Amazon S3

Last modified: April 18, 2024

1 Introduction

The Amazon S3 connector enables you to connect your app to Amazon S3 and easily store objects.

1.1 Typical Use Cases

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is an object storage service offering industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance. Customers of all sizes and industries can store and protect any amount of data for virtually any use case, such as data lakes, cloud-native applications, and mobile apps. With cost-effective storage classes and easy-to-use management features, you can optimize costs, organize data, and configure fine-tuned access controls to meet specific business, organizational, and compliance requirements. Some typical use cases of Amazon S3 are:

Build a data lake - Run big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and high performance computing (HPC) applications to unlock data insights.
Back up and restore critical data - Meet Recovery Time Objectives (RTO), Recovery Point Objectives (RPO), and compliance requirements with S3’s robust replication features.
Archive data at the lowest cost - Move data archives to the Amazon S3 Glacier storage classes to lower costs, eliminate operational complexities, and gain new insights.
Run cloud-native applications - Build fast, powerful mobile and web-based cloud-native apps that scale automatically in a highly available configuration.

1.2 Prerequisites

The Amazon S3 connector requires the AWS Authentication connector version 2.1 or higher to authenticate with Amazon Web Services (AWS). If you are using the Amazon S3 connector version 3.0 or higher, it requires the AWS Authentication connector version 3.0 or higher. It is crucial for the Amazon S3 connector to function correctly. For more information about installing and configuring the AWS Authentication connector, see AWS Authentication.

1.3 Licensing and Cost

This connector is available as a free download from the Mendix Marketplace, but the AWS service to which is connects may incur a usage cost. For more information, refer to AWS documentation.

Most AWS services provide a free tier that allows easy access to most services. To find out if this service is included in the free tier, see AWS Free Tier. To calculate the potential cost of using an AWS service outside of the free tier, use the AWS Cost calculator.

Depending on your use case, your deployment environment, and the type of app that you want to build, you may also need a license for your Mendix app. For more information, refer to Licensing Apps.

2 Installation

Follow the instructions in Using Marketplace Content to import the Amazon S3 connector into your app.

3 Configuration

After you install the connector, you can find it in the App Explorer, in the AmazonS3Connector section. The connector provides a domain model and several activities that you can use to connect your app to Amazon S3. Each activity can be implemented by using it in a microflow. To ensure that your app can connect to the AWS service, you must also configure AWS authentication for the connector.

3.1 Configuring AWS Authentication

In order to use the Amazon S3 service, you must authenticate with AWS. To do so, you must set up a configuration profile in your Mendix app. After you set up the configuration profile, the connector module handles the authentication internally.

As of version 3.0.0 of the AWS Authentication Connector, all the resources and logic required to set up authentication are centralized inside the AWS Authentication Connector module.

The AWS Authentication Connector supports both static credentials and temporary credentials. For more information and detailed instructions please refer to the AWS Authentication Connector documentation page.

3.2 Configuring a Microflow for an AWS Service

After you configure the authentication profile for Amazon S3, you can implement the functions of the connector by using the provided activities in microflows. For example, to create a bucket in S3, perform the following steps:

In the App Explorer, right-click on the name of your module, and then click Add microflow.
Enter a name for your microflow, for example, DS_CreateBucket, and then click OK.
In the App Explorer, in the AmazonS3Connector > Operations section, find the CreateBucket activity.
Drag the CreateBucket activity onto the microflow you are working on.
Double-click the CreateBucket activity and configure the AWS_Region parameter by doing the following steps:
1. Click Edit parameter value, edit the ENUM_Region parameter, and change Type to Expression.
2. In the expression builder, type ENUM_Region, and then press Ctrl+Space.
3. In the autocomplete dialog, select AWSAuthentication.ENUM_Region, then type . and select your AWS region from the list.
In the App Explorer, in the AWSAuthentication > Operations section, find the GetStaticCredentials and GetTemporaryCredentials actions.
Drag the one you would like to use onto the microflow you are working on, and position it between the microflow start event and the CreateBucket activity.
Double-click the microflow action and then configure the required Region parameter in the same way as described in step 5.
Double-click the CreateBucket activity and configure the Credentials parameter by doing the following steps:
1. Click Edit parameter value.
2. Edit the Credentials parameter and let it auto-fill.
In the Toolbox pane, search for the Create Object activity, drag it onto the microflow area, and position it between the GetStaticCredentials or GetTemporaryCredentials and the CreateBucket activity.
Double-click the Create Object activity, and then select AmazonS3Connector.CreateBucketRequest as the entity.
In the Member section, click New, and then select BucketName as the member.
Configure an expression to generate the names of the buckets created in Amazon S3 by the microflow.
```
The name generated by the expression must be all lower-case. If the bucket name is not lower-case, the Amazon S3 service will return an error.
```
Click OK, and then click OK again.
Double-click the CreateBucket activity and configure the CreateBucketRequest parameter by doing the following steps:
1. Click Edit parameter value.
2. Edit the CreateBucketRequest parameter and let it auto-fill.

