updating a JSON array in AWS dynamoDB

Question

My document looks like this:

{
  \"data\": {
      \"eventId\": \"20161029125458-df-d\",
      \"name\": \"first\",
      \"purpose\": \"test\",
      \"loca         


        

Answer 1

you can store the index of list. while updating the list we can use them. For example ,

{


"data": {
      "eventId": "20161029125458-df-d",
      "name": "first",
      "purpose": "test",
      "location": "yokohama",
      "dateArray": [],
      "attendees": [
        {  
          "index":0,  
          "attendeeId": "2016102973634-df",
          "attendeeName": "lakshman",
          "personalizedDateSelection": {}
        },
        {
           "index":1,
          "attendeeId": "2016102973634-tyyu",
          "attendeeName": "diwaakar",
          "personalizedDateSelection": {}
        }
      ]
    }
}
const params = {
  TableName: "event",
  Key: {
    "eventId": eventId 
  },
  UpdateExpression: "SET attendees[attendee.index].attendeeName = :value",
  ExpressionAttributeValues: {
    ":value" : {"S":"karthik"}
  },
  ReturnValues: "ALL_NEW"
};


dynamo.update(params, (err, data) => {
  if (err) {
    return reject(err);
  }
  console.log(data.Attributes);
});

Answer 2

An example of an update query:

Data structure (saved in DynamoDB)

{
  tenant_id: 'tenant_1',
  users: {
    user1: {
      _id: 'user1',
      email_address: 'test_email_1@gmail.com'
    },
    user2: {
      _id: 'user2',
      email_address: 'test_email_2@gmail.com'
    }
  }
}

Data for update (used in the params)

var user = {
 email_address: 'updated@gmail.com'
}

Params

var params = {
    TableName: 'tenant-Master',
    Key: {
       "tenant_id": 'tenant_1'
    },
    UpdateExpression: "set #users.user1 = :value",
    ExpressionAttributeNames: {
    "#users": "users"
    },
    ExpressionAttributeValues: {
    ":value": user,
    },
 };

Explanation

By switching to a map of maps from an array of maps we can now use UpdateExpression: "set #users.user1 = :value" to update our nested object at the map of users with the id of user1.

NOTE: This method as is will REPLACE the entire map object at users.user1. Some changes will need to be made if you want to keep pre-existing data.

Answer 3

I could not find any answer to query and update the JSON-array. I think this may be AWS profitable motive to not allow those features. If you need to query on a particular ID other than primary key, you need to make a secondary index which is cost effective. This secondary index cost is additional to the dyn amoDB table cost.

Since, I did not want to pay extra bucks on secondary index, I changed my dynamoDB schema to the following:

{
  "data": {
      "eventId": "20161029125458-df-d",
      "name": "first",
      "purpose": "test",
      "location": "yokohama",
      "dateArray": [],
      "attendees": {
        "2016102973634-df": {
          "attendeeId": "2016102973634-df",
          "attendeeName": "lakshman",
          "personalizedDateSelection": {}
        },
        "2016102973777-df": {
          "attendeeId": "2016102973777-df",
          "attendeeName": "ffff",
          "personalizedDateSelection": {}
        }
      }
    }
}

Changing attendees from [] to {}. This allows me the flexibility to query particular attendeeId and change the entire JSON associated with that. Even though, this is a redundant step, I do not want to spend extra bucks on my hobby project.