How to load data from US Census to DynamoDB

Learn how to use Airbyte to synchronize your US Census data into DynamoDB within minutes.

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Set up a US Census connector in Airbyte

Connect to US Census or one of 400+ pre-built or 10,000+ custom connectors through simple account authentication.

Set up DynamoDB for your extracted US Census data

Select DynamoDB where you want to import data from your US Census source to. You can also choose other cloud data warehouses, databases, data lakes, vector databases, or any other supported Airbyte destinations.

Configure the US Census to DynamoDB in Airbyte

This includes selecting the data you want to extract - streams and columns -, the sync frequency, where in the destination you want that data to be loaded.

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TL;DR

set up US Census as a source connector (using Auth, or usually an API key)
set up DynamoDB as a destination connector
define which data you want to transfer and how frequently

You can choose to self-host the pipeline using Airbyte Open Source or have it managed for you with Airbyte Cloud.

This tutorial’s purpose is to show you how.

What is US Census

The U.S. Census Bureau takes the pulse of the country’s economy. Producing economic data monthly, quarterly, yearly, and at five-year intervals requires high-tech solutions. The U.S. Census Bureau, in response to this need, has built an its first ever iPhone application, aimed at providing users with important economic statistics quickly and easily directly from an iPhone: the America’s Economy application.

What is DynamoDB

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed proprietary NoSQL database service that supports key–value and document data structures and is offered by Amazon.com as part of the Amazon Web Services portfolio. DynamoDB exposes a similar data model to and derives its name from Dynamo, but has a different underlying implementation.

Integrate US Census with DynamoDB in minutes

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Prerequisites

A US Census account to transfer your customer data automatically from.
A DynamoDB account.
An active Airbyte Cloud account, or you can also choose to use Airbyte Open Source locally. You can follow the instructions to set up Airbyte on your system using docker-compose.

Airbyte is an open-source data integration platform that consolidates and streamlines the process of extracting and loading data from multiple data sources to data warehouses. It offers pre-built connectors, including US Census and DynamoDB, for seamless data migration.

When using Airbyte to move data from US Census to DynamoDB, it extracts data from US Census using the source connector, converts it into a format DynamoDB can ingest using the provided schema, and then loads it into DynamoDB via the destination connector. This allows businesses to leverage their US Census data for advanced analytics and insights within DynamoDB, simplifying the ETL process and saving significant time and resources.

Step 1: Set up US Census as a source connector

1. Open the Airbyte platform and navigate to the "Sources" tab on the left-hand side of the screen.
2. Scroll down until you find the "US Census" source connector and click on it.
3. Click on the "Create Connection" button to begin setting up your connection to the US Census data source.
4. In the "Connection Configuration" page, enter a name for your connection and provide your API key in the "API Key" field.
5. Click on the "Test Connection" button to ensure that your credentials are correct and that the connection is working properly.
6. Once the connection has been successfully tested, click on the "Create" button to save your connection settings.
7. You can now use this connection to extract data from the US Census data source by creating a new pipeline and selecting the US Census source connector as your source.
8. Follow the prompts to configure your pipeline and select the data you want to extract from the US Census data source.
9. Once your pipeline is configured, you can run it to extract data from the US Census data source and load it into your destination data warehouse or data lake.

Step 2: Set up DynamoDB as a destination connector

1. Open the Airbyte platform and navigate to the "Destinations" tab on the left-hand side of the screen.
2. Scroll down until you find the "DynamoDB" connector and click on it.
3. Click on the "Create new connection" button.
4. Enter a name for your connection and click on the "Next" button.
5. Enter your AWS access key ID and secret access key in the appropriate fields.
6. Enter the name of the DynamoDB table you want to connect to.
7. Choose the region where your DynamoDB table is located.
8. Click on the "Test connection" button to ensure that your credentials are correct and that the connection is successful.
9. If the test is successful, click on the "Create connection" button to save your settings.
10. You can now use the DynamoDB destination connector to transfer data from your source to your DynamoDB table.

Step 3: Set up a connection to sync your US Census data to DynamoDB

Once you've successfully connected US Census as a data source and DynamoDB as a destination in Airbyte, you can set up a data pipeline between them with the following steps:

Create a new connection: On the Airbyte dashboard, navigate to the 'Connections' tab and click the '+ New Connection' button.
Choose your source: Select US Census from the dropdown list of your configured sources.
Select your destination: Choose DynamoDB from the dropdown list of your configured destinations.
Configure your sync: Define the frequency of your data syncs based on your business needs. Airbyte allows both manual and automatic scheduling for your data refreshes.
Select the data to sync: Choose the specific US Census objects you want to import data from towards DynamoDB. You can sync all data or select specific tables and fields.
Select the sync mode for your streams: Choose between full refreshes or incremental syncs (with deduplication if you want), and this for all streams or at the stream level. Incremental is only available for streams that have a primary cursor.
Test your connection: Click the 'Test Connection' button to make sure that your setup works. If the connection test is successful, save your configuration.
Start the sync: If the test passes, click 'Set Up Connection'. Airbyte will start moving data from US Census to DynamoDB according to your settings.

