# Handling Amazon ECS events
<a name="ecs_cwet_handling"></a>

Amazon ECS sends events on an *at least once* basis. This means you might receive multiple copies of a given event. Additionally, events may not be delivered to your event listeners in the order in which the events occurred.

To order of events properly, the `detail` section of each event contains a `version` property. Each time a resource changes state, this `version` is incremented. Duplicate events have the same `version` in the `detail` object. If you are replicating your Amazon ECS container instance and task state with EventBridge, you can compare the version of a resource reported by the Amazon ECS APIs with the `version` reported in EventBridge for the resource to verify that the version in your event stream is current. Events with a higher version property number should be treated as occurring later than events with lower version numbers.

## Example: Handling events in an AWS Lambda function
<a name="ecs_cwet_handling_example"></a>

The following example shows a Lambda function written in Python 3.9 that captures both task and container instance state change events and saves them to one of two Amazon DynamoDB tables:
+ *ECSCtrInstanceState* – Stores the latest state for a container instance. The table ID is the `containerInstanceArn` value of the container instance.
+ *ECSTaskState* – Stores the latest state for a task. The table ID is the `taskArn` value of the task.

```
import json
import boto3

def lambda_handler(event, context):
    id_name = ""
    new_record = {}

    # For debugging so you can see raw event format.
    print('Here is the event:')
    print((json.dumps(event)))

    if event["source"] != "aws.ecs":
       raise ValueError("Function only supports input from events with a source type of: aws.ecs")

    # Switch on task/container events.
    table_name = ""
    if event["detail-type"] == "ECS Task State Change":
        table_name = "ECSTaskState"
        id_name = "taskArn"
        event_id = event["detail"]["taskArn"]
    elif event["detail-type"] == "ECS Container Instance State Change":
        table_name = "ECSCtrInstanceState"
        id_name =  "containerInstanceArn"
        event_id = event["detail"]["containerInstanceArn"]
    else:
        raise ValueError("detail-type for event is not a supported type. Exiting without saving event.")

    new_record["cw_version"] = event["version"]
    new_record.update(event["detail"])

    # "status" is a reserved word in DDB, but it appears in containerPort
    # state change messages.
    if "status" in event:
        new_record["current_status"] = event["status"]
        new_record.pop("status")


    # Look first to see if you have received a newer version of an event ID.
    # If the version is OLDER than what you have on file, do not process it.
    # Otherwise, update the associated record with this latest information.
    print("Looking for recent event with same ID...")
    dynamodb = boto3.resource("dynamodb", region_name="us-east-1")
    table = dynamodb.Table(table_name)
    saved_event = table.get_item(
        Key={
            id_name : event_id
        }
    )
    if "Item" in saved_event:
        # Compare events and reconcile.
        print(("EXISTING EVENT DETECTED: Id " + event_id + " - reconciling"))
        if saved_event["Item"]["version"] < event["detail"]["version"]:
            print("Received event is a more recent version than the stored event - updating")
            table.put_item(
                Item=new_record
            )
        else:
            print("Received event is an older version than the stored event - ignoring")
    else:
        print(("Saving new event - ID " + event_id))

        table.put_item(
            Item=new_record
        )
```

The following Fargate example shows a Lambda function written in Python 3.9 that captures task state change events and saves them to the following Amazon DynamoDB table:

```
import json
import boto3

def lambda_handler(event, context):
    id_name = ""
    new_record = {}

    # For debugging so you can see raw event format.
    print('Here is the event:')
    print((json.dumps(event)))

    if event["source"] != "aws.ecs":
       raise ValueError("Function only supports input from events with a source type of: aws.ecs")

    # Switch on task/container events.
    table_name = ""
    if event["detail-type"] == "ECS Task State Change":
        table_name = "ECSTaskState"
        id_name = "taskArn"
        event_id = event["detail"]["taskArn"]
    else:
        raise ValueError("detail-type for event is not a supported type. Exiting without saving event.")

    new_record["cw_version"] = event["version"]
    new_record.update(event["detail"])

    # "status" is a reserved word in DDB, but it appears in containerPort
    # state change messages.
    if "status" in event:
        new_record["current_status"] = event["status"]
        new_record.pop("status")


    # Look first to see if you have received a newer version of an event ID.
    # If the version is OLDER than what you have on file, do not process it.
    # Otherwise, update the associated record with this latest information.
    print("Looking for recent event with same ID...")
    dynamodb = boto3.resource("dynamodb", region_name="us-east-1")
    table = dynamodb.Table(table_name)
    saved_event = table.get_item(
        Key={
            id_name : event_id
        }
    )
    if "Item" in saved_event:
        # Compare events and reconcile.
        print(("EXISTING EVENT DETECTED: Id " + event_id + " - reconciling"))
        if saved_event["Item"]["version"] < event["detail"]["version"]:
            print("Received event is a more recent version than the stored event - updating")
            table.put_item(
                Item=new_record
            )
        else:
            print("Received event is an older version than the stored event - ignoring")
    else:
        print(("Saving new event - ID " + event_id))

        table.put_item(
            Item=new_record
        )
```