--- schema_version: "1" id: a2d0c9443383aaf0114bdd2bcde006790b84c88c1c2a67513685e699a4471521 title: Considerations for Salesforce Connect Adapters for Amazon DynamoDB collection: admin version: current locale: en-us portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/platform/264-0-0/dynamodb_considerations.md canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.dynamodb_considerations.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 source_site: help.salesforce.com content_type: documentation content_hash: 0d4f392a52e4bb3cfac31b4c75abc905d49a28975d98b1c772c57aaffb20ff9d description: Understand the special behaviors, limits, and recommendations for using the Salesforce Connect adapter for Amazon DynamoDB. products: - Salesforce Platform - Security release: "264" --- # Considerations for Salesforce Connect Adapters for Amazon DynamoDB Understand the special behaviors, limits, and recommendations for using the Salesforce Connect adapter for Amazon DynamoDB. ### Required Editions
Available in: both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience

Available in: Developer Edition

Available for an extra cost in: Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions
- When you define an external object, you must specify the prefixes used in the keys. This enables applying a schema-like concept on top of Amazon DynamoDB data that’s inherently schema-less. See Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide: [Core Components of Amazon DynamoDB](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/HowItWorks.CoreComponents.html). - When you define a DynamoDB external data source, you must manually set up metadata for the related external objects, and fields on the external objects. - Not all relational-style SOQL queries can be translated in a way that returns results in DynamoDB, such as table joins. Such queries can’t execute and may cause a runtime error displayed in the Lightning UI. Amazon DynamoDB delivers reliably fast performance at extremely high scale by mandating developers store data in a way that matches how it will be accessed. Typical relational databases don’t impose this restriction on development teams, but JOINs and subqueries at the very highest levels of scale become problematic. See Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide: [From SQL to NoSQL](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/SQLtoNoSQL.html). - External object fields map to a DynamoDB attribute value in its entirety, so any compound values with embedded keys are visible to the user. - Salesforce Platform features that aren’t supported: - Reports - SOSL - Sorting is only available based on the sort key of the underlying table in Amazon DynamoDB, or any secondary indexes defined for that table. See [Sort Example for Orders and Order Items](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.dynamodb_qualifiers_sortexample.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "To effectively sort orders and order items stored in an Amazon DynamoDB table in a way that benefits a business process, create secondary indexes that identify attribute values as the basis for sorting."). - Filtering isn't supported on [virtual fields](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.dynamodb_qualifiers_options.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5). Filtering is supported only for columns that are present in the DynamoDB data source. - Certain operations, such as updates via Flows work only when the primary key for the mapped DynamoDB table is of type _string_. - A SOQL query may cause a runtime error if: - The query scans an Amazon DynamoDB table that is configured to prevent such scans. - The query can’t be translated in a way that returns results in Amazon DynamoDB such as table joins. Because Amazon DynamoDB is a nonrelational database, it doesn't support table joins. To understand more, see [_Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide_: Working with Scans in DynamoDB](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/Scan.html). - We recommend consistent reads for working with Salesforce integration. For information reading data from a DynamoDB table, see [_Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide_: Read Consistency](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/HowItWorks.ReadConsistency.html). - Auto-numbering of identifiers isn’t supported. So DML operations must always include primary key fields. - Asynchronous DML operations aren’t supported. Instead use the synchronous variant of the DML operations. [Amazon DynamoDB database service](https://aws.amazon.com/dynamodb/) is designed to run high-performance applications at any scale. - For external lookups and indirect lookups on external objects: - External Lookup Relationship: Look up an external parent by its primary key. - Indirect Lookup Relationship: Look up a parent by key fields on the parent that uniquely identify a record. The child record holds the values to match for the parent unique field. For efficient queries, we recommend indexing parent key fields that uniquely identify the record and match the child record. - External ID values that uniquely identify external object records are case sensitive. #### See Also - [Salesforce Connect Adapter for Amazon DynamoDB](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.dynamodb_adapter_about.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Connect to Amazon DynamoDB to access and integrate DynamoDB data into Salesforce applications. With this adapter, take advantage of the flexible data storage capabilities of Amazon DynamoDB that provides fast and predictable performance combined with customer 360-degree view captured in Salesforce.") - [Set Up Salesforce Connect to Access External Data in Amazon DynamoDB](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.dynamodb_setup.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Provide users with access to data stored in DynamoDB data source in Salesforce so that they have a complete view of the business.")