Overlapping paths error

[zirkelc]

Hi,

I'm pretty sure this problem is not related to ElectroDB, but still maybe someone can point me in the right direction.

Error thrown by DynamoDB client: "Invalid UpdateExpression: Two document paths overlap with each other; must remove or rewrite one of these paths; path one: [states], path two: [appId]"

Playground

I want to create an empty map for states if the attribute doesn't exist, and then set states.APP_INSTALLED = true and remove states.APP_UNINSTALLED. I don't see where the two document paths overlap. Also, I get the same error without the remove expression.

import { CustomAttributeType, Entity, Service } from "electrodb";

export const appEntity = new Entity(
  {
    model: {
      entity: 'app',
      version: '1',
      service: 'chat',
    },
    attributes: {
      appId: {
        type: 'string',
        required: true,
        readOnly: true,
      },
      states: {
        type: CustomAttributeType<{ [state: string]: boolean }>('any'),
        required: false,
      },
    },
    indexes: {
      primary: {
        scope: 'app',
        pk: {
          field: 'pk',
          composite: [],
        },
        sk: {
          field: 'sk',
          composite: ['appId'],
        },
      },
    },
  },
  {  table: 'electro' },
);

// const app = await appEntity
//   .create({
//     appId: '123',
//   })
//   .go();

const app = await appEntity
  .patch({
    appId: '123',
  })
  .data((attr, op) => {
    op.ifNotExists(attr.states, {});
    op.set(attr.states.APP_INSTALLED, true);
    op.remove(attr.states.APP_NOT_INSTALLED);
  })
  .go();

console.log(app);

That's the created update expression:

{
    "UpdateExpression": "SET #states = if_not_exists(#states, :states_u0), #states.#APP_INSTALLED = :states_u1, #appId = :appId_u0, #__edb_e__ = :__edb_e___u0, #__edb_v__ = :__edb_v___u0 REMOVE #states.#APP_NOT_INSTALLED",
    "ExpressionAttributeNames": {
        "#pk": "pk",
        "#sk": "sk",
        "#states": "states",
        "#APP_INSTALLED": "APP_INSTALLED",
        "#APP_NOT_INSTALLED": "APP_NOT_INSTALLED",
        "#appId": "appId",
        "#__edb_e__": "__edb_e__",
        "#__edb_v__": "__edb_v__"
    },
    "ExpressionAttributeValues": {
        ":states_u0": {},
        ":states_u1": true,
        ":appId_u0": "123",
        ":__edb_e___u0": "app",
        ":__edb_v___u0": "1"
    },
    "TableName": "electro",
    "Key": {
        "pk": "$chat_app",
        "sk": "$app_1#appid_123"
    },
    "ConditionExpression": "attribute_exists(#pk) AND attribute_exists(#sk)"
}

[tywalch]

Hey @zirkelc

Yeah, this is a DynamoDB constraint 👎 The overlap is op.ifNotExists(attr.states, {}); As written, it performs multiple operations on the map object: setting the map itself and adding/removing properties to it. You could use a default to set an empty map on item creation and omit the ifNotExists operation, something like this.

[zirkelc]

Hi @tywalch

thanks for the clarifying this!

I wanted to use op.ifNotExists(attr.states, {}); because the field states is new and doesn't exist on existing entities. So I would't have to update all entities with an empty map beforehand.