attributes in the expression must be separated by commas. If you do not specify any attributes, all attributes will be returned. If any of the requested attributes are not found, they will not appear in the result. For more information, see Projection Expressions.

Timestamp and Date Columns

Since DynamoDB doesn’t natively support date or timestamp data types, date and timestamp data is represented using either string or number attributes. For more information, see Naming Rules and Data Types.

In order to manipulate date and timestamp data in Incorta, you need to define each date or timestamp column or attribute in the table properties.

For any date or timestamp column, you have to specify the following information:

• Type: date or timestamp
• Format:
  • Epoch-seconds
  • Epoch-milliseconds
  • Any Java-compliant timestamp pattern, for example yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS. For more information, see the Patterns for Formatting and Parsing section on the Class DateTimeFormatter page.
• Timezone: Optional. Set a valid Java timezone ID. If you don’t set it, it is defaulted to the timezone of the Incorta server. For more information about the timezones, see the of method on the Class ZoneOffset page.

The following is an example of the definition of multiple date and timestamp columns or attributes in the table properties.

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{
    "UpdateTime": {
        "type": "timestamp",
        "format": "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'",
        "timezone": "-07:00"
    },
    "OrderTime": {
        "type": "timestamp",
        "format": "epoch-milliseconds",
        "timezone": "-07:00"
    },
    "Birthdate": {
        "type": "date",
        "format": "yyyy-MM-dd",
        "timezone": "-07:00"
    }
}

Supported Incremental Loads

You can enable Incremental Load for a DynamoDB table data source. Incremental load will depend upon the maximum value in the Incremental Column you select in the table properties. Make sure you define a key column in the table before using the incremental load; otherwise, when you run an incremental load, both new and updated data will be added to the existing data resulting in duplicate rows.