Category: SDB Explorer for Amazon SimpleDB
Work With Items in Your Domain in Amazon SimpleDB Using SDB Explorer
As we consistently strive to simplify the use of Amazon SimpleDB service, we are excited to share with you how you can manage your items in SimpleDB domains very conveniently using SDB Explorer. SDB Explorer allows you to perform fast and parallel edits in your data very easily, saving you time and money.
An Amazon SimpleDB domain is like a worksheet table. SDB Explorer provides a tabular view of your structured data Stored in SimpleDB domains. You can directly edit the data in table cells, without having to write any queries like we do in relational databases traditionally. You can double-click on the cell or press F2 key to edit the data in a cell. Once you are done with editing SDB Explorer marks that row as edited by putting an image in front of these rows.
Work With Items in Your Domain in Amazon SimpleDB
In prior versions of SDB Explorer it was difficult to add multiple rows of data as you could add one by one only and you had to remember the attributes for each row. Now you can add multiple blank rows as you desire so you can add data to these new rows by directly editing cells in these rows. SDB Explorer will also identify the new rows by putting an image in front of those rows.
You can Delete multiple rows on single request. You can select the multiple rows and click on delete button, SDB Explorer marks deleted rows by adding an image.
When you are done with all your edits, click on Save button to save your changes.
SDBExplorer uses “BatchPutAttribute” and “BatchDeleteAttribute” commands to Add, Update and Delete multiple rows with minimum possible requests, which saves you money.
Contact us if you like to share your thoughts. We always like to hear feedback on our work, so we can improve the product further for you.
Quick Search on Amazon SimpleDB Domain With SDB Explorer
The new version of SDB Explorer improves your experience with Amazon SimpleDB further with new, quick and easy search .
Now you can perform quick searches on your SimpleDB domain by simply typing the first few characters of your search word. SDB Explorer searches for the characters across all the fields of the domain you are searching in. The first row, where any of the field values matches the characters you typed, gets highlighted. You can type the same character(s) again to move to the next matching row.
In the above example, you typed “sub” and a row with a field starting with “Submit” got highlighted. You can type “sub” again to move to the next matching row.
Download the latest version of SDB Explorer for more new features.
Export Amazon SimpleDB Domains to CSV or XML Format Using SDB Explorer
We are extremely excited to announce SDB Explorer version 2012.05.01.00, which brings one of the most demanded features for Amazon SimpleDB users. With this version, you can export your SimpleDB data into CSV file, in addition to exporting in XML format.
With this feature, you can back up your SimpleDB domains to CSV files and easily restore those CSV files to SimpleDB domains when needed. This will help you backup, restore or copy the SimpleDB domain content much more efficiently.
Export Amazon SimpleDB Domains to Comma Separated Values (CSV)
SDB Explorer has been supporting the export of SimpleDB domains to XML files in prior versions. With multiple Amazon SimpleDB user feedbacks, we realized the importance of being able to export a domain to CSV file.
With the new version of SDB Explorer, you will experience fast, multiple and parallel process to export the domain content of one or many Amazon SimpleDB domains to CSV file.
This backed up CSV files can be imported back to the same or any other domain.
SDB Explorer- Calculates Amazon SimpleDB Charges For Queries Executed
Amazon SimpleDB charges you for every query you run and you can see those charges using SDB Explorer.
SDB Explorer calculates and shows the charges for every query executed by you. It also shows the total charges of current session i.e charges incurred between your log-in and log-out of SDB Explorer.
SDB Explorer calculates the charges using this formula:
“Box-Usage returned by Amazon SimpleDB in the response * Pricing”
Pricing based on region and end points:
- US East (Northern Virginia) Region = $0.140
- US West (Oregon) Region = $0.140
- US West (Northern California) Region = $0.154
- EU (Ireland) Region = $0.154
- Asia Pacific (Singapore) Region = $0.154
- Asia Pacific (Tokyo) Region = $0.162
- South America (Sao Paulo) Region = $0.190
Please visit the following link to learn more about the charges:
http://www.sdbexplorer.com/documentation/simpledb–cost-for-query-operations.html
Amazon SimpleDB documentation — how machine utilization charges are calculated?
