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

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

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 emily@emilytlam.com

How to Create a Custom Skill

Technology

Create Custom Workflow for Beginner - · PDF fileHengkywiriawan@gmail.com Create Custom Workflow for Beginner ===== 1. Open Oracle Workflow Builder 2. Create Workflow , File

Wakanda - How to Create a Custom Widgetdownload.wakanda.org/Documentation/v4/Wakanda-Custom...How to Create a Custom Widget Overview In addition to Wakanda’s own powerful widgets,

Talend Open Studio: How To Create a Custom Component · How To Create a Custom Component Talend Open Studio: How To Create a Custom Component 1. Introduction ... is Talend Open Studio

Create your Custom Tile Catalog

Create Custom Reports - Cisco · Create Custom Reports • Overview,page1 • HowtoCreateCustomReports,page1 • CreateUnifiedCCXDataSource,page2 • CreateCustomStoredProcedure,page3

How to Create Custom App ECO5200

Learn the technology skills you need to succeed! SkillS · 2019. 12. 21. · Skill 10 Create Custom Headers and Footers 186 More Skills Skill 11 Record AutoCorrect Entries 188 Skill

Create a Custom Template.odt

Steps to create a custom query in POWLdocshare02.docshare.tips/files/17326/173268452.pdfSteps to create a custom query in POWL Author: Varsha The steps to create a custom query are

Custom Vinyl Banners To Create Lasting Impressions

How to Create Custom D

How to create a custom dashboard in SNMPc OnLine 2007 to create a custom...Title Microsoft Word - How to create a custom dashboard in SNMPc OnLine 2007.docx Author User Created Date

Create custom designed posters

Create a Custom Theme With OpenCart

Create Custom Menu Within BPC

How to Create a Custom Profile with the Advanced …...How to Create a Custom Profile with the Advanced Cable Tester v2 The Advanced Cable Tester v2 features an option to create custom

WordPress - Create Custom Post Types

How to Create a Custom Snapchat Geofilter

Create Custom Post Type Plugin

How to Create a Custom Video Thumbnail