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Page updated Apr 29, 2024

Data access patterns

You are currently viewing the legacy GraphQL Transformer documentation. View latest documentation

In the DynamoDB documentation for modeling relational data in a NoSQL database, there is an in depth example of 17 access patterns from the First Steps for Modeling Relational Data in DynamoDB page.

Most common/import access patterns in our organization
1Look up employee details by employee ID
2Query employee details by employee name
3Find an employee's phone number(s)
4Find a customer's phone number(s)
5Get orders for a given customer within a given date range
6Show all open orders within a given date range across all customers
7See all employees recently hired
8Find all employees working in a given warehouse
9Get all items on order for a given product
10Get current inventories for a given product at all warehouses
11Get customers by account representative
12Get orders by account representative and date
13Get all items on order for a given product
14Get all employees with a given job title
15Get inventory by product and warehouse
16Get total product inventory
17Get account representatives ranked by order total and sales period

In this example, you will learn how to support these data access patterns using GraphQL, AWS Amplify, and the GraphQL Transform library. This example has the following types:

  • Warehouse
  • Product
  • Inventory
  • Employee
  • AccountRepresentative
  • Customer

The following schema introduces the required keys and connections so that you can support these access patterns:

type Order
  @model
  @key(
    name: "byCustomerByStatusByDate"
    fields: ["customerID", "status", "date"]
  )
  @key(name: "byCustomerByDate", fields: ["customerID", "date"])
  @key(
    name: "byRepresentativebyDate"
    fields: ["accountRepresentativeID", "date"]
  )
  @key(name: "byProduct", fields: ["productID", "id"]) {
  id: ID!
  customerID: ID!
  accountRepresentativeID: ID!
  productID: ID!
  status: String!
  amount: Int!
  date: String!
}


type Customer
  @model
  @key(name: "byRepresentative", fields: ["accountRepresentativeID", "id"]) {
  id: ID!
  name: String!
  phoneNumber: String
  accountRepresentativeID: ID!
  ordersByDate: [Order] @connection(keyName: "byCustomerByDate", fields: ["id"])
  ordersByStatusDate: [Order]
    @connection(keyName: "byCustomerByStatusByDate", fields: ["id"])
}


type Employee
  @model
  @key(
    name: "newHire"
    fields: ["newHire", "id"]
    queryField: "employeesNewHire"
  )
  @key(
    name: "newHireByStartDate"
    fields: ["newHire", "startDate"]
    queryField: "employeesNewHireByStartDate"
  )
  @key(name: "byName", fields: ["name", "id"], queryField: "employeeByName")
  @key(
    name: "byTitle"
    fields: ["jobTitle", "id"]
    queryField: "employeesByJobTitle"
  )
  @key(name: "byWarehouse", fields: ["warehouseID", "id"]) {
  id: ID!
  name: String!
  startDate: String!
  phoneNumber: String!
  warehouseID: ID!
  jobTitle: String!
  newHire: String! # You have to use String type, because Boolean types cannot be sort keys
}


type Warehouse @model {
  id: ID!
  employees: [Employee] @connection(keyName: "byWarehouse", fields: ["id"])
}


type AccountRepresentative
  @model
  @key(
    name: "bySalesPeriodByOrderTotal"
    fields: ["salesPeriod", "orderTotal"]
    queryField: "repsByPeriodAndTotal"
  ) {
  id: ID!
  customers: [Customer] @connection(keyName: "byRepresentative", fields: ["id"])
  orders: [Order] @connection(keyName: "byRepresentativebyDate", fields: ["id"])
  orderTotal: Int
  salesPeriod: String
}


type Inventory
  @model
  @key(
    name: "byWarehouseID"
    fields: ["warehouseID"]
    queryField: "itemsByWarehouseID"
  )
  @key(fields: ["productID", "warehouseID"]) {
  productID: ID!
  warehouseID: ID!
  inventoryAmount: Int!
}


type Product @model {
  id: ID!
  name: String!
  orders: [Order] @connection(keyName: "byProduct", fields: ["id"])
  inventories: [Inventory] @connection(fields: ["id"])
}

Now that you have the schema created, let's create the items in the database that you will be operating against:

# first
mutation createWarehouse {
  createWarehouse(input: { id: "1" }) {
    id
  }
}


# second
mutation createEmployee {
  createEmployee(
    input: {
      id: "amanda"
      name: "Amanda"
      startDate: "2018-05-22"
      phoneNumber: "6015555555"
      warehouseID: "1"
      jobTitle: "Manager"
      newHire: "true"
    }
  ) {
    id
    jobTitle
    name
    newHire
    phoneNumber
    startDate
    warehouseID
  }
}


# third
mutation createAccountRepresentative {
  createAccountRepresentative(
    input: { id: "dabit", orderTotal: 400000, salesPeriod: "January 2019" }
  ) {
    id
    orderTotal
    salesPeriod
  }
}


# fourth
mutation createCustomer {
  createCustomer(
    input: {
      id: "jennifer_thomas"
      accountRepresentativeID: "dabit"
      name: "Jennifer Thomas"
      phoneNumber: "+16015555555"
    }
  ) {
    id
    name
    accountRepresentativeID
    phoneNumber
  }
}


# fifth
mutation createProduct {
  createProduct(input: { id: "yeezyboost", name: "Yeezy Boost" }) {
    id
    name
  }
}


# sixth
mutation createInventory {
  createInventory(
    input: { productID: "yeezyboost", warehouseID: "1", inventoryAmount: 300 }
  ) {
    productID
    inventoryAmount
    warehouseID
  }
}


# seventh
mutation createOrder {
  createOrder(
    input: {
      amount: 300
      date: "2018-07-12"
      status: "pending"
      accountRepresentativeID: "dabit"
      customerID: "jennifer_thomas"
      productID: "yeezyboost"
    }
  ) {
    id
    customerID
    accountRepresentativeID
    amount
    date
    customerID
    productID
  }
}

1. Look up employee details by employee ID

This can simply be done by querying the employee model with an employee ID, no @key or @connection is needed to make this work.

query getEmployee($id: ID!) {
  getEmployee(id: $id) {
    id
    name
    phoneNumber
    startDate
    jobTitle
  }
}

2. Query employee details by employee name

The @key byName on the Employee type makes this access-pattern feasible because under the covers an index is created and a query is used to match against the name field. You can use this query:

query employeeByName($name: String!) {
  employeeByName(name: $name) {
    items {
      id
      name
      phoneNumber
      startDate
      jobTitle
    }
  }
}

3. Find an Employee’s phone number

Either one of the previous queries would work to find an employee’s phone number as long as one has their ID or name.

4. Find a customer’s phone number

A similar query to those given above but on the Customer model would give you a customer’s phone number.

query getCustomer($customerID: ID!) {
  getCustomer(id: $customerID) {
    phoneNumber
  }
}

5. Get orders for a given customer within a given date range

There is a one-to-many relation that lets all the orders of a customer be queried.

This relationship is created by having the @key name byCustomerByDate on the Order model that is queried by the connection on the orders field of the Customer model.

A sort key with the date is used. What this means is that the GraphQL resolver can use predicates like Between to efficiently search the date range rather than scanning all records in the database and then filtering them out.

The query one would need to get the orders to a customer within a date range would be:

query getCustomerWithOrdersByDate($customerID: ID!) {
  getCustomer(id: $customerID) {
    ordersByDate(date: { between: ["2018-01-22", "2020-10-11"] }) {
      items {
        id
        amount
        productID
      }
    }
  }
}

6. Show all open orders within a given date range across all customers

The @key byCustomerByStatusByDate enables you to run a query that would work for this access pattern.

In this example, a composite sort key (combination of two or more keys) with the status and date is used. What this means is that the unique identifier of a record in the database is created by concatenating these two fields (status and date) together, and then the GraphQL resolver can use predicates like Between or Contains to efficiently search the unique identifier for matches rather than scanning all records in the database and then filtering them out.

query getCustomerWithOrdersByStatusDate($customerID: ID!) {
  getCustomer(id: $customerID) {
    ordersByStatusDate(
      statusDate: {
        between: [
          { status: "pending", date: "2018-01-22" }
          { status: "pending", date: "2020-10-11" }
        ]
      }
    ) {
      items {
        id
        amount
        date
      }
    }
  }
}