Remember, Airbyte keeps your data in sync at the frequency you determine, ensuring your DynamoDB data warehouse is always up-to-date with your US Census data.

Use Cases to transfer your US Census data to DynamoDB

Integrating data from US Census to DynamoDB provides several benefits. Here are a few use cases:

Advanced Analytics: DynamoDB’s powerful data processing capabilities enable you to perform complex queries and data analysis on your US Census data, extracting insights that wouldn't be possible within US Census alone.
Data Consolidation: If you're using multiple other sources along with US Census, syncing to DynamoDB allows you to centralize your data for a holistic view of your operations, and to set up a change data capture process so you never have any discrepancies in your data again.
Historical Data Analysis: US Census has limits on historical data. Syncing data to DynamoDB allows for long-term data retention and analysis of historical trends over time.
Data Security and Compliance: DynamoDB provides robust data security features. Syncing US Census data to DynamoDB ensures your data is secured and allows for advanced data governance and compliance management.
Scalability: DynamoDB can handle large volumes of data without affecting performance, providing an ideal solution for growing businesses with expanding US Census data.
Data Science and Machine Learning: By having US Census data in DynamoDB, you can apply machine learning models to your data for predictive analytics, customer segmentation, and more.
Reporting and Visualization: While US Census provides reporting tools, data visualization tools like Tableau, PowerBI, Looker (Google Data Studio) can connect to DynamoDB, providing more advanced business intelligence options. If you have a US Census table that needs to be converted to a DynamoDB table, Airbyte can do that automatically.

Wrapping Up

To summarize, this tutorial has shown you how to:

Configure a US Census account as an Airbyte data source connector.
Configure DynamoDB as a data destination connector.
Create an Airbyte data pipeline that will automatically be moving data directly from US Census to DynamoDB after you set a schedule

With Airbyte, creating data pipelines take minutes, and the data integration possibilities are endless. Airbyte supports the largest catalog of API tools, databases, and files, among other sources. Airbyte's connectors are open-source, so you can add any custom objects to the connector, or even build a new connector from scratch without any local dev environment or any data engineer within 10 minutes with the no-code connector builder.

We look forward to seeing you make use of it! We invite you to join the conversation on our community Slack Channel, or sign up for our newsletter. You should also check out other Airbyte tutorials, and Airbyte’s content hub!

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How to Sync US Census to DynamoDB Manually

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FAQs

What is ETL?

ETL, an acronym for Extract, Transform, Load, is a vital data integration process. It involves extracting data from diverse sources, transforming it into a usable format, and loading it into a database, data warehouse or data lake. This process enables meaningful data analysis, enhancing business intelligence.

What is US Census?

What data can you extract from US Census?

The US Census Bureau's API provides access to a wide range of data related to the United States population and economy. The following are the categories of data that can be accessed through the API:

1. Demographic data: This includes information on population size, age, gender, race, ethnicity, and household characteristics.
2. Economic data: This includes data on employment, income, poverty, and industry.
3. Housing data: This includes data on housing units, occupancy, and characteristics of housing units.
4. Education data: This includes data on educational attainment, enrollment, and school districts.
5. Geographic data: This includes data on boundaries, locations, and maps.
6. Health data: This includes data on health insurance coverage, disability, and healthcare facilities.
7. Transportation data: This includes data on commuting patterns, modes of transportation, and traffic.
8. Business data: This includes data on businesses, employment, and revenue.
9. Agriculture data: This includes data on crops, livestock, and farms.
10. International data: This includes data on international trade, migration, and foreign-born population.

How do I transfer data from US Census?

This can be done by building a data pipeline manually, usually a Python script (you can leverage a tool as Apache Airflow for this). This process can take more than a full week of development. Or it can be done in minutes on Airbyte in three easy steps:
1. Set up US Census to DynamoDB as a source connector (using Auth, or usually an API key)
2. Choose a destination (more than 50 available destination databases, data warehouses or lakes) to sync data too and set it up as a destination connector
3. Define which data you want to transfer from US Census to DynamoDB and how frequently
You can choose to self-host the pipeline using Airbyte Open Source or have it managed for you with Airbyte Cloud.

