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Installation

Get started with Dynatable in minutes.

Prerequisites​

  • Node.js: Version 16 or higher
  • TypeScript: Version 5.0 or higher (recommended)
  • AWS Account: For DynamoDB access

Install Dynatable​

Install Dynatable using your preferred package manager:

npm install @ftschopp/dynatable-core

Install AWS SDK​

Dynatable requires the AWS SDK v3 for DynamoDB:

npm install @aws-sdk/client-dynamodb @aws-sdk/lib-dynamodb

Dynatable uses Zod for runtime validation. It's automatically included as a dependency:

npm install zod

Verify Installation​

Create a simple test file to verify everything is working:

test-dynatable.ts
import { Table } from '@ftschopp/dynatable-core';
import { DynamoDBClient } from '@aws-sdk/client-dynamodb';

console.log('Dynatable installed successfully!');

Run the test:

npx ts-node test-dynatable.ts

AWS Configuration​

Local Development​

For local development, you can use DynamoDB Local or configure AWS credentials:

Option 1: DynamoDB Local​

Install and run DynamoDB Local using Docker:

docker run -p 8000:8000 amazon/dynamodb-local

Configure your client to use the local endpoint:

const client = new DynamoDBClient({
  region: 'local',
  endpoint: 'http://localhost:8000',
  credentials: {
    accessKeyId: 'dummy',
    secretAccessKey: 'dummy',
  },
});

Option 2: AWS Credentials​

Configure AWS credentials using one of these methods:

Environment Variables:

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="your-access-key"
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="your-secret-key"
export AWS_REGION="us-east-1"

AWS Credentials File (~/.aws/credentials):

[default]
aws_access_key_id = your-access-key
aws_secret_access_key = your-secret-key
region = us-east-1

Using AWS CLI:

aws configure

Production​

For production environments, use IAM roles or environment variables:

const client = new DynamoDBClient({
  region: process.env.AWS_REGION || 'us-east-1',
  // Credentials are automatically picked up from IAM role
});

TypeScript Configuration​

Ensure your tsconfig.json has these settings for optimal type inference:

tsconfig.json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ES2020",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "lib": ["ES2020"],
    "strict": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
    "resolveJsonModule": true,
    "moduleResolution": "node"
  }
}
tip

The strict flag is highly recommended for better type safety with Dynatable.

Next Steps​

Now that you have Dynatable installed, let's create your first table: