2.1.4.4. DynamoDB Streams & Triggers
First Principle: DynamoDB Streams capture item-level changes in real time, enabling developers to build event-driven applications that react to data modifications and foster loose coupling.
Amazon DynamoDB Streams is an AWS service that captures a time-ordered sequence of item-level modifications in an Amazon DynamoDB table. Every modification (creation, update, deletion) to an item in a DynamoDB table is captured as a data record in the stream.
Key Aspects of DynamoDB Streams & Triggers:
- Real-time Changes: Captures every item-level modification in chronological order.
- Event Source: DynamoDB Streams can be configured as an event source for AWS Lambda functions.
- Lambda Triggers: A Lambda function can be automatically invoked (triggered) whenever new records are written to a DynamoDB Stream.
- Use Cases:
- Real-time Analytics: Process data changes for immediate insights.
- Data Synchronization: Propagate changes to other data stores (e.g., full-text search index, data warehouse).
- Auditing: Maintain a complete log of all data modifications.
- Event-Driven Microservices: Build applications that react to specific data changes.
Scenario: You're developing a social media application that stores user posts in a DynamoDB table. When a new post is created, you need to automatically trigger two separate processes: one to moderate the content and another to update a search index.
Reflection Question: How would you use DynamoDB Streams as an event source to automatically invoke AWS Lambda functions (as triggers) in real time, enabling you to build event-driven applications that react to item-level changes in your DynamoDB table?