dynammo

A simple wrapper library that simplifies using dynamoDB from Node.js.

Note: any run() method supports both callbacks and promises. If you don't pass a callback it will return a promise.

You write

new ammo.UpdateItem('movies')
  .key({
    year: 2015,
    title: 'The Force Awakens'
  })
  .update('remove info.actors[0]')
  .condition('size(info.actors) > :num', { ':num': 3 })
  .returnConsumedCapacity('indexes')
  .returnItemCollectionMetrics('size')
  .returnValues('updated_new')
  .run(function(err, data) {
    if (err) {
      console.error("Unable to update item. Error JSON:", JSON.stringify(err, null, 2))
    } else {
      console.log("UpdateItem succeeded:", JSON.stringify(data, null, 2))
    }
  })

Instead of writing

var params = {
  "TableName": "movies",
  "ExpressionAttributeValues": {
    ":num": {
      "N": 3
    }
  },
  "Key": {
    "year": {
      "N": 2015
    },
    "title": {
      "S": "The Force Awakens"
    }
  },
  "UpdateExpression": "remove info.actors[0]",
  "ConditionExpression": "size(info.actors) > :num",
  "ReturnConsumedCapacity": "INDEXES",
  "ReturnItemCollectionMetrics": "SIZE",
  "ReturnValues": "UPDATED_NEW"
}
dynamo.updateItem(params, function(err, data) {
  if (err) {
    console.error("Unable to update item. Error JSON:", JSON.stringify(err, null, 2))
  } else {
    console.log("UpdateItem succeeded:", JSON.stringify(data, null, 2))
  }
});

Installation

npm install dynammo --save

Usage

var AWS = require('aws-sdk')
var dynamo = new AWS.DynamoDB()
var ammo = require('dynammo')(dynamo, 'optional_prefix_')
 
// Available objects and methods:
 
new ammo.PutItem('table_name')...run(callback)
new ammo.UpdateItem('table_name')...run(callback)
new ammo.DeleteItem('table_name')...run(callback)
new ammo.GetItem('table_name')...run(callback)
new ammo.Query('table_name')...run(callback)
new ammo.Scan('table_name')...run(callback)

The optional prefix will be used in all table and index names. This is useful if you have multiple apps using the same AWS account. This way you can use a prefix per app and you don't have naming collisions.

Expression values and names

Some methods allow you to specify an expression like this:

query.condition('#y = :year and title = :title',
  { ':year': 2015, ':title': 'The Force Awakens' },
  { '#y': 'year' }
)

In this case we are querying items with a given year and title value. To pass the values we need to use a placeholder in the expression (:year and :title) and specify the values for these placeholders in the second parameter of the method condition(). In this case:

{ ':year': 2015, ':title': 'The Force Awakens' }

But we are passing also third argument. Why? Because our condition should have been year = :year and title = :title but year is a reserved keyword so we cannot use year directly in the expression. Instead we use the #y placeholder and in the third parameter we specify the actual name of that attribute. In the example:

{ '#y': 'year' }

PutItem

Example:

new ammo.PutItem('table_name')
  .item({
    year: 2015,
    title: 'The Force Awakens',
    genre: 'Science fiction',
    score: 8,
  })
  .returnConsumedCapacity('indexes')
  .returnItemCollectionMetrics('size')
  .returnValues('none')
  .run(function(err, res) {
    // res.raw contains the raw AWS response
    // res.attributes will be defined depending on returnValues()
  })

Methods

• item(object) (required) allows you to set all the attributes for the object. Both keys and non-keys attributes
• returnConsumedCapacity(string) allowed values are INDEXES, TOTAL or NONE (case insensitive)
• returnItemCollectionMetrics(string) allowed values are SIZE or NONE (case insensitive)
• returnValues(string) allowed values are NONE, ALL_OLD, UPDATED_OLD, ALL_NEW, UPDATED_NEW (case insensitive)
• condition(condition[, values[, names]])
• params() returns the params object that would be passed to the AWS SDK
• run(callback) invokes the putItem() method in the AWS SDK

UpdateItem

Example:

new ammo.UpdateItem('table_name')
  .key({
    year: 2015,
    title: 'The Force Awakens'
  })
  .update('set score = :score', { ':score': 10 })
  .condition('score = :num', { ':num': 3 })
  .returnConsumedCapacity('indexes')
  .returnItemCollectionMetrics('size')
  .returnValues('updated_new')
  .run(function(err, res) {
    // res.raw contains the raw AWS response
    // res.attributes will be defined depending on returnValues()
  })

