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Parameters

The parameters utility provides a way to retrieve parameter values from AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store, AWS Secrets Manager, or Amazon DynamoDB. It also provides a base class to create your parameter provider implementation.

Key features

  • Retrieve one or multiple parameters from the underlying provider
  • Cache parameter values for a given amount of time (defaults to 5 seconds)
  • Transform parameter values from JSON or base 64 encoded strings

Install

Depending on your version of Java (either Java 1.8 or 11+), the configuration slightly changes.

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<dependencies>
    ...
    <dependency>
        <groupId>software.amazon.lambda</groupId>
        <artifactId>powertools-parameters</artifactId>
        <version>1.18.0</version>
    </dependency>
    ...
</dependencies>
...
<!-- configure the aspectj-maven-plugin to compile-time weave (CTW) the aws-lambda-powertools-java aspects into your project -->
<build>
    <plugins>
        ...
        <plugin>
             <groupId>dev.aspectj</groupId>
             <artifactId>aspectj-maven-plugin</artifactId>
             <version>1.13.1</version>
             <configuration>
                 <source>11</source> <!-- or higher -->
                 <target>11</target> <!-- or higher -->
                 <complianceLevel>11</complianceLevel> <!-- or higher -->
                 <aspectLibraries>
                     <aspectLibrary>
                         <groupId>software.amazon.lambda</groupId>
                         <artifactId>powertools-parameters</artifactId>
                     </aspectLibrary>
                 </aspectLibraries>
             </configuration>
             <executions>
                 <execution>
                     <goals>
                         <goal>compile</goal>
                     </goals>
                 </execution>
             </executions>
        </plugin>
        ...
    </plugins>
</build>

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<dependencies>
    ...
    <dependency>
        <groupId>software.amazon.lambda</groupId>
        <artifactId>powertools-parameters</artifactId>
        <version>1.18.0</version>
    </dependency>
    ...
</dependencies>
...
<!-- configure the aspectj-maven-plugin to compile-time weave (CTW) the aws-lambda-powertools-java aspects into your project -->
<build>
    <plugins>
        ...
        <plugin>
             <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
             <artifactId>aspectj-maven-plugin</artifactId>
             <version>1.14.0</version>
             <configuration>
                 <source>1.8</source>
                 <target>1.8</target>
                 <complianceLevel>1.8</complianceLevel>
                 <aspectLibraries>
                     <aspectLibrary>
                         <groupId>software.amazon.lambda</groupId>
                         <artifactId>powertools-parameters</artifactId>
                     </aspectLibrary>
                 </aspectLibraries>
             </configuration>
             <executions>
                 <execution>
                     <goals>
                         <goal>compile</goal>
                     </goals>
                 </execution>
             </executions>
        </plugin>
        ...
    </plugins>
</build>

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    plugins {
        id 'java'
        id 'io.freefair.aspectj.post-compile-weaving' version '8.1.0'
    }

    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
    }

    dependencies {
        aspect 'software.amazon.lambda:powertools-parameters:1.18.0'
    }

    sourceCompatibility = 11 // or higher
    targetCompatibility = 11 // or higher

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    plugins {
        id 'java'
        id 'io.freefair.aspectj.post-compile-weaving' version '6.6.3'
    }

    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
    }

    dependencies {
        aspect 'software.amazon.lambda:powertools-parameters:1.18.0'
    }

    sourceCompatibility = 1.8
    targetCompatibility = 1.8

IAM Permissions

This utility requires additional permissions to work as expected. See the table below:

Provider Function/Method IAM Permission
SSM Parameter Store SSMProvider.get(String) SSMProvider.get(String, Class) ssm:GetParameter
SSM Parameter Store SSMProvider.getMultiple(String) ssm:GetParametersByPath
Secrets Manager SecretsProvider.get(String) SecretsProvider.get(String, Class) secretsmanager:GetSecretValue
DynamoDB DynamoDBProvider.get(String) DynamoDBProvider.getMultiple(string) dynamodb:GetItem dynamoDB:Query

SSM Parameter Store

You can retrieve a single parameter using SSMProvider.get() and pass the key of the parameter. For multiple parameters, you can use SSMProvider.getMultiple() and pass the path to retrieve them all.

