Localhost Endpoint to DynamoDB Local with Boto3

Question

Although Amazon provides documentation regarding how to connect to dynamoDB local with Java, PHP and .Net, there is no description of how to connect to localhost:8000 using Python. Existing documentation on the web points to the use of the DynamoDBConnection method inside boto.dynamodb2.layer1, but this creates an incompatibility between live and test environments that use the boto3 protocol to manage dynamoDB.

In boto3, you can make a request to dynamo using the following constructor and variables set into the environment:

client = boto3.client('dynamodb')
table = client.list_tables()

Whereas the boto.dynamodb2.layer1 package requires you to construct the following:

client = DynamoDBConnection(
    host='localhost',
    port=8000,
    aws_access_key_id='anything',
    aws_secret_access_key='anything',
    is_secure=False)
table = client.list_tables()

Although it is possible to create logic which determines the proper constructor based upon the local environment, I am wary of building a set of methods which treat each constructor as the same. Instead, I would prefer to use boto3 for everything and to be able to set the endpoint for dynamoDB in the environmental variables. Unfortunately, that option does not appear to be currently be available.

Is there any way to use boto3 to define a dynamoDB local endpoint (like the other languages)? Or any chance that Amazon will plan to support this feature?

Answer 1

It does support DynamoDB Local. You just need to set the appropriate endpoint such as you can do with other language SDKs

Here is a code snippet of how you can use boto3's client and resource interface via DynamoDB Local:

import boto3

# For a Boto3 client.
ddb = boto3.client('dynamodb', endpoint_url='http://localhost:8000')
response = ddb.list_tables()
print(response)

# For a Boto3 service resource
ddb = boto3.resource('dynamodb', endpoint_url='http://localhost:8000')
print(list(ddb.tables.all()))