What is ELT?

ELT, standing for Extract, Load, Transform, is a modern take on the traditional ETL data integration process. In ELT, data is first extracted from various sources, loaded directly into a data warehouse, and then transformed. This approach enhances data processing speed, analytical flexibility and autonomy.

Difference between ETL and ELT?

ETL and ELT are critical data integration strategies with key differences. ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) transforms data before loading, ideal for structured data. In contrast, ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) loads data before transformation, perfect for processing large, diverse data sets in modern data warehouses. ELT is becoming the new standard as it offers a lot more flexibility and autonomy to data analysts.

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How to load data from US Census to DynamoDB

Learn how to use Airbyte to synchronize your US Census data into DynamoDB within minutes.

Try Airbyte Cloud free

Deploy Airbyte Open Source

Step 1: Setup US Census

Step 2: Setup DynamoDB

Step 3: Setup a connection Use Cases Wrapping Up

Example H2

Example H3

Sync data between US Census and DynamoDB

Get your data syncing in minutes

Try Airbyte free

TL;DR

set up US Census as a source connector (using Auth, or usually an API key)
set up DynamoDB as a destination connector
define which data you want to transfer and how frequently

You can choose to self-host the pipeline using Airbyte Open Source or have it managed for you with Airbyte Cloud.

This tutorial’s purpose is to show you how.

What is US Census

What is DynamoDB

Integrate US Census with DynamoDB in minutes

Try for free now

Prerequisites

A US Census account to transfer your customer data automatically from.
A DynamoDB account.
An active Airbyte Cloud account, or you can also choose to use Airbyte Open Source locally. You can follow the instructions to set up Airbyte on your system using docker-compose.

Step 1: Set up US Census as a source connector

Step 2: Set up DynamoDB as a destination connector

Step 3: Set up a connection to sync your US Census data to DynamoDB

Once you've successfully connected US Census as a data source and DynamoDB as a destination in Airbyte, you can set up a data pipeline between them with the following steps:

Create a new connection: On the Airbyte dashboard, navigate to the 'Connections' tab and click the '+ New Connection' button.
Choose your source: Select US Census from the dropdown list of your configured sources.
Select your destination: Choose DynamoDB from the dropdown list of your configured destinations.
Configure your sync: Define the frequency of your data syncs based on your business needs. Airbyte allows both manual and automatic scheduling for your data refreshes.
Select the data to sync: Choose the specific US Census objects you want to import data from towards DynamoDB. You can sync all data or select specific tables and fields.
Select the sync mode for your streams: Choose between full refreshes or incremental syncs (with deduplication if you want), and this for all streams or at the stream level. Incremental is only available for streams that have a primary cursor.
Test your connection: Click the 'Test Connection' button to make sure that your setup works. If the connection test is successful, save your configuration.
Start the sync: If the test passes, click 'Set Up Connection'. Airbyte will start moving data from US Census to DynamoDB according to your settings.

Remember, Airbyte keeps your data in sync at the frequency you determine, ensuring your DynamoDB data warehouse is always up-to-date with your US Census data.

Use Cases to transfer your US Census data to DynamoDB

Integrating data from US Census to DynamoDB provides several benefits. Here are a few use cases:

Advanced Analytics: DynamoDB’s powerful data processing capabilities enable you to perform complex queries and data analysis on your US Census data, extracting insights that wouldn't be possible within US Census alone.
Data Consolidation: If you're using multiple other sources along with US Census, syncing to DynamoDB allows you to centralize your data for a holistic view of your operations, and to set up a change data capture process so you never have any discrepancies in your data again.
Historical Data Analysis: US Census has limits on historical data. Syncing data to DynamoDB allows for long-term data retention and analysis of historical trends over time.
Data Security and Compliance: DynamoDB provides robust data security features. Syncing US Census data to DynamoDB ensures your data is secured and allows for advanced data governance and compliance management.
Scalability: DynamoDB can handle large volumes of data without affecting performance, providing an ideal solution for growing businesses with expanding US Census data.
Data Science and Machine Learning: By having US Census data in DynamoDB, you can apply machine learning models to your data for predictive analytics, customer segmentation, and more.
Reporting and Visualization: While US Census provides reporting tools, data visualization tools like Tableau, PowerBI, Looker (Google Data Studio) can connect to DynamoDB, providing more advanced business intelligence options. If you have a US Census table that needs to be converted to a DynamoDB table, Airbyte can do that automatically.