AWS documentdb documentation change

Service: documentdb · 2026-03-31 · Documentation low

File: documentdb/latest/developerguide/setOnInsert.md

Summary

Added comprehensive documentation for the $setOnInsert operator in Amazon DocumentDB, including description, parameters, MongoDB shell examples, and code examples in Node.js and Python

Security assessment

This change adds standard documentation for a MongoDB operator ($setOnInsert) with no mention of security vulnerabilities, patches, or security incidents. The code examples include standard TLS connection parameters (tls=true, tlsCAFile) which are routine security best practices for database connections, but this is not new security documentation - it's standard connection string formatting for DocumentDB.

Diff

diff --git a/documentdb/latest/developerguide/setOnInsert.md b/documentdb/latest/developerguide/setOnInsert.md
index 8b1378917..2079d1d66 100644
--- a//documentdb/latest/developerguide/setOnInsert.md
+++ b//documentdb/latest/developerguide/setOnInsert.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+[](/pdfs/documentdb/latest/developerguide/developerguide.pdf#setOnInsert "Open PDF")
@@ -1,0 +3,156 @@
+[Documentation](/index.html)[Amazon DocumentDB](/documentdb/index.html)[Developer Guide](what-is.html)
+
+Example (MongoDB Shell)Code examples
+
+# $setOnInsert
+
+The `$setOnInsert` operator in Amazon DocumentDB is used to set the value of a field if a document is being inserted, but it has no effect if the document is being updated.
+
+**Parameters**
+
+  * `field`: The field to be set.
+
+  * `value`: The value to assign to the field.
+
+
+
+
+## Example (MongoDB Shell)
+
+The following example demonstrates the usage of the `$setOnInsert` operator in Amazon DocumentDB. It creates a new document if the document does not already exist, but it has no effect if the document is being updated.
+
+**Create sample documents**
+    
+    
+    db.users.insertOne({
+      _id: 1,
+      name: "John Doe",
+      age: 30
+    })
+
+**Query example 1 - Update existing document**
+    
+    
+    db.users.update(
+      { _id: 1 },
+      {
+        $set: { age: 31 },
+        $setOnInsert: { createdAt: new Date() }
+      },
+      { upsert: true }
+    )
+
+**Output 1**
+    
+    
+    {
+      _id: 1,
+      name: "John Doe",
+      age: 31
+    }
+
+The output shows that the document was updated, but the `createdAt` field was **NOT added** since the document already existed. The `$setOnInsert` operator only applies when inserting new documents.
+
+**Query example 2 - Insert new document (upsert)**
+    
+    
+    db.users.update(
+      { _id: 2 },
+      {
+        $set: { name: "Jane Smith", age: 25 },
+        $setOnInsert: { createdAt: new Date() }
+      },
+      { upsert: true }
+    )
+
+**Output 2**
+    
+    
+    {
+      _id: 2,
+      name: "Jane Smith", 
+      age: 25,
+      createdAt: ISODate("2025-10-31T09:57:52.459Z")
+    }
+    }
+
+## Code examples
+
+To view a code example for using the `$setOnInsert` command, choose the tab for the language that you want to use:
+
+Node.js
+    
+    
+    
+    const { MongoClient } = require('mongodb');
+    
+    async function updateWithSetOnInsert() {
+      const client = await MongoClient.connect('mongodb://<username>:<password>@<cluster-endpoint>:27017/?tls=true&tlsCAFile=global-bundle.pem&replicaSet=rs0&readPreference=secondaryPreferred&retryWrites=false');
+      const db = client.db('test');
+      const users = db.collection('users');
+    
+      await users.updateOne(
+        { _id: 1 },
+        {
+          $set: { age: 31 },
+          $setOnInsert: { createdAt: new Date() }
+        },
+        { upsert: true }
+      );
+    
+      const updatedUser = await users.findOne({ _id: 1 });
+      console.log(updatedUser);
+    
+      await client.close();
+    }
+    
+    updateWithSetOnInsert();
+
+Python
+    
+    
+    
+    from pymongo import MongoClient
+    
+    def update_with_set_on_insert():
+        client = MongoClient('mongodb://<username>:<password>@<cluster-endpoint>:27017/?tls=true&tlsCAFile=global-bundle.pem&replicaSet=rs0&readPreference=secondaryPreferred&retryWrites=false')
+        db = client['test']
+        users = db['users']
+    
+        result = users.update_one(
+            {'_id': 1},
+            {
+                '$set': {'age': 31},
+                '$setOnInsert': {'createdAt': datetime.datetime.now()}
+            },
+            upsert=True
+        )
+    
+        updated_user = users.find_one({'_id': 1})
+        print(updated_user)
+    
+        client.close()
+    
+    update_with_set_on_insert()
+
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+
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+
+[Document Conventions](/general/latest/gr/docconventions.html)
+
+$set
+
+$slice
+
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