@begin/data
Begin Data is an easy to use, fast, and durable key/value and document store built on top of DynamoDB. Originally built for Begin serverless apps, Begin Data’s core API has three simple methods: get, set, and destroy.
Concepts
Begin Data organizes itself into tables. A table contain documents which are just collections of plain Objects. Documents stored in Begin Data always have the properties table and key.
Optionally a document can also have a ttl property with a UNIX epoch value representing the expiry time for the document.
Usage
Begin Data operates on one DynamoDB table named data with a partition key scopeID and a sort key of dataID (and, optionally, a ttl for expiring documents).
Example app.arc:
@app
myapp
@tables
data
scopeID *String
dataID **String
ttl TTL
Or equivalent CloudFormation YAML:
AWSTemplateFormatVersion: "2010-09-09" Resources: BeginData: Type: "AWS::DynamoDB::Table" Properties: TableName: "data" BillingMode: "PAY_PER_REQUEST" KeySchema: - AttributeName: "scopeID" KeyType: "HASH" - AttributeName: "dataID" KeyType: "RANGE" SSESpecification: Enabled: "false" TimeToLiveSpecification: AttributeName: "ttl" Enabled: "TRUE"
Note: projects not based on Architect will need a
BEGIN_DATA_TABLE_NAMEenvironment variable. You can also use this env var to override and name the table anything you want. This also allows for multiple apps to share a single table.
API
let data = require('@begin/data')
The core API is three methods:
data.get(params[, callback])→[Promise]for retreiving datadata.set(params[, callback])→[Promise]for writing datadata.destroy(params[, callback])→[Promise]for removing data
Additional helper methods are also made available:
data.incr(params[, callback])→[Promise]increment an attribute on a documentdata.decr(params[, callback])→[Promise]decrement an attribute on a documentdata.count(params[, callback])→[Promise]get the number of documents for a given table
All methods accept a params object and, optionally, a Node-style errback. If no errback is supplied, a Promise is returned. All methods support async/await.
Writes
Save a document in a table by key. Remember: table is required; key is optional.
let taco = await data.set({ table: 'tacos', key: 'al-pastor' })
All documents have a key. If no key is given, set will generate a unique key.
let token = await data.set({ table: 'tokens', }) // {table:'tokens', key:'LCJkYX9jYWwidW50RhSU'}
Batch save multiple documents at once by passing an Array of Objects.
let collection = await data.set([ {table: 'ppl', name:'brian', email:'b@brian.io'}, {table: 'ppl', name:'sutr0', email:'sutr0@brian.io'}, {table: 'tacos', key:'pollo'}, {table: 'tacos', key:'carnitas'}, ])
Reads
Read a document by key:
let yum = await data.get({ table: 'tacos', key: 'baja' })
Batch read by passing an Array of Objects. With these building blocks you can construct secondary indexes and joins, like one-to-many and many-to-many.
await data.get([ {table:'tacos', key:'carnitas'}, {table:'tacos', key:'al-pastor'}, ])
Destroy
Delete a document by key.
await data.destroy({ table: 'tacos', key: 'pollo' })
Batch delete documents by passing an Array of Objects.
await data.destroy([ {table:'tacos', key:'carnitas'}, {table:'tacos', key:'al-pastor'}, ])
Pagination
Large sets of data can not be retrieved in one call because the underlying get api paginates results.
In this case use the for await syntax with a limit set to get paginated data.
let pages = data.page({ table:'ppl', limit:25 }) let count = 0 for await (let page of pages) { console.log(page) count++ }
Additional Superpowers
- Documents can be expired by setting
ttlto an UNIX epoch in the future. - Atomic counters:
data.incranddata.decr
See the tests for more examples!
Patterns
Coming soon! Detailed guides for various data persistence tasks:
- Denormalizing
- Pagination
- Counters
- Secondary indexes
- One to many
- Many to many