Why DynamoDB for NoSQL in AWS - See It in Action

Why DynamoDB for NoSQL

📖 Scenario: You are working for a small online store that wants to manage its product catalog and customer orders efficiently. The store needs a database that can handle lots of data quickly and scale easily as the business grows.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple DynamoDB table setup to understand why DynamoDB is a good choice for NoSQL databases in real-world applications.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a DynamoDB table named Products with a primary key called ProductID of type string.

Add a configuration variable read_capacity_units set to 5 to control read throughput.

Write a query to get a product by ProductID using the DynamoDB DocumentClient syntax.

Add a final configuration to enable auto-scaling for the Products table.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Online stores and apps use DynamoDB to store and quickly access product and user data without worrying about managing servers or scaling manually.

💼 Career

Knowing how to set up and query DynamoDB tables is essential for cloud developers and database administrators working with AWS services.

1

Create DynamoDB Table

Create a DynamoDB table named Products with a primary key called ProductID of type string using AWS SDK syntax.

AWS

# Create a DynamoDB table named 'Products' with 'ProductID' as the primary key of type string
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use dynamodb.createTable with TableName, KeySchema, and AttributeDefinitions.

2

Add Read Capacity Configuration

Add a variable called read_capacity_units and set it to 5 to configure the read throughput for the DynamoDB table.

AWS

const AWS = require('aws-sdk');
const dynamodb = new AWS.DynamoDB();

const read_capacity_units = 5

const params = {
  TableName: 'Products',
  KeySchema: [
    { AttributeName: 'ProductID', KeyType: 'HASH' }
  ],
  AttributeDefinitions: [
    { AttributeName: 'ProductID', AttributeType: 'S' }
  ],
  ProvisionedThroughput: {
    ReadCapacityUnits: read_capacity_units,
    WriteCapacityUnits: 1
  }
};

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Define read_capacity_units before params and use it in ProvisionedThroughput.

3

Query Product by ProductID

Use the DynamoDB DocumentClient to write a query that gets a product by ProductID. Use variables docClient for the client and productId for the key value.

AWS

const AWS = require('aws-sdk');
const dynamodb = new AWS.DynamoDB();
const docClient = new AWS.DynamoDB.DocumentClient();

const read_capacity_units = 5

const params = {
  TableName: 'Products',
  KeySchema: [
    { AttributeName: 'ProductID', KeyType: 'HASH' }
  ],
  AttributeDefinitions: [
    { AttributeName: 'ProductID', AttributeType: 'S' }
  ],
  ProvisionedThroughput: {
    ReadCapacityUnits: read_capacity_units,
    WriteCapacityUnits: 1
  }
};

const productId = '12345'

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use docClient.get with TableName and Key containing ProductID.

4

Enable Auto Scaling for Table

Add a final configuration to enable auto-scaling for the Products table by setting AutoScalingEnabled to true in the table parameters.

AWS

const AWS = require('aws-sdk');
const dynamodb = new AWS.DynamoDB();
const docClient = new AWS.DynamoDB.DocumentClient();

const read_capacity_units = 5

const params = {
  TableName: 'Products',
  KeySchema: [
    { AttributeName: 'ProductID', KeyType: 'HASH' }
  ],
  AttributeDefinitions: [
    { AttributeName: 'ProductID', AttributeType: 'S' }
  ],
  ProvisionedThroughput: {
    ReadCapacityUnits: read_capacity_units,
    WriteCapacityUnits: 1
  },
  AutoScalingEnabled: true
};

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Add AutoScalingEnabled: true inside the params object.