Difference between AWS SDK DynamoDB client and DocumentClient?

Question

I want to know the difference between the AWS SDK DynamoDB client and the DynamoDB DocumentClient? In which use case should we use the DynamoDB client over the DocumentClient?

const dynamoClient = new AWS.DynamoDB.DocumentClient();  vs   const dynamo = new AWS.DynamoDB();  

Answer 1

I think this can be best answered by comparing two code samples which do the same thing.

Here's how you put an item using the dynamoDB client:

var params = {     Item: {         "AlbumTitle": {             S: "Somewhat Famous"         },         "Artist": {             S: "No One You Know"         },         "SongTitle": {             S: "Call Me Today"         }     },     TableName: "Music" }; dynamodb.putItem(params, function (err, data) {     if (err) console.log(err)     else console.log(data);            }); 

Here's how you put the same item using the DocumentClient API:

var params = {     Item: {         "AlbumTitle": "Somewhat Famous",         "Artist": "No One You Know",         "SongTitle": "Call Me Today"     },     TableName: "Music" };  var documentClient = new AWS.DynamoDB.DocumentClient();  documentClient.put(params, function (err, data) {     if (err) console.log(err);     else console.log(data); }); 

As you can see in the DocumentClient the Item is specified in a more natural way. Similar differences exist in all other operations that update DDB (update(), delete()) and in the items returned from read operations (get(), query(), scan()).