Methods

• key(object) (required) allows you to specify the key attributes of the object to be updated
• update(expression[, values[, names]]) allows you to specify the attributes to be updated
• returnConsumedCapacity(string) allowed values are INDEXES, TOTAL or NONE (case insensitive)
• returnItemCollectionMetrics(string) allowed values are SIZE or NONE (case insensitive)
• returnValues(string) allowed values are NONE, ALL_OLD, UPDATED_OLD, ALL_NEW, UPDATED_NEW (case insensitive)
• condition(condition[, values[, names]]) allows you to specify a condition. If the condition is evaluated to true amazon won't update the object
• params() returns the params object that would be passed to the AWS SDK
• run(callback) invokes the updateItem() method in the AWS SDK

DeleteItem

Example:

new ammo.DeleteItem('table_name')
  .key({
    year: 2015,
    title: 'The Force Awakens',
  })
  .returnConsumedCapacity('indexes')
  .returnItemCollectionMetrics('size')
  .returnValues('none')
  .condition('score = :score', { ':score': 3 })
  .run(function(err, res) {
    // res.raw contains the raw AWS response
    // res.attributes will be defined depending on returnValues()
  })

Methods

• key(object) (required) allows you to specify the key attributes of the object to be deleted
• returnConsumedCapacity(string) allowed values are INDEXES, TOTAL or NONE (case insensitive)
• returnItemCollectionMetrics(string) allowed values are SIZE or NONE (case insensitive)
• returnValues(string) allowed values are NONE, ALL_OLD, UPDATED_OLD, ALL_NEW, UPDATED_NEW (case insensitive)
• condition(condition[, values[, names]]) allows you to specify a condition. If the condition is evaluated to true amazon won't delete the object
• params() returns the params object that would be passed to the AWS SDK
• run(callback) invokes the deleteItem() method in the AWS SDK

GetItem

Example:

new ammo.GetItem(tableName)
  .key({
    year: 2015,
    title: 'The Force Awakens',
  })
  .returnConsumedCapacity('indexes')
  .consistentRead(true)
  .run(function(err, res) {
    // res.raw contains the raw AWS response
    // res.item contains the desired item
  })

Methods

• select(string) (required) allows you to specify the key attributes of the object to be read
• consistentRead(boolean) allows you to specify the consistent read constraint
• returnConsumedCapacity(string) allowed values are INDEXES, TOTAL or NONE (case insensitive)
• params() returns the params object that would be passed to the AWS SDK
• run(callback) invokes the getItem() method in the AWS SDK

Query

Example:

new ammo.Query('table_name')
  .select('*')
  .consistentRead(false)
  .condition('#y = :year and title = :title',
    { ':year': 2015, ':title': 'The Force Awakens' },
    { '#y': 'year' }
  )
  .returnConsumedCapacity('indexes')
  .run(function(err, res) {
    // res.raw contains the raw AWS response
    // res.items contains the items found
  })

Methods

• select(string) (required) allowed values are ALL_ATTRIBUTES, ALL_PROJECTED_ATTRIBUTES, SPECIFIC_ATTRIBUTES, COUNT (case insensitive). * is an alias of ALL_ATTRIBUTES
• condition(condition[, values[, names]]) (required) specifies the condition of the query
• exclusiveStartKey(object) for paginated results it allows you to specify the key of the last object read in the previous page
• indexName(string) allows you to specify the index to use
• filter(expression) filters the returned values matching that expression
• limit(number) specifies the maximum number of objects to return
• forward(boolean) specifies the ordering
• consistentRead(boolean) allows you to specify the consistent read constraint
• returnConsumedCapacity(string) allowed values are INDEXES, TOTAL or NONE (case insensitive)
• params() returns the params object that would be passed to the AWS SDK
• run(callback) invokes the getItem() method in the AWS SDK

Scan

Example:

new ammo.Scan('table_name')
  .select('*')
  .consistentRead(false)
  .returnConsumedCapacity('indexes')
  .run(function(err, res) {
    // res.raw contains the raw AWS response
    // res.items contains the items found
  })

Methods

• select(string) (required) allowed values are ALL_ATTRIBUTES, ALL_PROJECTED_ATTRIBUTES, SPECIFIC_ATTRIBUTES, COUNT (case insensitive). * is an alias of ALL_ATTRIBUTES
• exclusiveStartKey(object) for paginated results it allows you to specify the key of the last object read in the previous page
• indexName(string) allows you to specify the index to use
• filter(expression) filters the returned values matching that expression
• limit(number) specifies the maximum number of objects to return
• segment(number) specifies the segment to process
• totalSegments(number) specifies the total segments to be processed
• forward(boolean) specifies the ordering
• consistentRead(boolean) allows you to specify the consistent read constraint
• returnConsumedCapacity(string) allowed values are INDEXES, TOTAL or NONE (case insensitive)
• params() returns the params object that would be passed to the AWS SDK
• run(callback) invokes the getItem() method in the AWS SDK

Testing

Tests expect to have dynamodb running locally and will create and destroy a table called dynammo_movies.