hello

hello example

These instructions will get you up and running with a simple development-only Alexa Skill that runs on Heroku. Configuring the service for production is beyond the scope of this document.

prerequisites

• A working Go 1.5+ installation and configured GOPATH (beyond the scope of this document)
• A Heroku account and the Heroku Toolbelt (https://toolbelt.heroku.com)
• godep (go get github.com/tools/godep)

set up the web service

This example service is meant to be deployed to Heroku. To do so:

# Clone this repository:
git clone [email protected]:codykrieger/jeeves.git

mkdir ask-example
# NOTE: The directory must be named ask-example, or you'll have to change the
# 'web' entry in the Procfile to match the name of the directory.

cp jeeves/examples/hello/* ask-example
cd ask-example

# Vendor the example app's dependencies:
godep save

# Initialize a new git repository and commit everything:
git init
git add -A
git commit -m "Initial commit."

# Create a new Heroku app:
heroku create

Take note of the URL that Heroku assigns to your app. You'll need it in a moment.

create a new skill

To configure your Echo to use this service, you need to:

• Register your Echo for development
• Register a new Alexa Skill and fill out a handful of required fields

See the Testing an Alexa Skill documentation for instructions on how to do those things.

Configure the following fields like so:

• Endpoint: Select the HTTPS endpoint type, and enter your Heroku app's URL, suffixed with /skills/hello
• Intent Schema: Copy the contents of intent-schema.json into the text field
• Sample Utterances: Copy the contents of sample-utterances.txt into the text field
• SSL Certificate: Select the My development endpoint is a subdomain of a domain that has a wildcard certificate from a certificate authority option

The rest of the fields should be relatively self-explanatory. Once you've filled out all of the requisite fields, enable your skill for testing under the Test configuration tab (if it isn't already enabled).

Make note of the Application ID assigned to your skill (it should look something like amzn1.echo-sdk-ams.app.000000-d0ed-0000-ad00-000000d00ebe, and is displayed on the Skill Information configuration tab). You'll need it in a moment.

set your application id and deploy the app

Replace YOUR_APPLICATION_ID_HERE with your Alexa Skill's assigned Application ID, and run these commands to finish deploying the app:

heroku config:set ASK_APP_ID="YOUR_APPLICATION_ID_HERE"
git push heroku

test your new skill

At this point, your skill should be ready for testing!

Using the Invocation Name selected when registering your skill with Amazon, you can say things like:

Alexa, launch [INVOCATION NAME].

And:

Alexa, ask [INVOCATION NAME] to say hello.

next steps

To add more useful functionality to your service, have a look at the Alexa Skills Kit documentation.