Alternatively, you can retrieve an instance of a provider and configure its underlying SDK client, in order to get data from other regions or use specific credentials.

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import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.SSMProvider;
import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.ParamManager;

public class AppWithSSM implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {
    // Get an instance of the SSM Provider
    SSMProvider ssmProvider = ParamManager.getSsmProvider();

    // Retrieve a single parameter
    String value = ssmProvider.get("/my/parameter");

    // Retrieve multiple parameters from a path prefix
    // This returns a Map with the parameter name as key
    Map<String, String> values = ssmProvider.getMultiple("/my/path/prefix");

}

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import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.SSMProvider;
import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.ParamManager;

public class AppWithSSM implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {
    SsmClient client = SsmClient.builder().region(Region.EU_CENTRAL_1).build();
    // Get an instance of the SSM Provider
    SSMProvider ssmProvider = ParamManager.getSsmProvider(client);

    // Retrieve a single parameter
    String value = ssmProvider.get("/my/parameter");

    // Retrieve multiple parameters from a path prefix
    // This returns a Map with the parameter name as key
    Map<String, String> values = ssmProvider.getMultiple("/my/path/prefix");

}

Additional arguments

The AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store provider supports two additional arguments for the get() and getMultiple() methods:

Option Default Description
withDecryption() False Will automatically decrypt the parameter.
recursive() False For getMultiple() only, will fetch all parameter values recursively based on a path prefix.

Example:

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import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.SSMProvider;
import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.ParamManager;

public class AppWithSSM implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {
    // Get an instance of the SSM Provider
    SSMProvider ssmProvider = ParamManager.getSsmProvider();

    // Retrieve a single parameter and decrypt it
    String value = ssmProvider.withDecryption().get("/my/parameter");

    // Retrieve multiple parameters recursively from a path prefix
    Map<String, String> values = ssmProvider.recursive().getMultiple("/my/path/prefix");

}

Secrets Manager

For secrets stored in Secrets Manager, use getSecretsProvider.

Alternatively, you can retrieve an instance of a provider and configure its underlying SDK client, in order to get data from other regions or use specific credentials.

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import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.SecretsProvider;
import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.ParamManager;

public class AppWithSecrets implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {
    // Get an instance of the Secrets Provider
    SecretsProvider secretsProvider = ParamManager.getSecretsProvider();

    // Retrieve a single secret
    String value = secretsProvider.get("/my/secret");

}

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import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.SecretsProvider;
import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.ParamManager;

public class AppWithSecrets implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {
    SecretsManagerClient client = SecretsManagerClient.builder().region(Region.EU_CENTRAL_1).build();
    // Get an instance of the Secrets Provider
    SecretsProvider secretsProvider = ParamManager.getSecretsProvider(client);

    // Retrieve a single secret
    String value = secretsProvider.get("/my/secret");

}

DynamoDB

To get secrets stored in DynamoDB, use getDynamoDbProvider, providing the name of the table that contains the secrets. As with the other providers, an overloaded methods allows you to retrieve a DynamoDbProvider providing a client if you need to configure it yourself. 

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import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.DynamoDbProvider;
import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.ParamManager;

public class AppWithDynamoDbParameters implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {
    // Get an instance of the DynamoDbProvider
    DynamoDbProvider ddbProvider = ParamManager.getDynamoDbProvider("my-parameters-table");

    // Retrieve a single parameter
    String value = ddbProvider.get("my-key"); 
} 

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import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.DynamoDbProvider;
import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.ParamManager;
import software.amazon.awssdk.services.dynamodb.DynamoDbClient;
import software.amazon.awssdk.http.urlconnection.UrlConnectionHttpClient;
import software.amazon.awssdk.regions.Region;

public class AppWithDynamoDbParameters implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {
    // Get a DynamoDB Client with an explicit region
    DynamoDbClient ddbClient = DynamoDbClient.builder()
            .httpClientBuilder(UrlConnectionHttpClient.builder())
            .region(Region.EU_CENTRAL_2)
            .build();

    // Get an instance of the DynamoDbProvider
    DynamoDbProvider provider = ParamManager.getDynamoDbProvider(ddbClient, "test-table");

    // Retrieve a single parameter
    String value = ddbProvider.get("my-key"); 
}

AppConfig

To get parameters stored in AppConfig, use getAppConfigProvider, providing the application and environment name to retrieve configuration from. As with the other providers, an overloaded method allows you to retrieve an AppConfigProvider providing a client if you need to configure it yourself.

