how to create a custom skill

Create a Custom Skill on the Amazon Echo

Emily Lam, DeveloperWeek 2/13/2017

About Me

u  Emily Lam

u  UCLA: Linguistics and specialization in Computing

u  Currently: Frontend developer at Lieberman Software

u  Skills published: 4

u  Hackathons won using Alexa: 3

u  Money 20/20 WorldPay

u  2nd Mojio Connected Car

u  1st GA + IBM Watson Workspace

Twitter: @hongily

https://liebsoft.com

Agenda

u  1. Walk you through how to create a basic trivia skill

u  2. Discuss In-depth Topics

u Built-in and Custom slots

u Account linking

u SSML Tags

Sign into https://developer.amazon.com/ This is the same account that you use to sign into www.amazon.com. Don’t have an Amazon account? You can create one after you click “Sign In”.

https://developer.amazon.com/

Click on Alexa


Click on Get Started > under the Alexa Skills Kit


Click on “Add a New Skill”


Skills Information

u  Skill Type

u  Custom Interaction Model: Gives you the most control over the user’s experience and is the most flexible kind of skill you can build.

u  Smart Home Skill API: Great for building a skill with smart home devices

u  Flash Briefing Skill API: Easy for creating flash briefings/RSS feed

u  Language

u  You can choose English (U.S.), English (U.K.), or German


Skills Information u  Name

u  Appears as the title in the Alexa app. Ex. Morning Dose App Name

u  Must be between 2-50 characters.

u  Invocation Name

u  The name you use to tell Alexa to open the skill. Ex. Morning Dose. See Invocation Guidelines.

u  Global Fields

u  Audio Player for music related skills ie. Spotify


Interaction Model

u  Intent Schema: A JSON structure which declares the set of intents your service can accept and process.


Interaction Model u  Intent Schema: A JSON structure which declares the set of intents your service

can accept and process.


u  https://github.com/alexa/skill-sample-nodejs-trivia/tree/master/speechAssets

Interaction Model u  Custom Slots: Custom slot types to be referenced by the Intent Schema and

Sample Utterances

u  Sample Utterances: What you say to Alexa to trigger an intent


Configuration Select AWS Lambda ARN (Amazon Resource Name) and then North America.


Go to https://aws.amazon.com Sign in to the Console

https://aws.amazon.com/

Sign In or Create an AWS Account


Select US East (N. Virginia) for US skills and EU (Ireland) for UK/DE skills These are the only two regions currently supported for Alexa skill development on AWS Lambda


Type in Lambda and select the Lambda option


Select Create a Lambda function


Type Alexa in the filter and then select alexa-skill-kit-sdk-triviaskill


Click on the gray square


Select Alexa Skills Kit and then Next


Type in a function name


Function name must contain only letters, numbers, hyphens, or underscores.

Click on the dropdown menu and select Create a custom role

https://aws.amazon.com

Click on “Allow”


Click on “Next”


Click on “Create function”


Click on “Test” and look at the execution result


Click on “Actions and then “Export function”


Click on “Download deployment package”


Edit index.js and question.js


Select the two files + node_modules and compress the 3 items.


Upload Archive.zip


Click Save and test


Copy the ARN


Paste the ARN in your skill at https://developer.amazon.com and the select “Next”

https://developer.amazon.com

Select a Category and Subcategory if necessary Then, write in testing instructions.


Write a short description (160 character max.) about the skill


Write a full description that will appear in the skill’s detail card


Write up to three example phrases that appear as aids for users when they see your skill’s detail card.


Answer privacy related questions and export compliance


Click “Submit for Certification” and you are done!


In-depth Topics

u  Built-in and Custom slots

u  Account linking

u  SSML Tags

Built-in Slots and Custom Slots

Slots are arguments for intents.

A built-in slot type such as AMAZON.NUMBER converts numeric words (“five”) into digits (such as “5”).

You can view all the built-in slots at: https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/docs/built-in-intent-ref/slot-type-reference

A custom slot type is used for items that are not covered by Amazon’s built-in set of types.

Built-in Slots and Custom Slots

"intents": [

{

"intent": "ReportIntent",

"slots": [

{

"name": "Incident",

"type": "LIST_OF_INCIDENTS"

}]

}

You define the slot type in the Intent Schema.

Custom Slots

You create a slot type (ie LIST_OF_INCIDENTS) and then you write the values.

Custom Slots

You reference the intent and slot name in the Sample Utterances

Custom Slots

You can use the value of the custom slot in your lambda code.

Account linking

You can link an external account to the Alexa.

Account linking

You create an application and link it to Alexa through the Alexa app.

Account linking

The client id and client secret are retrieved from the external account

Account linking

Account linking

Token: 59010bf8-4a29-4f59-8bd7-3a59ac383781 Redirects back to https://pitangui.amazon.com/api/skill/link/M1PJIQE7PVNV1

Account linking

A privacy policy is required for account linking. You also have to disclose if you are collect users' personal information (ie email, password, etc)

SSML Tags Speech Synthesis Markup Language provides additional control over how Alexa generates the speech text in your response. Examples: <say-as interpret-as="cardinal">12345</say-as> sounds like twelve thousand three hundred forty five <say-as interpret-as=”ordinal">12345</say-as> sounds like twelve thousand three hundred forty fifth <say-as interpret-as="spell-out">12345</say-as> sounds like one two three four five Reference: https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/docs/speech-synthesis-markup-language-ssml-reference#supported-ssml-tags

Thank you!

Questions? Tweet me @hongily Email me at [email protected]

how to create a custom skill

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