AWS Database Services
Amazon web service provides both relational database services and non-relational database services. AWS customers now have three cloud based database solutions available:
Amazon SimpleDB service – Amazon SimpleDB can be useful for those who need a non-relational database for storage of smaller, non-structural data. Amazon SimpleDB has restricted storage size to 10GB per domain and it can achieve up to 25 writes/second. Amazon SimpleDB offers simplicity and flexibility. SimpleDB automatically indexes all data. Amazon SimpleDB pricing is based on your actual box usage. You can store any UTF-8 string data in Amazon SimpleDB.
Amazon DynamoDB service – Amazon DynamoDB can be useful for those who need a fast, highly scalable non-relational database. There is no limit on the storage size per table and you can specify how much request capability you require. Amazon DynamoDB offers good performance and incremental scalability. DynamoDB indexes only the primary key, which can be a composite primary key. DynamoDB is priced according to how much request capacity you have requested. You can store Strings and Numbers.
Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) – Amazon RDS can be useful for those who need relational database service that offloads database administration. Amazon RDS provides the full capabilities of MySQL or Oracle database. Amazon RDS Database instances are instances of familiar MySQL or Oracle databases, running on an EC2. RDS offers backup/restore of databases scalability, and allows you to have up to 1TB database size.
Know more about these services -
http://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2009/11/03/OneSizeDoesNotFitAll.aspx
http://aws.amazon.com/running_databases/
http://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2012/01/amazon-dynamodb.html
http://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2009/10/amazon_relational_database_service.html
http://aws.amazon.com/dynamodb/faqs/#How_does_Amazon_DynamoDB_differ_from_AmazonSimpleDB_Which_should_I_use
Easily Customize SDB Explorer For Any New Region End Points Introduced by Amazon In Future
Now you do not need to wait for a new SDB Explorer release, whenever Amazon SimpleDB introduces any new region endpoint.
We have released a customization option to add any future region endpoints using SDB Explorer interface. You can add support for future new region endpoints using this new feature of SDB Explorer, in very simple steps. After successfully adding a new region endpoint, you can enjoy working on this region quickly.
Visit the following link to know more about this feature:
SDB Explorer– Enhanced Graphical User Interface (GUI)
We are excited to announce the new version of SDB Explorer, with much improved graphical user interface (GUI) and new features aimed at simplifying your work.
With today’s launch you can get:
- Two new region endpoints – South America (Sao Paulo) and US West (Oregon) Region
- Compatibility for any future addition of region endpoints by Amazon
- Direct IN-PLACE EDITING GRID
- Multi-Value Separator
Two new region endpoints:
South America (Sao Paulo) and US West (Oregon) Region – By adding support to these two new region endpoint in South America (Sao Paulo) and US West (Oregon) Region, SDB Explorer now supports making requests to all 7 regions supported by Amazon SimpleDB and calculating charges according to the region endpoints the requests are made for.
Compatibility for any future addition of region endpoints by Amazon:
SDB Explorer interface now allows adding support for any new region endpoint introduced by Amazon SimpleDB in future using this feature in simple steps. You can refer our document page to see more details.
Direct in- place- editing grid:
This feature is to simplify add, delete and update data from Amazon SimpleDB with a single click – “Save All”. SDB Explorer now supports adding multiple rows and editing the data directly by editing cells in the data grid. You can also request to delete the existing rows. All these operations will be performed when you apply for “save all changes”. You can refer our document page for more details.
Multi-Value Separator:
Now you can define the separator to be used for showing multivalued attributes, using SDB Explorer interface. If you want to upload multi-valued attributes, then you need to create a concatenation of these values separated by the separator. This is the simplest way to deal with multivalued attribute. You can use separators like &&, #, (,)comma etc.
Prior to this release SDB Explorer was showing comma as a default separator to show multivalue attribute. This would create an issue if comma already existed within the values. To eliminate this problem, we have introduces more separator options.
Amazon SimpleDB has a limitation that the value of an attribute should be of less than 1024 bytes. If you have larger value than 1024 bytes, you can upload that value as a multi value to that attribute using a separator. While upload if SDB Explorer finds concatenation of any values separated by the separator, it will upload the value as a multi-value to that attribute.
For more details, please refer release page notes:
http://www.sdbexplorer.com/documentation/simpledb–sdbexplorer-2012.03.html
SDB Explorer– Enhanced Query Features
This new version of SDB Explorer brings a set of features, to enhance your SimpleDB data connectivity and querying experience significantly.
Now you can query your data stored on Amazon’s SimpleDB much more efficiently. This version also allows you to store your Database Connection Settings, Database name and Table names using the Add/Manage database connection feature.
New Query features:
- Highlight the portion of query statement to be executed
- Comment out the query not to be executed
- Edit queries
Highlight the query - Highlight a part of a query and execute. So you could still be in the process of finalizing your query condition by trying multiple criteria, you do not need to erase everything that you have typed but do not want to execute in your current run. Just highlight and execute.
Comment out the query - Comment out Amazon SimpleDB queries that you do not want to execute. The Commented query will not get executed.
Editing queries - Editing queries using SDB Explorer has now become much easier. It Supports basic text editing features like copy, paste, undo and redo, that you would be able to do in any of the commonly used database query tools.
Add/Manage Database Connection Profile:
We have heard about the pain point of entering database connection settings repeatedly, to upload My SQL data to Amazon SimpleDB, from many of you. We have added an option to save the connection settings and now we can use the saved connection profiles to connect to the SimpleDB database. This profile can save your host address, port number, user-name and password to connect.
SDB Explorer will also list all Databases by name and the Tables for the selected Database. You need to select only database name and its Table that you would like to upload from My SQL using SDB Explorer before upload.
You can save database connection profile either “With Password” to protect your “Database Password” from malicious access.
SDB Explorer allows you to Update, Delete and List your database connection profiles.
You can find more details on the release notes page:
http://www.sdbexplorer.com/documentation/simpledb–sdbexplorer-2011.09.html
SDB Explorer– Enhanced Data Upload Experience
SDB Explorer‘s new release introduces the following data import related features: -
- Import data from CSV to Amazon SimpleDB
- Editing data directly in the grid displaying the data
- Queueing and enhanced visualization of data upload
Import data from CSV to Amazon SimpleDB - Now you can upload the content from ”Comma separated values” files to Amazon SimpleDB. Now you can specify your own CSV column as Amazon SimpleDB Item Identifier. Amazon SimpleDB requires a uid – called item identifier, for each row you store into a Domain. SDB Explorer can also auto generate sequence of numbers with zero padding and prefix for item name.
Editing the cells in the data grid - It allows you to edit the information directly in grid rows. SDB Explorer supports a Direct Cell Editor, which allows you to edit the cells. You can specify the dimension of Table i.e how many rows and columns you would like to have in a Table of Direct Cell Editor, to upload the data. You can also request for auto generate sequence of numbers with zero padding and prefix for the Item Name column. When you choose this option, the Item Name column is auto populated with the sequence numbers you specified.
Queueing and enhanced visualization of uploads - You can perform multiple parallel data uploads. SDB Explorer uses Multithreaded BatchPutAttributes to achieve high write throughput while bulk uploading data to Amazon SimpleDB. If you have the bandwidth, you can take full advantage by running number of BatchPutAttributes processes at once in parallel queue that will reduce the time spent in processing.
For more details, please refer release page notes and related links
- http://www.sdbexplorer.com/documentation/simpledb–sdbexplorer-2011.05.html
- http://www.sdbexplorer.com/documentation/simpledb–how-to-upload-bulk-data-using-direct-cell-editor-with-default-settings.html
- http://www.sdbexplorer.com/documentation/simpledb–how-to-upload-csv-file-data-with-auto-generated-item-name.html
SDB Explorer– Support For New Region End Point in Asia-Pacific (Tokyo)
We are excited to announce the new version of SDB Explorer, which supports the fifth new region endpoint, Asia Pacific (Tokyo), which has been just announced by Amazon SimpleDB.
Users from Japan can take benefit from Tokyo Region, to reduce latency for the end-users, by keeping their data entirely in Japan.
Amazon SimpleDB is currently available in the following region endpoints:
- US East (Northern Virginia)
- US West (Northern California)
- EU (Ireland)
- Asia Pacific (Singapore)
- Asia Pacific (Tokyo)
First 1 GB data stored per month is free and thereafter Amazon SimpleDB will charge $0.29 per GB-per month. SDB Explorer supports making requests to each region and calculates charges based on the region endpoints, for which the requests are made.
You can find detailed listing on the release notes page ->
http://www.sdbexplorer.com/documentation/simpledb–sdbexplorer-2011.03.html
