@aws/dynamodb-auto-marshaller
v0.7.1
Published
A data marshaller that converts JavaScript types into Amazon DynamoDB AttributeValues
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Amazon DynamoDB Automarshaller
This library provides a Marshaller
class that converts native JavaScript
values to DynamoDB AttributeValues and back again. It's designed to work with
ES6 features like sets, maps, and iterables, and can be configured to support
data types only supported by JavaScript (such as empty binary buffers) or by
Amazon DynamoDB (such as numbers of arbitrary size) with minimal tradeoffs.
Getting started
To use the Marshaller
to convert a JavaScript object to the data type expected
by Amazon DynamoDB, simply create an instance of the marshaller and call
marshallItem
:
import {BinarySet, Marshaller} from '@aws/dynamodb-auto-marshaller';
const marshaller = new Marshaller();
const original = {
string: 'a string',
number: 1234,
list: [
'a',
'list',
'of',
'values',
],
buffer: Buffer.from([0xde, 0xad, 0xbe, 0xef]),
setOfBuffers: new BinarySet([
Uint8Array.from([0xde, 0xad]),
Uint8Array.from([0xbe, 0xef]),
Uint8Array.from([0xfa, 0xce]),
] as Iterable<ArrayBufferView>),
stringSet: new Set<string>([
'foo',
'bar',
'baz',
]),
any: {
level: {
of: {
nesting: {
is: {
supported: true
}
}
}
}
},
}
// create a variable ready to be used with DynamoDB's low-level API
const marshalled = marshaller.marshallItem(original);
// the output of `.marshallItem` can be converted back to a JavaScript type with
// `.unmarshallItem`
const unmarshalled = marshaller.unmarshallItem(original);
// With a few caveats (listed below), the unmarshalled value should have the
// same structure and data as the original value.
deepEqual(original, unmarshalled); // true
Values may be converted to and from AttributeValue objects with .marshallValue
and .unmarshallValue
directly:
import {Marshaller} from '@aws/dynamodb-auto-marshaller';
const marshaller = new Marshaller();
const marshalled = marshaller.marshallValue('string'); // returns {S: 'string'}
const unmarshalled = marshaller.unmarshallValue(marshalled); // returns 'string'
Caveats
There are a few categories of values that cannot be seamlessly converted between JavaScript and DynamoDB, such as big numbers, empty values, and mixed-type sets.
Big number support
By default, the marshaller will unmarshall numeric values returned by DynamoDB
into instances of NumberValue
rather than into native JavaScript numbers.
Numbers in DynamoDB may have up to 38 digits of precision, which exceeds the
precision available in a JavaScript number
. NumberValue
instances therefore
store the value returned by DynamoDB as a string and will only coerce the value
into a JavaScript number when the instance appears in an arithmetic expression,
when it is passed to JSON.stringify
, or when its valueOf
method is called.
Similarly, numeric sets are returned as NumberValueSet
instances that are
compatible with both numbers and NumberValue
s.
To disable this behavior, pass a configuration options argument to the
Marshaller
constructor with unwrapNumbers
set to true
:
import {Marshaller} from '@aws/dynamodb-auto-marshaller';
const marshaller = new Marshaller({unwrapNumbers: true});
Empty value support
DynamoDB's data model requires that strings, sets, and binary attributes have lengths greater than zero, whereas JavaScript has no such requirement. By default, the marshaller will not attempt to alter empty values, as the marshaller would not be able to disambiguate any sigil value used from a field that was meant to legitimately contain that value.
The marshaller offers two opt-in options for handling empty values, both of
which are controlled using the onEmpty
configuration option.
Settting onEmpty
to 'nullify'
will direct the marshaller to convert empty
values to null attribute values ({NULL: true}
) and persist them to DynamoDB.
This allows consumers of the item to know that an empty value was saved, though
it will be slightly altered. When fetched from DynamoDB, the value will be
unmarshalled as null
:
import {Marshaller} from '@aws/dynamodb-auto-marshaller';
const marshaller = new Marshaller({onEmpty: 'nullify'});
const marshalled = marshaller.marshallValue(''); // returns {NULL: true}
const unmarshalled = marshaller.unmarshallValue(marshalled); // returns null
Setting onEmpty
to 'omit'
will direct the marshaller to remove empty values
from the serialized item:
import {Marshaller} from '@aws/dynamodb-auto-marshaller';
const marshaller = new Marshaller({onEmpty: 'omit'});
const marshalled = marshaller.marshallValue(''); // returns undefined
const unmarshalled = marshaller.unmarshallValue(marshalled); // returns undefined
Symbols and functions
By default, the marshaller will throw an error when it encounters a symbol or
function. You can direct the marshaller to instead omit such values from its
output by setting the onInvalid
configuration option to 'omit'
:
import {Marshaller} from '@aws/dynamodb-auto-marshaller';
const marshaller = new Marshaller({onInvalid: 'omit'});
const marshalled = marshaller.marshallValue(Symbol.iterator); // returns undefined
const unmarshalled = marshaller.unmarshallValue(marshalled); // returns undefined