DynamoDB Dynomite Save

Examples

post = Post.new(title: "post 1")
post.save

post = Post.new
post.title = "post 2"
post.save

post = Post.new do |p|
  p.title = "post 3"
end
post.save

Updates Based on Primary Key

An item is always saved based on the “primary key”. The primary key is used to determine unique records. As covered in Indexing also.

In DynamoDB, the “primary key” can either be:

  1. partition_key alone
  2. composite key: partition_key + sort_key

Underneath the hood, the save class method calls put_item with the primary key attributes for uniqueness. This means two calls to save with the same primary key will update the record. The full primary key identifies uniqueness. This is the way DynamoDB works.

Let’s say the Primary Key is a Composite Key with attributes partition_key: category and sort_key: sku. Then changing any keys with the underlying put_item would try to create a new additional item.

Dynomite throws an error to prevent this quirky behavior.

product = Product.find_by(category: "Electronics", sku: 102)
product.category = "Computers"
product.save # ERRORS
=> Cannot change the primary key of an existing record: ["category"] (Dynomite::Error::PrimaryKeyChangedError)

You cannot change any of the primary keys. You should instead create a new item and delete the old one. This is one of the reasons I prefer a single Primary Key Partition Key. It’s a little too easy to think of these keys as field attributes and treat them like you can change them when you cannot.

Saving With Correct Data Type for Partition and Sort Key

Generally, you can save any arbitrary type. However, you must provide matching types for the partition_key and sort_key types. We’ll explain with an example:

dynamodb/migrate/20230728152326-create_products.rb

class CreateProducts < Dynomite::Migration
  def up
    create_table :products do |t|
      t.partition_key "category:string" # required
      t.sort_key "sku:number"           # optional
    end
  end
end

Since the sort_key is a number. You’ll get an error if you try to save a String value. Notice the 102.to_s.

❯ jets console
> Product.create(category: "Electronics", sku: 102.to_s, name: "Laptop", price: 1000, stock_quantity: 20)
.../gems/aws-sdk-core-3.180.0/lib/seahorse/client/plugins/raise_response_errors.rb:17:in `call':
One or more parameter values were invalid: Type mismatch for key sku expected: N actual: S
(Aws::DynamoDB::Errors::ValidationException)
...
>

Saving it with the correct data type works.

> Product.create(category: "Electronics", sku: 102, name: "Laptop", price: 1000, stock_quantity: 20)
=>
#<Product:0x00007fcac2455148
@attrs=
  {"category"=>"Electronics",
  "sku"=>102,
  "name"=>"Laptop",
  "price"=>1000,
  "stock_quantity"=>20,
  "id"=>"b6fbcbcc47c1d404126dddd4e026c8c6c55f4e14",
  "created_at"=>"2023-07-28T22:14:05Z",
  "updated_at"=>"2023-07-28T22:14:05Z"},
@errors=#<ActiveModel::Errors []>,
@new_record=false,
@validation_context=nil>
>

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