Developer's Guide to Amazon SimpleDB, A

The Complete Guide to Building Cloud Computing Solutions with Amazon SimpleDB   Using SimpleDB, any organization can leverage Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s powerful cloud-based computing platform–and dramatically reduce the cost and resources associated with application infrastructure. Now, for the first time, there’s a complete developer’s guide to building production solutions with Amazon SimpleDB.   Pioneering SimpleDB developer Mocky Habeeb brings together all the hard-to-find information you need to succeed. Mocky tours the SimpleDB platform and APIs, explains their essential characteristics and tradeoffs, and helps you determine whether your applications are appropriate for SimpleDB. Next, he walks you through all aspects of writing, deploying, querying, optimizing, and securing Amazon SimpleDB applications–from the basics through advanced techniques.   Throughout, Mocky draws on his unsurpassed experience supporting developers on SimpleDB’s official Web forums. He offers practical tips and answers that can’t be found anywhere else, and presents extensive working sample code–from snippets to complete applications.   With A Developer’s Guide to Amazon SimpleDB you will be able to Evaluate whether a project is suited for Amazon SimpleDB Write SimpleDB applications that take full advantage of SimpleDB’s availability, scalability, and flexibility Effectively manage the entire SimpleDB application lifecycle Deploy cloud computing applications faster and more easily Work with SELECT and bulk data operations Fine tune queries to optimize performance Integrate SimpleDB security into existing organizational security plans Write and enhance runtime SimpleDB clients Build complete applications using AJAX and SimpleDB Understand low-level issues involved in writing clients and frameworks Solve common SimpleDB usage problems and avoid hidden pitfalls   This book will be an indispensable resource for every IT professional evaluating or using SimpleDB to build cloud-computing applications, clients, or frameworks.  

Table of Contents:
Preface    xvi Acknowledgments    xviii 1    Introducing Amazon SimpleDB    1 What Is SimpleDB?    1 What SimpleDB Is Not    1 Schema-Less Data    2 Stored Securely in the Cloud    2 Billed Only for Actual Usage    3 Domains, Items, and Attribute Pairs    3 Multi-Valued Attributes    3 Queries    4 High Availability    4 Database Consistency    5 Sizing Up the SimpleDB Feature Set    6 Benefits of Using SimpleDB    6 Database Features SimpleDB Doesn’t Have    7 Higher-Level Framework Functionality    7 Service Limits    8 Abandoning the Relational Model?    8 A Database Without a Schema    9 Areas Where Relational Databases Struggle    10 Scalability Isn’t Your Problem    11 Avoiding the SimpleDB Hype    11 Putting the DBA Out of Work    12 Dodging Copies of C.J. Date    13 Other Pieces of the Puzzle    14 Adding Compute Power with Amazon EC2    14 Storing Large Objects with Amazon S3    14 Queuing Up Tasks with Amazon SQS    15 Comparing SimpleDB to Other Products and Services    15 Windows Azure Platform    15 Google App Engine    17 Apache CouchDB    17 Dynamo-Like Products    18 Compelling Use Cases for SimpleDB    18 Web Services for Connected Systems    18 Low-Usage Application    19 Clustered Databases Without the Time Sink    19 Dynamic Data Application    19 Amazon S3 Content Search    20 Empowering the Power Users    20 Existing AWS Customers    20 Summary    21 2    Getting Started with SimpleDB    23 Gaining Access to SimpleDB    23 Creating an AWS Account    23 Signing Up for SimpleDB    24 Managing Account Keys    24 Finding a Client for SimpleDB    24 Building a SimpleDB Domain Administration Tool    25 Administration Tool Features    25 Key Storage    25 Implementing the Base Application    26 Displaying a Domain List    28 Adding Domain Creation    28 Supporting Domain Deletion    29 Listing Domain Metadata    29 Running the Tool    31 Packaging the Tool as a Jar File    31 Building a User