4 Technical Reference

To help you work with the Amazon S3 connector, the following sections of this document list the available entities, enumerations, and activities that you can use in your application.

4.1 Domain Model

The domain model is a data model that describes the information in your application domain in an abstract way. For more information, see Domain Model.

The entities in the table below describe all generalizations. These are reused by the different models for the specific microflow activities or for storing connection details.

4.1.1 S3Object

Attribute	Description
`ETag`	Describes the entity tag is a hash of the object
`Key`	Describes the name that has been assigned to an object
`LastModified`	Describes the creation date of the object
`Size`	Describes the size in bytes of the object
`StorageClass`	Describes the class of the storage used to store the object

4.1.2 CreateBucketRequest

Attribute	Description
`BucketName`	Describes the name of the bucket to create

4.1.3 CreateBucketResponse

Attribute	Description
`Location`	Gives the location of the created bucket

4.1.4 PutObjectRequest

Attribute	Description
`BucketName`	Describes the name of the bucket to put the object in
`Key`	Describes the unique identifier for the object that needs to be put

4.1.5 GetObjectRequest

Attribute	Description
`BucketName`	Describes the name of the bucket to get the object from
`Key`	Describes the object’s key

4.1.6 GetObjectResponse

Attribute	Description
`Key`	Describes the object’s key

4.1.7 DeleteObjectRequest

Attribute	Description
`BucketName`	Describes the name of the bucket to delete
`Key`	Describes the object’s key

4.1.8 ListBucketResponse

Attribute	Description
N/A	The object does not contain any attributes, but is associated with the `Bucket` object

4.1.9 Bucket

Attribute	Description
`BucketName`	Describes the name of the bucket
`CreationDate`	Describes the creation date of the bucket

4.1.10 ListObjectsRequest

Attribute	Description
`BucketName`	Describes the name of the bucket that includes the desired list of the objects
`Delimiter`	Describes a character you use to group keys
`MaxKeys`	Describes the maximum number of keys returned in the response. By default the action returns up to 1,000 key names. The response might contain fewer keys but will never contain more
`Prefix`	Describes the prefix that can be used to limit the response to keys that begin with the specified prefix
`ContinuationToken`	Describes to the Amazon S3 service that the list is being continued on this bucket with a token
`StartAfter`	Describes where you want Amazon S3 to start listing from. Amazon S3 starts listing after this specified key. `StartAfter` can be any key in the bucket

4.1.11 ListObjectsResponse

Attribute	Description
`IsTruncated`	Describes whether all results were returned. If all are returned, this value is set to true, otherwise it is set to false
`KeyCount`	Describes the number of keys returned with this request. `KeyCount` will always be less than or equal to the `MaxKeys` field of the `ListObjectsRequest`. For example, if you ask for 50 keys, your result will include 50 keys or fewer
`NextContinuationToken`	Describes whether there are more keys in the bucket that can be listed. The next list requests to Amazon S3 can be continued with this `NextContinuationToken`. `NextContinuationToken` is obfuscated and is not a real key

4.1.12 ListedObject

Attribute	Description
N/A	Is a generalization of the S3 object

4.1.13 CommonPrefix

Attribute	Description
`Prefix`	Describes the name of the prefix

4.1.14 CopyObjectRequest

Attribute	Description
`SourceBucketName`	Describes the name of the source bucket
`SourceKey`	Describes the source Key of the object
`DestinationBucketName`	Describes the name of the target bucket
`DestinationKey`	Describes the target Key of the object

4.1.15 DeleteBucketRequest

Attribute	Description
`BucketName`	Describes the name of the bucket to be deleted

4.1.16 MoveObjectRequest

Attribute	Description
`SourceBucketName`	Describes the name of the source bucket
`DestinationBucketName`	Describes the name of the target bucket
`DestinationKey`	Describes the target `Key` of the object
`SourceKey`	Describes the source `Key` of the object

4.2 Enumerations

An enumeration is a predefined list of values that can be used as an attribute type. For more information, see Enumerations.

