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Template for Alexa Development

An AWS Lambda template for building Alexa Skills. This template provides the shell that can be used to set up a working Alexa Skill on AWS and the Amazon Echo.

Additionally, the template supports the following development practices through gulp:

Available tasks Description
assets Compile/move assets files to dist
build-custom-slot-types Build the custom slot types from source ** Aliases: slots
build-intent-schema Build the intent schema from source ** Aliases: intent, intents
build-lambda-code Process source and create dist.zip file to upload to AWS lambda ** Aliases: build
build-utterances Build the utterances from source ** Aliases: utterances
clean Clean out the dist folder and remove the compiled zip file
config Compile/move config files to dist
default [help]
help Display this help text.
js Compile/move javascript files to dist
lint Lints all server side js
node-mods Install npm packages to dist, ignoring devDependencies
push-lambda-code Process source then upload to AWS lambda ** Aliases: push
quick-push-lambda-code Process source then upload to AWS lambda without updating modules ** Aliases: quick, quick-push
test-lambda Run unit tests against AWS lambda ** Aliases: lambda
test-local Run unit tests against local server ** Aliases: test
upload Upload zip file to lambda
vendor Compile/move vendor files to dist
watch [watch-lint, watch-test]
watch-lint Watch for changed files and run lint of the file that has changed
watch-test Watch for changed files and run unit tests when a file changes
zip Zip the dist directory

Setup

This skill will run locally to support development and testing. When ready to push the code to AWS Lambda to test as an actual Alexa skill, AWS Lambda needs to be configured and code pushed to it, and then the Alexa Skill needs to be set up. Prior to the following steps, you will need to set up an AWS Developer account and get set up on the AWS Free Tier to enable development, testing, and hosting for free for 12 months.

After successful sign-up of an AWS account, perform the following setups.

AWS Template Installation

  1. Copy from Template using git://github.com/rickwargo/template.git.
  2. Remove node_modules and npm install in dest directory
  3. gulp lint
  4. gulp test (may need to test this)
  5. edit config
  6. node bin/createActivityLog.js (if using)
  7. develop app
  8. gulp build

AWS Lambda Setup

  1. Go to the AWS Console and click on the Lambda link. Note: ensure you are in us-east or you won't be able to use Alexa with Lambda.
  2. Click on the Create a Lambda Function or Get Started Now button.
  3. The first step is to Select blueprint. Click on the Skip button to move on as we will start with an empty blueprint.
  4. Name the Lambda Function with a name significant to your skill. This name will later be recorded in the config-lambda.js file.
  5. Optionally add a description for the lambda function.
  6. Select the runtime as Node.js.
  7. In the root template directory, execute gulp build-lambda-code. This will lint the code, perform local unit tests, download node modules necessary for skill execution, build the intent schema, sample utterances, and custom slot types, and finally move all files to a dist directory and create a zip of those files named dist.zip.
  8. Select Code entry type as Upload a .ZIP file and then upload the .zip file to AWS Lambda.
  9. Keep the Handler as index.handler. This is defined in the alexa-app vendor module in index.js.
  10. Select lambda_dynamo as the Role, if using DynamoDB in your skill. Otherwise select lambda_basic_execution for Role.
  11. Leave the Advanced settings as the defaults. Depending on execution time for your function, you may want to revisit the timeout setting.
  12. Click Next and review the settings then click Create Function.
  13. Click the Event Sources tab and select Add event source.
  14. Set the Event Source type as Alexa Skills Kit and Enable it now. Click Submit.
  15. Copy the ARN from the top right to be used later in the Alexa Skill Setup. It will look something similar to arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:100000012345:function:My-Awesome-Alexa-Skill.

Alexa Skill Setup

  1. Go to the Alexa Console and click Get Started under Alexa Skills Kit and then click the Add a New Skill button in the top right.
  2. Set the name of the new skill name and an appropriate invocation name - this is what is used to activate your skill.
  3. Optionally, set the version number of the skill, I recommend a 3-part version such as 1.0.0.
  4. Select Lambda ARN (Amazon Resource Name) for the Endpoint and paste the ARN copied from the above step. Click Next.
  5. Copy the Intent Schema from assets/speech/IntentSchema.json. This file was created from source during the gulp build step above.
  6. Create the Custom Slot Types (if any) using the information from assets/speech/CustomSlotTypes.txt. This file was created from source during the gulp build step above.
  7. Copy the Sample Utterances from assets/speech/SampleUtterances.txt. This file was created from source during the gulp build step above. Click Next.

Source Setup

  1. Go back to the Skill Information tab and copy the Application Id. Paste the Application Id into package.json and config/lambda-config.js.
  2. Add the AWS Function Name to config/lambda-config.js.
  3. If the timeout is changed from the default of 3, adjust the setting in config/lambda-config.js
  4. Fill out the Description tab. You can use icons in images folder as a start but copy with your own icons.

Prepare for Testing on Echo

  1. Update the lambda source zip file with this change by using gulp build and upload to lambda again. You can also use gulp push-lambda-code to build the zip file and upload it to AWS Lambda. This assumes your information has been stored in the environment or in the ~/.aws/credentials file.
  2. You are now able to start testing your sample skill on the Amazon Echo! You should be able to go to the Echo webpage and see your skill enabled.
  3. In order to test it, try to say some of the Sample Utterances you created.
  4. Your skill is now saved and once you are finished testing you can continue to publish your skill. Make sure to pay close attention to the information in Submitting an Alexa Skill for Certification, especially the Submission Checklist.
  5. At some point prior to Submitting for Certification, you will need to complete the information on the Publishing Information tab. This can be done now and saved.