Authentication Service    31 Integrating with the Spring Security Framework    32 Representing User Data    32 Fetching User Data with SimpleDBUserService    34 Salting and Encoding Passwords    36 Creating a User Update Tool    37 Summary    39 3    A Code-Snippet Tour of the SimpleDB API    41 Selecting a SimpleDB Client    41 Typica Setup in Java    42 C# Library for Amazon SimpleDB Setup    43 Tarzan Setup in PHP    45 Common Concepts    45 The Language Gap    45 SimpleDB Endpoints    45 SimpleDB Service Versions    47 Common Response Elements    47 CreateDomain    48 CreateDomain Parameters    49 CreateDomain Response Data    49 CreateDomain Snippet in Java    49 CreateDomain Snippet in C#    50 CreateDomain Snippet in PHP    50 ListDomains    51 ListDomains Parameters    51 ListDomains Response Data    51 ListDomains Snippet in Java    52 ListDomains Snippet in C#    52 ListDomains Snippet in PHP    53 DeleteDomain    54 DeleteDomain Parameters    54 DeleteDomain Response Data    54 DeleteDomain Snippet in Java    55 DeleteDomain Snippet in C#    55 DeleteDomain Snippet in PHP    55 DomainMetadata    56 DomainMetadata Parameters    56 DomainMetadata Response Data    56 DomainMetadata Snippet in Java    57 DomainMetadata Snippet in C#    58 DomainMetadata Snippet in PHP    58 PutAttributes    59 PutAttributes Parameters    60 PutAttributes Response Data    62 PutAttributes Snippet in Java    63 PutAttributes Snippet in C#    64 PutAttributes Snippet in PHP    65 GetAttributes    65 GetAttributes Parameters    65 GetAttributes Response Data    66 GetAttributes Snippet in Java    67 GetAttributes Snippet in C#    68 GetAttributes Snippet in PHP    69 DeleteAttributes    70 DeleteAttributes Parameters    70 DeleteAttributes Response Data    71 DeleteAttributes Snippet in Java    72 DeleteAttributes Snippet in C#    72 DeleteAttributes Snippet in PHP    73 BatchPutAttributes    73 BatchPutAttributes Parameters    74 BatchPutAttributes Response Data    75 BatchPutAttributes Snippet in Java    76 BatchPutAttributes Snippet in C#    77 BatchPutAttributes Snippet in PHP    78 Select    79 Select Parameters    79 Select Response Data    80 Select Snippet in Java    81 Select Snippet in C#    83 Select Snippet in PHP    85 Summary    86 4    A Closer Look at Select    87 Select Syntax    87 Required Clauses    88 Select Quoting Rule for Names    88 Output Selection Clause    89 WHERE Clause    90 Select Quoting Rules for Values    90 Sort Clause    91 LIMIT Clause    92 Formatting Attribute Data for Select    93 Integer Formatting    94 Floating Point Formatting    95 Date and Time Formatting    95 Case Sensitivity    97 Expressions and Predicates    97 Simple Comparison Operators    98 Range Operators    98 IN() Queries    99 Prefix Queries with LIKE and NOT LIKE    99 IS NULL and IS NOT NULL    100 Multi-Valued Attribute Queries    100 Multiple Predicate Queries with the INTERSECTION Operator    101 Selection with EVERY()    102 Query Results with the Same Item Multiple Times    102 Improving Query Performance    103 Attribute Indexes    103 Composite Attributes    104 Judicious Use of LIKE    105 Running on EC2    106 Skipping Pages with count() and LIMIT    106 Measuring Select Performance    107 Automating Performance Measurements    109 Summary    110 5    Bulk Data Operations    111 Importing Data with BatchPutAttributes    112 Calling BatchPutAttributes    112 Mapping the Import File to SimpleDB Attributes    112 Supporting Multiple File Formats    113 Storing the Mapping Data    113 Reporting Import Progress    113 Creating Right-Sized Batches    114 Managing Concurrency    114 Resuming a Stopped Import    115 Verifying Progress and Completion    115 Properly Handling Character Encodings    116 Backup and Data Export    116 Using Third-Party Backup Services    117 Writing Your Own Backup Tool    118 Restoring from Backup    119 Summary    119 6    Working Beyond the Boundaries    121 Availability: The Final Frontier    121 Boundaries of Eventual Consistency    123 Item-Level Atomicity    123 Looking