While the Mars JSON demo is excellent, here is a very simple example to get started using the AWS SDK for JavaScript v2.1.33. Turn off the keys yourself. This is just a demo, not secret keys of hard code, you can use AWS Cognito instead. View screenshots for several AWS gotcha.
https://github.com/mayosmith/HelloDynamoDB
/* ----------------------------------------------------------------- AWS configure Note: this is a simple experiement for demonstration purposes only. Replace the keys below with your own. Do not include the secret key in an actual production environment, because, then, it wont be secret anymore... ----------------------------------------------------------------- */ AWS.config.update({accessKeyId: 'AKIAJUPWRIYYQGDB6AFA', secretAccessKey: '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'}); // Configure the region AWS.config.region = 'us-west-2'; //us-west-2 is Oregon //create the ddb object var ddb = new AWS.DynamoDB(); /* ----------------------------------------------------------------- Update the Table ----------------------------------------------------------------- */ //update the table with this data var params = { Key: { name: {S: 'John Mayo-Smith'}, city: {S: 'New York'} }, AttributeUpdates: { food: { Action: 'PUT', Value: {S: 'chocolate'} } }, TableName: 'sampletable', ReturnValues: 'ALL_NEW' }; //update the table update(); /* ----------------------------------------------------------------- Get Item from the Table ----------------------------------------------------------------- */ //attribute to read var readparams = { Key: { name: {S: 'John Mayo-Smith'}, city: {S: 'New York'} }, AttributesToGet: ['food'], TableName: 'sampletable' }; //get the item read(); /* ----------------------------------------------------------------- function update() Description: Calls updateItem which is part of the AWS Javascript SDK. Returns: JSON object (the object is stringifyed so we can see what going on in the javascript console) ----------------------------------------------------------------- */ function update(){ ddb.updateItem(params, function(err, data) { if (err) { return console.log(err); } console.log("We updated the table with this: " + JSON.stringify(data)); }); } /* ----------------------------------------------------------------- function read() Description: Calls getItem which is part of the AWS Javascript SDK. Returns: JSON object (the object is stringifyed so we can see what going on in the javascript console) ----------------------------------------------------------------- */ function read(){ ddb.getItem(readparams, function(err, data) { if (err) { return console.log(err); } console.log(": " + data); console.log("John favorite food is: "+ JSON.stringify(data.Item.food.S)); // print the item data }); }