Using the Ion format in AWS Glue

AWS Glue retrieves data from sources and writes data to targets stored and transported in various data formats. If your data is stored or transported in the Ion data format, this document introduces you available features for using your data in AWS Glue.

AWS Glue supports using the Ion format. This format represents data structures (that aren't row or column based) in interchangeable binary and plaintext representations. For an introduction to the format by the authors, see Amazon Ion. (For more information, see the Amazon Ion Specification.)

You can use AWS Glue to read Ion files from Amazon S3. You can read bzip and gzip archives containing Ion files from S3. You configure compression behavior on the S3 connection parameters instead of in the configuration discussed on this page.

The following table shows which common AWS Glue operations support the Ion format option.

Read	Write	Streaming read	Group small files	Job bookmarks
Supported	Unsupported	Unsupported	Supported	Unsupported

Example: Read Ion files and folders from S3

Prerequisites: You will need the S3 paths (s3path) to the Ion files or folders that you want to read.

Configuration: In your function options, specify format="json". In your connection_options, use the paths key to specify your s3path. You can configure how the reader interacts with S3 in the connection_options. For details, see Connection types and options for ETL in AWS Glue: Amazon S3 connection option reference.

The following AWS Glue ETL script shows the process of reading Ion files or folders from S3:

Python

For this example, use the create_dynamic_frame.from_options method.

# Example: Read ION from S3

from pyspark.context import SparkContext
from awsglue.context import GlueContext

sc = SparkContext.getOrCreate()
glueContext = GlueContext(sc)

dynamicFrame = glueContext.create_dynamic_frame.from_options(
    connection_type="s3",
    connection_options={"paths": ["s3://s3path"]},
    format="ion"
)

Scala

For this example, use the getSourceWithFormat operation.

// Example: Read ION from S3

import com.amazonaws.services.glue.util.JsonOptions
import com.amazonaws.services.glue.GlueContext
import org.apache.spark.SparkContext

object GlueApp {
  def main(sysArgs: Array[String]): Unit = {
    val spark: SparkContext = new SparkContext()
    val glueContext: GlueContext = new GlueContext(spark)

    val dynamicFrame = glueContext.getSourceWithFormat(
      connectionType="s3",
      format="ion",
      options=JsonOptions("""{"paths": ["s3://s3path"], "recurse": true}""")
    ).getDynamicFrame()
  }
}

Ion configuration reference

There are no format_options values for format="ion".