Amazon SimpleDB Developer Guide

Table of Contents

• Preface

• Chapter 1: Getting to Know SimpleDB
  • Experimenting with SimpleDB
  • How does SimpleDB work?
    • Domain
    • Item
    • Attributes
    • Values
  • How do I interact with SimpleDB?
  • How is SimpleDB priced?
    • Free tier
  • Why should I use SimpleDB?
    • Make your applications simpler to architect
    • Build flexibility into your applications
    • Create high-performance web applications
    • Take advantage of lower costs
    • Scale your applications on demand
    • Architect for the cloud
  • Summary

• Chapter 2: Getting Started with SimpleDB
  • Creating an AWS account
  • Enabling SimpleDB service for AWS account
  • Query API and authentication
  • SimpleDB libraries
  • SDBtool — Firefox plugin
  • Sample outline — performing basic operations
  • Basic operations with Java
    • Exploring SimpleDB with Java
    • Creating a domain with Java
    • Listing domains with Java
    • Manipulating items with Java
    • Deleting a domain with Java
  • Basic operations with PHP
    • Exploring SimpleDB with PHP
    • Creating a domain with PHP
    • Listing domains with PHP
    • Manipulating items with PHP
    • Deleting a domain with PHP
  • Basic operations with Python
    • Introducing boto
    • Exploring SimpleDB with Python
    • Creating a domain with Python
    • Retrieving a domain with Python
    • Creating items with Python
  • Summary

• Chapter 3: SimpleDB versus RDBMS
  • No normalization
  • No joins
  • No schemas
  • Simpler SQL
  • Only strings
  • Eventual consistency
    • Flash: February 24, 2010 — consistent read added
  • Scalability
  • Low maintenance
  • Advantages of the SimpleDB model
  • Disadvantages of the SimpleDB model
  • Summary

• Chapter 4: The SimpleDB Data Model
  • Domains
    • Domains with Java
    • Domains with PHP
    • Domains with Python
  • Exploring the metadata for a domain and costs
    • Retrieving domain metadata
      • Retrieving domain metadata with Java
      • Retrieving domain metadata with PHP
      • Retrieving domain metadata with Python
    • Components of a domain's metadata
    • SimpleDB domain constraints
  • Items
    • Adding attributes to an item with Java
    • Adding attributes to an item with PHP
    • Adding attributes to an item with Python
    • Constraints on SimpleDB items
  • Attributes
    • Attributes with Java
    • Attributes with PHP
    • Attributes with Python
    • Constraints on SimpleDB item attributes
  • Values
    • Storing multiple values in a single attribute with Java
    • Storing multiple values in a single attribute with PHP
    • Storing multiple values in a single attribute with Python
    • Constraints on values of a SimpleDB item
  • Consistent Read and Conditional Put / Delete announcement
    • ConsistentRead = true for getAttributes and Select
    • Conditional Put / Delete
  • Summary

• Chapter 5: Data Types
  • What is lexicographical comparison?
  • Storing numeric values
    • Storing numeric values with Java
    • Storing numeric values with PHP
    • Storing numeric values with Python
  • Storing date values
    • Storing date values with Java
    • Storing date values with PHP
    • Storing date values with Python
  • Storing Boolean values
    • Storing Boolean values with Java
    • Storing Boolean values with PHP
    • Storing Boolean values with Python
  • XML-restricted characters
    • Using base64 values with Java
    • Using base64 values with PHP
    • Using base64 values with Python
  • Summary

• Chapter 6: Querying
  • Sample data
    • Loading the sample data
      • Importing the sample data with Java
      • Importing the sample data with PHP
      • Importing the sample data with Python
    • Using Select
      • Simple select with Java
      • Simple select with PHP
      • Simple select with Python
    • Quoting values in Select expressions
    • Predicates in Select expressions
      • Simple predicate query with Java
      • Simple predicate query with PHP
      • Simple predicate query with Python
  • Comparison operators
  • Queries with Select
    • Comparison operators
    • Greater than
    • LIKE
    • NOT LIKE
    • BETWEEN
    • IN
    • IS NULL
    • IS NOT NULL
    • EVERY()
  • Combining expressions
    • INTERSECTION
    • NOT
    • OR
  • Sorting
  • Counting the results
    • COUNT()
  • Queries on multi-valued attributes
  • Querying for multi-valued attributes
    • getAttribute
      • getAttributes in Java
      • getAttributes in PHP
      • getAttributes in Python
  • Summary

• Chapter 7: Storing Data on S3
  • Amazon S3
    • Buckets
    • Objects
    • Keys
  • Pricing for S3
  • Plan of action
    • Creating an S3 bucket
      • Creating an S3 bucket with Java
      • Creating an S3 bucket with PHP
      • Creating an S3 bucket with Python
    • Creating additional metadata
      • Creating additional metadata with Java
      • Creating additional metadata with PHP
      • Creating additional metadata with Python
    • Uploading the songs to S3
      • Uploading the songs to S3 with Java
      • Uploading the songs to S3 with PHP
      • Uploading the songs to S3 with Python
    • Retrieving the files from S3
      • Retrieving the files from S3 with Java
      • Retrieving the files from S3 with PHP
      • Retrieving the files from S3 with Python
  • Summary

• Chapter 8: Tuning and Usage Costs
  • BoxUsage
    • Computing costs using BoxUsage
    • Usage reports
    • BoxUsage — Java
      • Cost of Select
    • BoxUsage — PHP
      • Cost of NextToken
      • Cost of Select
      • Cost of creating a domain
      • Cost of creating items
    • BoxUsage — Python
  • Partitioning
  • Summary

• Chapter 9: Caching
  • Caching
  • Memcached
  • Memcached and security
  • Installing memcached
  • Installing memcached client
    • Memcached client in Java
    • Memcached client in PHP
    • Memcached client in Python
  • Storing and retrieving data from memcached
    • Storing and retrieving data from memcached in Java
    • Storing and retrieving data from memcached in PHP
    • Storing and retrieving data from memcached in Python
  • Cache_Lite
  • Logic flow for using caching with SimpleDB
    • Using memcached with SimpleDB in Java
    • Using Cache_Lite with SimpleDB in PHP
    • Using memcached with SimpleDB in Python
  • Summary

• Chapter 10: Parallel Processing
  • BatchPutAttributes
    • BatchPutAttributes in Java
    • BatchPutAttributes in PHP
    • BatchPutAttributes in Python
  • Serialized SimpleDB requests
  • Parallelizing SimpleDB requests
    • Parallelizing SimpleDB requests in Java
    • Parallelizing SimpleDB requests in PHP
    • Parallelizing SimpleDB requests in Python
    • Simple threading
    • Threading with queues
    • Threading with workerpool
  • Concurrency and SimpleDB
  • Summary

• Index

Prabhakar Chaganti

Rich Helms

The book has a fair amount of useful information on the basics of getting started with SimpleDB, particularly for Python (and probably PHP).

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