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Use Amazon DynamoDB with Node.js on Elastic Beanstalk¶

This recipe shows how to integrate an Express application with Amazon DynamoDB by using AWS SDK v3. It is a good fit for key-value lookups, event metadata, and lightweight application state.

Prerequisites¶

Running Node.js Elastic Beanstalk environment.
IAM permission for dynamodb:GetItem, dynamodb:PutItem, and dynamodb:DescribeTable.
Existing DynamoDB table or permission to create one.
@aws-sdk/client-dynamodb installed.

What You'll Build¶

You will build simple read and write endpoints backed by a DynamoDB table.

flowchart LR
    A[Express App on Elastic Beanstalk] --> B[EC2 Instance Profile]
    B --> C[Amazon DynamoDB]
    C --> D[Application Items]

Steps¶

Step 1: Install the DynamoDB client¶

npm install @aws-sdk/client-dynamodb

Step 2: Create or identify the DynamoDB table¶

aws dynamodb create-table \
    --table-name "$APP_NAME-items" \
    --attribute-definitions AttributeName=item_id,AttributeType=S \
    --key-schema AttributeName=item_id,KeyType=HASH \
    --billing-mode PAY_PER_REQUEST \
    --region "$REGION"

Step 3: Add the table name to environment properties¶

aws elasticbeanstalk update-environment \
    --application-name "$APP_NAME" \
    --environment-name "$ENV_NAME" \
    --option-settings Namespace=aws:elasticbeanstalk:application:environment,OptionName=DDB_TABLE_NAME,Value="$APP_NAME-items" \
    --region "$REGION"

Step 4: Read and write items from Express¶

const express = require("express");
const {
    DynamoDBClient,
    GetItemCommand,
    PutItemCommand
} = require("@aws-sdk/client-dynamodb");

const app = express();
const client = new DynamoDBClient({ region: process.env.AWS_REGION });

app.use(express.json());

app.post("/items", async (req, res) => {
    await client.send(new PutItemCommand({
        TableName: process.env.DDB_TABLE_NAME,
        Item: {
            item_id: { S: req.body.item_id },
            value: { S: req.body.value }
        }
    }));
    res.status(201).json({ status: "stored" });
});

app.get("/items/:itemId", async (req, res) => {
    const response = await client.send(new GetItemCommand({
        TableName: process.env.DDB_TABLE_NAME,
        Key: { item_id: { S: req.params.itemId } }
    }));
    res.json(response.Item || {});
});

Step 5: Deploy and test¶

eb deploy --staged

Verification¶

curl --request POST \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data '{"item_id":"sample-1","value":"hello"}' \
    "http://$CNAME/items"

curl --verbose "http://$CNAME/items/sample-1"

Expected result: requests write and read back the item through DynamoDB.

Clean Up¶

Delete the test table, remove the IAM policy statement, and remove the DDB_TABLE_NAME environment property if the integration was only temporary.

See Also¶

Sources¶