7. See all employees hired recently

Having @key(name: "newHire", fields: ["newHire", "id"]) on the Employee model allows one to query by whether an employee has been hired recently.

query employeesNewHire {
  employeesNewHire(newHire: "true") {
    items {
      id
      name
      phoneNumber
      startDate
      jobTitle
    }
  }
}

You can also query and have the results returned by start date by using the employeesNewHireByStartDate query:

query employeesNewHireByDate {
  employeesNewHireByStartDate(newHire: "true") {
    items {
      id
      name
      phoneNumber
      startDate
      jobTitle
    }
  }
}

8. Find all employees working in a given warehouse

This needs a one to many relationship from warehouses to employees. As can be seen from the @connection in the Warehouse model, this connection uses the byWarehouse key on the Employee model. The relevant query would look like this:

query getWarehouse($warehouseID: ID!) {
  getWarehouse(id: $warehouseID) {
    id
    employees {
      items {
        id
        name
        startDate
        phoneNumber
        jobTitle
      }
    }
  }
}

9. Get all items on order for a given product

This access-pattern would use a one-to-many relation from products to orders. With this query you can get all orders of a given product:

query getProductOrders($productID: ID!) {
  getProduct(id: $productID) {
    id
    orders {
      items {
        id
        status
        amount
        date
      }
    }
  }
}

10. Get current inventories for a product at all warehouses

The query needed to get the inventories of a product in all warehouses would be:

query getProductInventoryInfo($productID: ID!) {
  getProduct(id: $productID) {
    id
    inventories {
      items {
        warehouseID
        inventoryAmount
      }
    }
  }
}

11. Get customers by account representative

This uses a one-to-many connection between account representatives and customers:

The query needed would look like this:

query getCustomersForAccountRepresentative($representativeId: ID!) {
  getAccountRepresentative(id: $representativeId) {
    customers {
      items {
        id
        name
        phoneNumber
      }
    }
  }
}

12. Get orders by account representative and date

As can be seen in the AccountRepresentative model this connection uses the byRepresentativebyDate field on the Order model to create the connection needed. The query needed would look like this:

query getOrdersForAccountRepresentative($representativeId: ID!) {
  getAccountRepresentative(id: $representativeId) {
    id
    orders(date: { between: ["2010-01-22", "2020-10-11"] }) {
      items {
        id
        status
        amount
        date
      }
    }
  }
}

13. Get all items on order for a given product

This is the same as number 9.

14. Get all employees with a given job title

Using the byTitle @key makes this access pattern quite easy.

query employeesByJobTitle {
  employeesByJobTitle(jobTitle: "Manager") {
    items {
      id
      name
      phoneNumber
      jobTitle
    }
  }
}

15. Get inventory by product by warehouse

Here having the inventories be held in a separate model is particularly useful since this model can have its own partition key and sort key such that the inventories themselves can be queried as is needed for this access-pattern.

A query on this model would look like this:

query inventoryByProductAndWarehouse($productID: ID!, $warehouseID: ID!) {
  getInventory(productID: $productID, warehouseID: $warehouseID) {
    productID
    warehouseID
    inventoryAmount
  }
}

You can also get all inventory from an individual warehouse by using the itemsByWarehouseID query created by the byWarehouseID key:

query byWarehouseId($warehouseID: ID!) {
  itemsByWarehouseID(warehouseID: $warehouseID) {
    items {
      inventoryAmount
      productID
    }
  }
}

16. Get total product inventory

How this would be done depends on the use case. If one just wants a list of all inventories in all warehouses, one could just run a list inventories on the Inventory model:

query listInventorys {
  listInventorys {
    items {
      productID
      warehouseID
      inventoryAmount
    }
  }
}

17. Get sales representatives ranked by order total and sales period

The sales period is either a date range or maybe even a month or week. Therefore you can set the sales period as a string and query using the combination of salesPeriod and orderTotal. You can also set the sortDirection in order to get the return values from largest to smallest:

query repsByPeriodAndTotal {
  repsByPeriodAndTotal(
    sortDirection: DESC
    salesPeriod: "January 2019"
    orderTotal: { ge: 1000 }
  ) {
    items {
      id
      orderTotal
    }
  }
}
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