4.2.1 ENUM_StorageClass

Name	Caption	Description
`STANDARD`	STANDARD	(Default) Selecting this enumeration value stores an object according to the standard class
`REDUCED_REDUNDANCY`	REDUCED_REDUNDANCY	Selecting this enumeration value stores an object according to the RRS (reduced redundancy storage) class
`GLACIER`	GLACIER	Selecting this enumeration value stores an object according to the glacier class
`STANDARD_IA`	STANDARD_IA	Selecting this enumeration value stores an object according to the standard-IA (infrequent access) class
`ONEZONE_IA`	ONEZONE_IA	Selecting this enumeration value stores an object according to the one zone-IA (infrequent access) class
`INTELLIGENT_TIERING`	INTELLIGENT_TIERING	Selecting this enumeration value stores an object according to the intelligent tiering class
`DEEP_ARCHIVE`	DEEP_ARCHIVE	Selecting this enumeration value stores an object according to the glacier deep archive class
`OUTPOSTS`	OUTPOSTS	Selecting this enumeration value stores an object according to the outposts (on-premise) class
`GLACIER_IR`	GLACIER_IR	Selecting this enumeration value stores an object according to the glacier instant retrieval (IR) class
`UNKNOWN_TO_SDK_VERSION`	UNKNOWN_TO_SDK_VERSION	This enumeration value is returned when the S3 service returns a value unknown to the SDK

4.3 Activities

Activities define the actions that are executed in a microflow or a nanoflow. For more information, see Activities.

4.3.1 CreateBucket

The CreateBucket Amazon S3 action allows you to create a new S3 Bucket. It requires a valid AWS_Region and Credentials, as well as a CreateBucketRequest object. It returns a CreateBucketResponse object. The input and output for this service are shown in the table below:

Input	Output
`CreateBucketRequest`, `AWS_Region`, `Credentials`	`CreateBucketResponse`

4.3.2 PutObject

The PutObject Amazon S3 actions allows you put an object into a specified S3 bucket. It requires a valid AWS_Region and Credentials, as well as a PutObjectRequest object and a FileDocument object. It returns a Boolean which indicates if the action was successful. The input and output for this service are shown in the table below:

Input	Output
`PutObjectRequest`, `FileDocument`, `AWS_Region`, `Credentials`	`Boolean`

4.3.3 DeleteObject

The DeleteObject Amazon S3 actions allows you delete an object from a specified S3 bucket. It requires a valid AWS_Region and Credentials, as well as a DeleteObjectRequest object. It returns a Boolean which indicates if the action was successful. The input and output for this service are shown in the table below:

Input	Output
`DeleteObjectRequest`, `AWS_Region`, `Credentials`	`Boolean`

4.3.4 ListBuckets

The ListBuckets Amazon S3 actions allows you retrieve a list of all buckets in one’s Amazon S3 environment. It requires a valid AWS_Region and Credentials. It returns aListBucketsResponse object. The input and output for this service are shown in the table below:

Input	Output
`AWS_Region`, `Credentials`	`ListBucketsResponse`

4.3.5 ListObjects

The ListObjects Amazon S3 actions allows you retrieve a list of the metadata of the objects for a specified bucket in one’s Amazon S3 environment. It requires a valid AWS_Region and Credentials, as well as a ListObjectsRequest object. It returns a ListObjectsResponse object. The input and output for this service are shown in the table below:

Input	Output
`ListObjectsRequest`, `AWS_Region`, `Credentials`	`ListObjectsResponse`

4.3.6 DeleteBucket

The DeleteBucket Amazon S3 actions allows you delete a bucket. It requires a valid AWS_Region and Credentials, as well as a DeleteBucketRequest object. It returns a Boolean which indicates if the action was successful. The input and output for this service are shown in the table below:

Input	Output
`DeleteBucketRequest`, `AWS_Region`, `Credentials`	`Boolean`

4.3.7 GetObject

The GetObject Amazon S3 actions allows you to get an object from the s3 simple storage service. It requires a valid AWS_Region and Credentials, as well as a GetObjectRequest object. It returns a GetObjectResponse object which is a FileDocument generalization object. The input and output for this service are shown in the table below:

Input	Output
`GetObjectRequest`, `AWS_Region`, `Credentials`	`GetObjectResponse`

4.3.8 CopyObject

The CopyObject Amazon S3 actions allows you copy an s3 object placed within a bucket or prefix to an other bucket or prefix. It requires a valid AWS_Region parameter and Credentials, as well as a CopyObjectRequest object. It returns a Boolean. The input and output for this service are shown in the table below:

Input	Output
`CopyObjectRequest`, `AWS_Region`, `Credentials`	`Boolean`

4.3.9 MoveObject

The MoveObject Amazon S3 actions allows you move an s3 object between buckets or prefixes. It requires a valid AWS_Region parameter and Credentials, as well as a MoveObjectRequest object. It returns a Boolean. The input and output for this service are shown in the table below:

Input	Output
`MoveObjectRequest`, `AWS_Region`, `Credentials`	`Boolean`

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