DynamoDB

Objective

This guide will help you to quickly connect to Amazon DynamoDB and create various methods to pull the data. The purpose is to demonstrate how easy it is to integrate an external database to iX Hello.

Pre-requisites

• An active AWS Account

You should have an active AWS Account. If you do not have it, you can create an AWS account at https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup#/start

• At least one DynamoDB table

If you do not have any DynamoDB table, you can create one quickly.

1. Login to AWS Management Console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/

2. Enter DynamoDB into the Search Field and select the DynamoDB result.

3. On the left side menu, select Tables and then press Create Table. For more detailed information, you can refer to the AWS official documentation https://aws.amazon.com/getting-started/hands-on/create-nosql-table/

1. Provide the Table Name Contacts and Primary Key as Id. Click on Create Table.

1. Click on the table name Contacts in the Tables page:

1. Now add the attributes for the table. For our demo purpose, we are going to add 3 attributes: Id, PhoneNumber, and Name. All of type String. From the Actions dropdown in the upper right, choose Create Item.

1. Press the Add new attribute drop down in the upper right and select String. Title the new attribute Name. Repeat and add a second String attribute, PhoneNumber.

1. Populate the item with Id 1, Name John, and PhoneNumber 123-555-1234. When finished, press Create Item

1. Repeat the process to add more data. e.g.

{ "id": 2, "Name": "Mike", "PhoneNumber": "123-555-6789" }

Access Key, Secret Access Key, and AWS Region Name

To be able to connect to Amazon DynamoDB from iX Hello, one IAM user is required and that user should have permissions to view/add/edit/delete the DynamoDB data. It is recommended to have an IAM policy named AmazonDynamoDBFullAccess be assigned to the user.

For more information on creating IAM users and assigning policies, refer to the AWS official documentation https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/create-access-key/

You can also refer to the simplified iX Hello documentation at https://docs.ixHello.com/aws-iam-users

iX Hello Account

To create an iX Hello account, follow the steps here

Steps

Before proceeding with these steps, you should have all the prerequisites satisfied.

Step 1: Connect to Amazon DynamoDB

1. Login to the iX Hello portal at https://bots.ixHello.com
2. To configure DynamoDB, browse to: Integration > Connect System > Connections Gallery.

1. From the Gallery, scroll down and select DynamoDB

1. Press Connect. The Configuration screen will open where you need to provide connection information as shown below.

If you do not have this information ready, please refer to the pre-requisites above

The table below explains each of the inputs shown on this screen.

Input	Information
Service Instance Name	You can give any value of your choice.
Consumer Key	This is your AWS Access key ID
Consumer Secret	This is your AWS Secret access key
Region	AWS Region Name. Your DynamoDB table should be in this region. Example: us-east-1, us-east-2, us-west-1, us-west-2

1. After entering the information, click on Validate and Save Settings. If the input is correct, a Success message will appear and the integration will be saved. A listing will appear on the Integrations listing page as shown below.

Step 2: Create an App for Amazon DynamoDB

1. To create an app, browse to Apps > Custom Apps and click on New Custom App button as shown below.

1. You should see a small popup as shown below.

Populate the fields as follows:

Name	You can give any value of your choice.
Custom App Type	Select Search
Category	Default.

1. Click on Save. This will create a new App.

Step 3: Create a Data Source

A data source connects an app with the DynamoDB integration we did earlier.

1. Once you have created an App, go to Data Sources by opening the App, opening the Data Sources tab, and clicking Create New Data Source.

1. You should see a popup screen as shown below

1. Give the DataSource a name of your choice and make sure you select the DynamoDB integration created earlier. Click Save. You should now see the new Data Source listed.

Once a data source is created, you are ready to start creating various methods.

Step 4: Create Methods to fetch the data from Amazon DynamoDB

To use this step, make sure you have completed previous step. If not go back and complete it.

Methods allows you to fetch data from the DynamoDB table. To access the methods, click on the Methods tab, make sure the correct DataSource shows in the Select DataSource window, and press Create New Method.

As of the publication date of this document, iX Hello supports following DynamoDB methods:

1. Get Tables

2. Get All Items

3. Get Item

4. Get Items

5. Put Item

6. Post Item

7. Delete Item

Depending on requirement, you will have to use an appropriate method, this document will explain each of these methods with an example.

Let’s start with a use case.

Scenario/ Use Case (Contact Finder):

You have a DynamoDB table which is used to store all the contacts in your organization. If you are using this for personal use, then consider that table contains contact details of your friends and family members.

You want to find email address of your friend Sam. For this, you can use GetItems method as explained below.

Method: GetItems

This method returns a database entry based on a parameter value (Name). It requires two input parameters as explained below. Open Method Inputs:

Parameters:

Parameter	Sample Value	Info
Method Name	Get Items	Name of the metho
Request Type	GetItems	Pre-defined method
TableName	Contact (Select from the drop-down list, you do not have to remember it)	DynamoDB table name. (Case Sensitive)
QueryParameters	Example: 1 {"Name":"John"} Example: 2 {"Name":"Smith"}	Key Value pair in a valid JSON format. (Case Sensitive)

To format the output, open the Method Output tab:

Parameter	Info
Result Type	Format of return values
Record Limit	Numeric value (e.g. 10) If Method is returning larger number of records, then you can limit this result by providing this value.

Method Result displays options on how to present the returned values:

Parameter	Info
Record JsonPath	Each method returns data in JSON format and to pick any specific information from the JSON, we need to specify the Record JsonPath so the platform will pick that data in consideration while displaying results. Example: $.[*] This option returns all the records.
Valid Result Template	This indicates how results should be represented if proper values have been returned. For example: Here you go, {{Records}} where {{Records}} represents one or more records separated by a separator.
Record Template	Describes how to display a record that may have more than one parameter. For example, assume that the following JSON represents one record: { "Id": "1", "Name": "John", "PhoneNumber": "123-555-1234" } You want to select name, then you can provide Record Template as Phone number of {{Name}} is {{ PhoneNumber}} Note: Anything written in between {{ }} is represented as a JSON field and is case-sensitive. This would present as: Phone number of John is 123-555-1234
Empty Result Template	This indicates what should be presented if no values are returned.

Sample Response:

Method: GetTables

This Method returns the name of the table.

Parameter	Info
Method Name	Get Tables
Request Type	GetTables This is the method that you are using
Parameters	As explained in the previous table
Result Type	ListOfRecords (Auto Selected) It indicates that the method can return one or more records
Record Limit	Numeric value (e.g. 10) If Method is returning larger number of records, then you can limit this result by providing this value.
Record JsonPath	Each method returns data in JSON format and to pick any specific information from the JSON, we need to specify the Record JsonPath so the platform will pick that data in consideration while displaying results. Example: $.[*] This option returns all the records.
Record Template	{{TableName}} Note: Anything written in between {{ }} is represented as a JSON field and it’s case-sensitive.
Result Template	Here are the tables. {{Records}} How else can I help you? Here, {{Records}} represents one or more records separated by a separator.

Sample Response:

Method: GetAllItems

This method returns all records in the table

Parameters:

Parameter	Sample Value	Info
TableName	Contact	DynamoDB table name.

Parameter	Info
Method Name	GetAllItems
Request Type	GetAllItems This is the method that you are using
Parameters	TableName: Contacts
Result Type	ListOfRecords (Auto Selected) It indicates that the method can return one or more records
Record Limit	Numeric value (e.g. 10) If Method is returning larger number of records, then you can limit this result by providing this value.
Record JsonPath	Each method returns data in JSON format and to pick any specific information from the JSON, we need to specify the Record JsonPath so the platform will pick that data in consideration while displaying results. Example: $.[*] This option returns all the records.
Record Template	Name:{{Name}}, PhoneNumber: {{PhoneNumber}} Note: Anything written in between {{ }} is represented as a JSON field and is case-sensitive.
Result Template	Here are the contacts available, {{Records}} How else can I help you? Here, {{Records}} represents one or more records separated by a separator.

Sample Response:

Method: GetItem

Returns a single record.

Parameters:

Parameter	Sample Value	Info
TableName	Contact	DynamoDB table name (Case Sensitive)
PartitionKeyName	id	Name of the Partition Key for the provided table (Case Sensitive
PartitionKeyValue	1	Value for the Partition Key

Sample Response:

{ "id": "1", "PhoneNumber": "[phone]", "Name": "Jack Rogers" }

Method: PutItem

Adds a record to the database.

Parameters:

Parameter	Sample Value	Info
TableName	Contact	DynamoDB table name (Case Sensitive)
PartitionKeyName	id	Name of the Partition Key (Case Sensitive)
PartitionKeyValue	5	Value for the Partition Key
ItemData	{"PhoneNumber": "[phone]","Name": "Josh Davis"}	Item data in JSON format

Sample Response:

{ "id": "5", "PhoneNumber": "[phone]", "Name": "Josh Davis" }

Method: PostItem

Adds a record to the database.

Parameters:

Parameter	Sample Value	Info
TableName	Contact	DynamoDB table name (Case Sensitive)
PartitionKeyName	id	Name of the Partition Key (Case Sensitive)
PartitionKeyValue	5	Value for the Partition Key
ItemData	{"PhoneNumber": "[phone]","Name": "Josh Davis"}	Item data in JSON format

Sample Response:

{ "id": "5", "PhoneNumber": "[phone]", "Name": "Josh Davis" }

Method: DeleteItem

Removes a record from the database.

Parameters:

Parameter	Sample Value	Info
TableName	Contact	DynamoDB table name. (Case Sensitive)
PartitionKeyName	id	Name of the Partition Key (Case Sensitive)
PartitionKeyValue	5	Value for the Partition Key

Sample Response:

{"response": "Delete Successful"}

From here, you can now proceed to create intents, slots, inputs and then finally publish to supported publish channels. You can refer to this document for further assistance to build and publish Apps. You can test your app in Alexa developer console and the expected result shall be like this

Congratulations you’ve successfully integrated Amazon DynamoDB to an iX Hello App.