Amazon SimpleDB - New Count Function, Long Running Queries, Etc.

We've introduced two improvements to SimpleDB's Select API. You can now count the number of items which match a condition, and you can handle queries which take more than 5 seconds to run.

The new count function is used like this:

select count(*) from MyFriends where EyeColor = 'Blue'

Queries which take more than 5 seconds to execute used to time out and returned no useful data. Now, queries will return all of the results accumulated prior to the 5 second time limit, along with a NextToken which will allow a subsequent query to pick up where the first one left off.

You can learn more about both of these features in the SimpleDB Release Notes.

By the way, the basic SimpleDB space allocation is 1 Terabyte (100 domains of 10 Gigabytes each). If you need more domains, fill in this form, send it our way, and and we'll get you going within a day or two.

Other interesting SimpleDB resources include:

• Mike Culver's Introduction to SimpleDB video
• Prabhakar Chaganti's new IBM developerWorks article on Dataset processing in the cloud with SimpleDB
• Donald Flood's SimpleDB Firefox plugin 
• Mindscape's SimpleDB Management Tools for Visual Studio 2008
• The new Ylastic Mobile SimpleDB Query Browser for the iPhone and the Android.
• The SDB Explorer.

-- Jeff;

Comments

[Robin Barooah]

Hi,

Do you have plans to add the count function to the "Query" language interface, or is development of that interface not proceeding?

I ask because although the select interface is familiar to those coming from an SQL background, the Query language has properties which make it more suited to type safe language integration, and I would hate to see it neglected.

This thread has an example:

http://groups.google.com/group/sublime-simpledb/browse_thread/thread/bc1f11f3cd0fb970

[Bruno Guisto]

You left Bolso ( http://www.cafesilencio.net/bolso ) off of your list of tools. Personally I find the UI to be friendlier than many of the other available tools.

[Ashley Tate]

Simple Savant is another SimpleDB resource missing from your list. It builds on the Amazon C# Library for SimpleDB to provide the following features:

* Mapping of object properties to SimpleDB attributes
* Formatting to support lexicographical sorts and searches
* Support for ADO.NET-style parameterized select operations
* Unlimited select results in a single call
* Transparent caching to mitigate effects of SimpleDB's eventual consistency model
* Automatic domain creation

I've just posted the second release to CodePlex. New features include support for selecting scalar values (including count(*)) and BatchPutAttributes. You can read more here:

http://coditate.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-simple-savant-release.html