ItemUtils in SDK V2

[reply2srij]

Please bring back something similar to ItemUtils from sdk v1 to sdk v2. I checked #1975 which was closed due to non-feasibility. But, this would mean all the developers would need to implement the utility independently, which is not ideal. Opening this as feature request again so it can gain attention.

[debora-ito]

We'll take the ask into consideration and reevaluate if we'd like to add support for a ItemUtils equivalent.

[davpow]

Please bring back the ItemUtils in SDK V2. It's very difficult to work with the dynamodb items without this helper class.
Thanks.

[juuusto]

Please bring this back!

[debora-ito]

Hey everyone, this is a Request for Comments:

Since ItemUtils.java is fairly extensive utility and there was a change in design from v1 DynamoDB Mapper to v2 DynamoDB Enhanced Client, to help us understand the use cases of a v2 ItemUtils equivalent please comment here which utility methods you'd like it to have, which methods you'd use the most. Be as specific as you can.

[valfirst]

@debora-ito in our case we heavily rely on

https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk-java/blob/f1516cb5beefc00a39fa1b7a884e574289d457bd/aws-java-sdk-dynamodb/src/main/java/com/amazonaws/services/dynamodbv2/document/ItemUtils.java#L49-L54

as an entry point

[reply2srij]

To and From conversion between attributeValueMap and regular JSON string:

Map<String, AttributeValue> jsonStringToAttrValueMap (String contentJsonString);
String attributeValueMapToJsonString(Map<String, AttributeValue> map);

[dscalzi]

Converting to and from a Map<String, AttributeValue> to a Map<String, Object>. The latter being a required format for processing with Jackson/gson.

As an example, we want to be able to pull the raw object out of DynamoDB, run some processing on it, and convert it into a simple map (Map<String, Object>) for whatever post-processing. This could be deserialization into a POJO or just passing it to further map-based utilities. There are use cases where the DynamoDB mapper is not suitable, or adds extensive overhead. Having the ability to bypass this and use utilities to "map manually" is really critical.

Even in the DynamoDB console, there is a direct option to toggle between a simple map and the raw (attribute value) map. I'm not sure why this functionality isnt included in the SDK v2. Like I said in the other thread, it is really a degradation.

I'm also a user of the JavaScript SDK v3, what's really needed is a direct equivalent of marshall/unmarshall (same thing as ItemUtils in v1).

const { marshall, unmarshall } = require("@aws-sdk/util-dynamodb");

ref: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSJavaScriptSDK/v3/latest/modules/_aws_sdk_util_dynamodb.html

[marko-asplund]

@debora-ito Any news on this? Are the use cases clear?

[evankozliner]

Honestly very surprised they shipped v2 without these

Please bring back itemutils.valToString!

[shihuayong]

Please bring it back!!! It takes a long time for me to find the utils. What I found is this OPEN issue :(