DynamoDB Browser - Stackpane

Overview

The DynamoDB Browser is the primary entry point for working with DynamoDB data in Stackpane. It displays all tables in your AWS account for the connected region, renders items in a sortable table, and provides pagination controls for large datasets.

Browsing Tables

When you select an AWS connection, Stackpane calls ListTables to load all DynamoDB tables in the configured region. Tables appear in the sidebar, listed alphabetically.

Click any table name to load its items into the main table view.
The table count is displayed at the top of the sidebar.
Click Refresh to reload the table list from AWS.

Table Metadata

Click the info icon next to a table name to view metadata retrieved from DescribeTable:

Table name and Table ARN
Key schema — the partition key and sort key (if defined), with their attribute types
Item count — the approximate number of items (updated periodically by DynamoDB)
Table size — the approximate size in bytes
Table status — Active, Creating, Deleting, or Updating
Billing mode — On-demand or Provisioned

Stackpane caches key schema information per table to avoid repeated DescribeTable calls during a session.

Understanding Keys

DynamoDB tables use a primary key to uniquely identify each item:

Partition key (required) — a single attribute that DynamoDB uses to distribute data across partitions. Every table has one.
Sort key (optional) — a second attribute that, combined with the partition key, forms a composite primary key. Tables with a sort key can store multiple items with the same partition key.

The key schema is displayed in the table metadata and in column headers. Key columns are always pinned to the left side of the item table for easy identification.

Item Table

The item table displays items from the selected table. Each item’s attributes appear as columns, auto-generated based on the data returned from a scan.

Column Display

Key attributes (partition key and sort key) are always shown first.
Non-key attributes are added as columns based on the items in the current page.
Since DynamoDB is schemaless, different items may have different attributes. Missing attributes display as empty cells.

Sorting

Click any column header to sort the displayed items by that attribute. Click again to reverse the sort direction. Sorting applies to the currently loaded items in memory, not to the DynamoDB query itself.

Searching

Use the search field above the table to filter the currently loaded items by text content. Search works across all visible fields in real time.

Pagination

DynamoDB returns items in pages. Stackpane handles pagination using the LastEvaluatedKey mechanism:

Items load in pages based on your configured page size.
Click Load More at the bottom of the table to fetch the next page.
Stackpane passes the LastEvaluatedKey from the previous response as the ExclusiveStartKey for the next request.
A progress indicator shows when a page is loading.

The default page size is 25 items. You can change this in Settings > Data to 25, 50, 100, 250, or 500 items per page.

Refreshing Data

Click Refresh in the toolbar to reload the current table’s items from DynamoDB. This discards all loaded pages and starts a fresh scan from the beginning.

Configuration

Default page size: 25, 50, 100, 250, or 500 items per page (Settings > Data)
Row density: Compact, Regular, or Comfortable (Settings > Appearance)