into the Eventual Consistency Window    124 Read-Your-Writes    125 Implementing a Consistent View    125 Handling Text Larger Than    1K    128 Storing Text in S3    128 Storing Overflow in Different Attributes    129 Storing Overflow as a Multi-Valued Attribute    130 Entities with More than    256 Attributes    131 Paging to Arbitrary Query Depth    131 Exact Counting Without Locks or Transactions    133 Using One Item Per Count    134 Storing the Count in a Multi-Valued Attribute    136 Testing Strategies    138 Designing for Testability    138 Alternatives to Live Service Calls    139 Summary    139 7    Planning for the Application Lifecycle    141 Capacity Planning    141 Estimating Initial Costs    141 Keeping Tabs on SimpleDB Usage with AWS Usage Reports    142 Creating More Finely Detailed Usage Reports    145 Tracking Usage over Time    146 Storage Requirements    146 Computing Storage Costs    147 Understanding the Cost of Slack Space    147 Evaluating Attribute Concatenation    148 Scalability: Increasing the Load    148 Planning Maintenance    150 Using Read-Repair to Apply Formatting Changes    150 Using Read-Repair to Update Item Layout    152 Using a Batch Process to Apply Updates    152 Summary    153 8    Security in SimpleDB-Based Applications    155 Account Security    155 Managing Access Within the Organization    155 Limiting Amazon Access from AWS Credentials    157 Boosting Security with Multi-Factor Authentication    158 Access Key Security    159 Key Management    159 Secret Key Rotation    160 Data Security    161 Storing Clean Data    161 SSL and Data in Transmission    162 Data Storage and Encryption    164 Storing Data in Multiple Locations    165 Summary    165 9    Increasing Performance    167 Determining If SimpleDB Is Fast Enough    167 Targeting Moderate Performance in Small Projects    167 Exploiting Advanced Features in Small Projects    168 Speeding Up SimpleDB    169 Taking Detailed Performance Measurements    169 Accessing SimpleDB from EC2    169 Caching    170 Concurrency    172 Keeping Requests and Responses Small    173 Operation-Specific Performance    174 Optimizing GetAttributes    174 Optimizing PutAttributes    178 Optimizing BatchPutAttributes    179 Optimizing Select    180 Data Sharding    181 Partitioning Data    181 Multiplexing Queries    181 Accessing SimpleDB Outside the Amazon Cloud    182 Working Around Latency    182 Ignoring Latency    183 Summary    183 10    Writing a SimpleDB Client: A Language-Independent Guide    185 Client Design Overview    185 Public Interface    186 Attribute Class    188 Item Class    190 Client Design Considerations    191 High-Level Design Issues    191 Operation-Specific Considerations    193 Implementing the Client Code    196 Safe Handling of the Secret Key    196 Implementing the Constructor    197 Implementing the Remaining Methods    198 Making Requests    200 Computing the Signature    208 Making the Connections    210 Parsing the Response    214 Summary    216 11    Improving the SimpleDB Client    217 Convenience Methods    217 Convenient Count Methods    217 Select with a Real Limit    219 Custom Metadata and Building a Smarter Client    219 Justifying a Schema for Numeric Data    220 Database Tools    221 Coordinating Concurrent Clients    221 Storing Custom Metadata within SimpleDB    221 Storing Custom Metadata in S3    222 Automatically Optimizing for Box Usage Cost    222 The Exponential Cost of Write Operations    223 QueryTimeout: The Most Expensive Way to Get Nothing    225 Automated Domain Sharding    228 Domain Sharding Overview    228 Put/Get Delete Routing    228 Query Multiplexing    231 Summary    232 12    Building a Web-Based Task List    233 Application Overview    233 Requirements    233 The Data Model    234 Implementing User Authentication    235 Implementing a Task Workspace    238 Implementing a Task Service    241 Adding the Login Servlet    244 Adding the Logout Servlet    249 Displaying the Tasks    249 Adding New Tasks    252 Deployment    252 Summary    254 Index    255