BatchGetItem - AWS AppSync GraphQL
BatchGetItem fields

BatchGetItem

The BatchGetItem request mapping document lets you tell the AWS AppSync DynamoDB resolver to make a BatchGetItem request to DynamoDB to retrieve multiple items, potentially across multiple tables. For this request template, you must specify the following:

  • The table names where to retrieve the items from

  • The keys of the items to retrieve from each table

The DynamoDB BatchGetItem limits apply and no condition expression can be provided.

The BatchGetItem mapping document has the following structure:

{
    "version" : "2018-05-29",
    "operation" : "BatchGetItem",
    "tables" : {
        "table1": {
           "keys": [
              ## Item to retrieve Key
              {
                   "foo" : ... typed value,
                   "bar" : ... typed value
              },
              ## Item2 to retrieve Key
              {
                   "foo" : ... typed value,
                   "bar" : ... typed value
              }
            ],
            "consistentRead": true|false,            
            "projection" : {
                 ...
            }
        },
        "table2": {
           "keys": [
              ## Item3 to retrieve Key
              {
                   "foo" : ... typed value,
                   "bar" : ... typed value
              },
              ## Item4 to retrieve Key
              {
                   "foo" : ... typed value,
                   "bar" : ... typed value
              }
            ],
            "consistentRead": true|false,
            "projection" : {
                 ...
            }
        }
    }
}

The fields are defined as follows:

BatchGetItem fields

version

The template definition version. Only 2018-05-29 is supported. This value is required.

operation

The DynamoDB operation to perform. To perform the BatchGetItem DynamoDB operation, this must be set to BatchGetItem. This value is required.

tables

The DynamoDB tables to retrieve the items from. The value is a map where table names are specified as the keys of the map. At least one table must be provided. This tables value is required.

keys

List of DynamoDB keys representing the primary key of the items to retrieve. DynamoDB items may have a single hash key, or a hash key and sort key, depending on the table structure. For more information about how to specify a “typed value”, see Type system (request mapping).

consistentRead

Whether to use a consistent read when executing a GetItem operation. This value is optional and defaults to false.

projection

A projection that's used to specify the attributes to return from the DynamoDB operation. For more information about projections, see Projections. This field is optional.

Things to remember:

  • If an item has not been retrieved from the table, a null element appears in the data block for that table.

  • Invocation results are sorted per table, based on the order in which they were provided inside the request mapping template.

  • Each Get command inside a BatchGetItem is atomic, however, a batch can be partially processed. If a batch is partially processed due to an error, the unprocessed keys are returned as part of the invocation result inside the unprocessedKeys block.

  • BatchGetItem is limited to 100 keys.

For the following example request mapping template:

{
  "version": "2018-05-29",
  "operation": "BatchGetItem",
  "tables": {
    "authors": [
        {
          "author_id": {
            "S": "a1"
          }
        },
    ],
    "posts": [
        {
          "author_id": {
            "S": "a1"
          },
          "post_id": {
            "S": "p2"
          }
        }
    ],
  }
}

The invocation result available in $ctx.result is as follows:

{
   "data": {
     "authors": [null],
     "posts": [
        # Was retrieved
        {
          "author_id": "a1",
          "post_id": "p2",
          "post_title": "title",
          "post_description": "description",
        }
     ]
   },
   "unprocessedKeys": {
     "authors": [
        # This item was not processed due to an error
        {
          "author_id": "a1"
        }
      ],
     "posts": []
   }
}

The $ctx.error contains details about the error. The keys data, unprocessedKeys, and each table key that was provided in the request mapping template are guaranteed to be present in the invocation result. Items that have been deleted appear in the data block. Items that haven’t been processed are marked as null inside the data block and are placed inside the unprocessedKeys block.

For a more complete example, follow the DynamoDB Batch tutorial with AppSync here Tutorial: DynamoDB batch resolvers.