DynamoDbIgnoreNulls Doesn't Work On Most Writes

[nicksbyman]

Describe the bug

When a user performs dynamo writes with the enhanced aws client with transactWriteItems or putItems, "DynamoDbIgnoreNulls" doesn't cause the write to ignore null attributes on the record being written.

That is, from #2303 it sounds like using the annotation should work fluidly like the other annotations, but because DefaultDynamoDbEnhancedClient.java just makes a TransactWriteItemsEnhancedRequest and sends it to dynamo. It doesn't look at the record being written to see if certain fields shouldn't overwrite existing fields with null.

Let me know if user error! But certainly feels like this annotation does not work fluidly with this usage of the enhanced client. I'm forced to set ignoreNulls manually on my own instead of relying on the annotation.

Expected behavior

"DynamoDbIgnoreNulls" should ignore null attributes on the record being written

Current behavior

"DynamoDbIgnoreNulls" doesn't ignore null attributes on the record being written

Steps to Reproduce

@DynamoDbBean
@Setter
public class MyDynamoBean {
     @DynamoDbIgnoreNulls
     private final String myAttribute;
  
}

public void myWriteMethod(MyDynamoBean myBean) {
    myClient.transactWriteItems(myConsumer -> {
          myConsumer.addUpdateItem(myTable, myBean);
    }

    myBean.setMyAttribute(null);
   
    myClient.transactWriteItems(myConsumer -> {
          myConsumer.addUpdateItem(myTable, myBean);
    }
}

In the above, the second write deletes the pre-existing value of myAttribute.

Possible Solution

Maybe call itemToMap() somewhere around transactWriteItems? That seems how we get the information from the bean based on the annotations. Based on #2303

Context

No response

AWS Java SDK version used

2.17.91

JDK version used

11.0.12

Operating System and version

Mac Big Sur, 11.6.1

[debora-ito]

@nicksbyman the @DynamoDbIgnoreNulls annotation should be added on the getter or setter of the attribute (and not on the attribute itself). Maybe that's the issue?

[github-actions]

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