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import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.AppConfigProvider;
import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.ParamManager;

public class AppWitAppConfigParameters implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {
    // Get an instance of the AppConfigProvider
    AppConfigProvider appConfigProvider = ParamManager.getAppConfigProvider("my-environment", "my-app");

    // Retrieve a single parameter
    String value = appConfigProvider.get("my-key"); 
} 

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import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.AppConfigProvider;
import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.ParamManager;
import software.amazon.awssdk.services.appconfigdata.AppConfigDataClient;
import software.amazon.awssdk.http.urlconnection.UrlConnectionHttpClient;
import software.amazon.awssdk.regions.Region;

public class AppWithDynamoDbParameters implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {
    // Get an AppConfig Client with an explicit region
    AppConfigDataClient appConfigDataClient = AppConfigDataClient.builder()
            .httpClientBuilder(UrlConnectionHttpClient.builder())
            .region(Region.EU_CENTRAL_2)
            .build();

    // Get an instance of the DynamoDbProvider
    AppConfigProvider appConfigProvider = ParamManager.getAppConfigProvider(appConfigDataClient, "my-environment", "my-app");

    // Retrieve a single parameter
    String value = appConfigProvider.get("my-key"); 
}

Advanced configuration

Caching

By default, all parameters and their corresponding values are cached for 5 seconds.

You can customize this default value using defaultMaxAge. You can also customize this value for each parameter using withMaxAge.

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import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.SecretsProvider;
import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.ParamManager;

public class AppWithSecrets implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {
    // Get an instance of the Secrets Provider
    SecretsProvider secretsProvider = ParamManager.getSecretsProvider()
                                                  .defaultMaxAge(10, ChronoUnit.SECONDS);

    String value = secretsProvider.get("/my/secret");

}

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import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.SecretsProvider;
import software.amazon.lambda.powertools.parameters.ParamManager;

public class AppWithSecrets implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {
    SecretsManagerClient client = SecretsManagerClient.builder().region(Region.EU_CENTRAL_1).build();

    SecretsProvider secretsProvider = ParamManager.getSecretsProvider(client);

    String value = secretsProvider.withMaxAge(10, ChronoUnit.SECONDS).get("/my/secret");

}

Transform values

Parameter values can be transformed using withTransformation(transformerClass). Base64 and JSON transformations are provided. For more complex transformation, you need to specify how to deserialize-

SSMProvider.getMultiple() does not support transformation and will return simple Strings.

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   String value = provider
                    .withTransformation(Transformer.base64)
                    .get("/my/parameter/b64");

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   MyObj object = provider
                    .withTransformation(Transformer.json)
                    .get("/my/parameter/json", MyObj.class);

Write your own Transformer

You can write your own transformer, by implementing the Transformer interface and the applyTransformation() method. For example, if you wish to deserialize XML into an object.

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public class XmlTransformer<T> implements Transformer<T> {

    private final XmlMapper mapper = new XmlMapper();

    @Override
    public T applyTransformation(String value, Class<T> targetClass) throws TransformationException {
        try {
            return mapper.readValue(value, targetClass);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new TransformationException(e);
        }
    }
}

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    MyObj object = provider
                        .withTransformation(XmlTransformer.class)
                        .get("/my/parameter/xml", MyObj.class);

Fluent API

To simplify the use of the library, you can chain all method calls before a get.

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    ssmProvider
      .defaultMaxAge(10, SECONDS)     // will set 10 seconds as the default cache TTL
      .withMaxAge(1, MINUTES)         // will set the cache TTL for this value at 1 minute
      .withTransformation(json)       // json is a static import from Transformer.json
      .withDecryption()               // enable decryption of the parameter value
      .get("/my/param", MyObj.class); // finally get the value

Create your own provider

You can create your own custom parameter store provider by inheriting the BaseProvider class and implementing the String getValue(String key) method to retrieve data from your underlying store. All transformation and caching logic is handled by the get() methods in the base class.

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public class S3Provider extends BaseProvider {

    private final S3Client client;
    private String bucket;

    S3Provider(CacheManager cacheManager) {
        this(cacheManager, S3Client.create());
    }

    S3Provider(CacheManager cacheManager, S3Client client) {
        super(cacheManager);
        this.client = client;
    }

    public S3Provider withBucket(String bucket) {
        this.bucket = bucket;
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    protected String getValue(String key) {
        if (bucket == null) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("A bucket must be specified, using withBucket() method");
        }

        GetObjectRequest request = GetObjectRequest.builder().bucket(bucket).key(key).build();
        ResponseBytes<GetObjectResponse> response = client.getObject(request, ResponseTransformer.toBytes());
        return response.asUtf8String();
    }

    @Override
    protected Map<String, String> getMultipleValues(String path) {
        if (bucket == null) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("A bucket must be specified, using withBucket() method");
        }

        ListObjectsV2Request listRequest = ListObjectsV2Request.builder().bucket(bucket).prefix(path).build();
        List<S3Object> s3Objects = client.listObjectsV2(listRequest).contents();

        Map<String, String> result = new HashMap<>();
        s3Objects.forEach(s3Object -> {
            result.put(s3Object.key(), getValue(s3Object.key()));
        });

        return result;
    }

    @Override
    protected void resetToDefaults() {
        super.resetToDefaults();
        bucket = null;
    }

}

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    S3Provider provider = new S3Provider(ParamManager.getCacheManager());

    provider.setTransformationManager(ParamManager.getTransformationManager());

    String value = provider.withBucket("myBucket").get("myKey");

Annotation

You can make use of the annotation @Param to inject a parameter value in a variable.

By default, it will use SSMProvider to retrieve the value from AWS System Manager Parameter Store. You could specify a different provider as long as it extends BaseProvider and/or a Transformer.

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public class AppWithAnnotation implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {

    @Param(key = "/my/parameter/json")
    ObjectToDeserialize value;

}

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public class AppWithAnnotation implements RequestHandler<APIGatewayProxyRequestEvent, APIGatewayProxyResponseEvent> {

    @Param(key = "/my/parameter/json" provider = SecretsProvider.class, transformer = JsonTransformer.class)
    ObjectToDeserialize value;

}

In this case SecretsProvider will be used to retrieve a raw value that is then trasformed into the target Object by using JsonTransformer. To show the convenience of the annotation compare the following two code snippets.

Install

If you want to use the @Param annotation in your project add configuration to compile-time weave (CTW) the powertools-parameters aspects into your project.

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<build>
    <plugins>
        ...
        <plugin>
             <groupId>dev.aspectj</groupId>
             <artifactId>aspectj-maven-plugin</artifactId>
             <version>1.13.1</version>
             <configuration>
                 ...
                 <aspectLibraries>
                     ...
                     <aspectLibrary>
                         <groupId>software.amazon.lambda</groupId>
                         <artifactId>powertools-parameters</artifactId>
                     </aspectLibrary>
                 </aspectLibraries>
             </configuration>
             <executions>
                 <execution>
                     <goals>
                         <goal>compile</goal>
                     </goals>
                 </execution>
             </executions>
        </plugin>
        ...
    </plugins>
</build>

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plugins{
    id 'java'
    id 'io.freefair.aspectj.post-compile-weaving' version '6.3.0'
}

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
    ...
    aspect 'software.amazon.lambda:powertools-parameters:1.18.0'
    implementation 'org.aspectj:aspectjrt:1.9.19'
}
Last update: 2023-11-20