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AWS Alexa Skill Builder EssentialsCourse Navigation

Int roduct ionSection 1

Core Concept sSection 2

Im proving t he User Exper ience

Section 3

St at e Managem entSection 4

Now Your Journey BeginsSection 5

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Introduction

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Course Introduction

Get t ing St ar t ed

About the Author



Dear St udent s. Welcome to the Linux Academy AWS Alexa Sk il l Builder Essent ials course. This course provides the necessary knowledge for building new Alexa skills.

In this course, you will learn:- What the in t eract ion m odel is and its purpose- How to add and design custom in t ent s- How to add custom slot s to intents- How to set up a dialog direct ive and use ent it y resolut ion- What at t r ibut es are and how to use them to store

information until it is needed

By the end, you will be able to design simple Alexa skills and have the foundation to continue learning more advanced topics.

Thank you for taking the course ? let 's get started!

Lar ry Fr it t s





https://www.lucidchart.com/documents/view/fab68684-3557-45d8-b856-650a31845da3




Section 3



Introduction

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Course Introduction


About the Author

Course Int roduct ion

Course Int roduct ion

Int ent / Utterance

Skill Code

JSON JSON

Audio Audio

Alexa

Ar t if icial IntelligenceMachine Learning

Natural Language Processing

Spoken Response






Core Concepts

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Interaction Model and Intents

Alexa Sk il l Com ponent s

User Utterances and Natural Language Processing

Intent Triggered Lambda Functions



Section 3

Alexa Skills Kit Command Line Interface (AWS-CLI)

Capt ur ing Dat a f rom User Ut t erances

Custom Intents

Custom Slots



Select the items below to see Alexa skill components:

Next

Int eract ion Model and Int ent s

User Ut t erances and Nat ural Language Processing

Int ent Tr iggered Lam bda Funct ions

Alexa Sk il ls Kit Com m and Line Int er face (AWS-CLI)




Core Concepts

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Custom Intents

Custom Slots



int eract ionModel

The in t eract ionModel is the container for models. The container holds the intents, slots, types, and anyt hing else needed t o def ine t he sk il l 's m odel.

. . / model s/ en- US. j son

{

" i nt er act i onModel " : { " l anguageModel " : { " i nvocat i onName" : " l i nux academy l ab" , " i nt ent s" : [ { " name" : " AMAZON. Cancel I nt ent " , " sampl es" : [ ] } , { " name" : " AMAZON. Hel pI nt ent " , " sampl es" : [ ] } , { " name" : " AMAZON. St opI nt ent " , " sampl es" : [ ] } , { " name" : " Hel l oWor l dI nt ent " , " sampl es" : [ " hel l o" ] } ] } }}




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Custom Intents

Custom Slots



There are many pre-built models for Alexa skills. These have the advantage of not requir ing an invocat ion nam e.

Invocat ion Nam e: This is name given to a custom skill. It should be easy to remember for users. For example, for a cust om -built sk il l t hat cont rols your sm ar t bed, a good invocation name might be "smart bed." A name like "sleeping apparatus" may not be as good. Invocation names must be at least two words.

"Alexa, ask sm ar t bed t o increase t he t em perat ure t o 72 and raise t he head by 20 degrees."

"Alexa, ask sleeping apparat us t o..."

This name is not a natural way of naming the bed and may make it difficult for users to remember.

On the other hand, if there was a built-in skill that could be used to automate the smart bed, then the Alexa skill is even easier.

"Alexa, raise t he head of t he bed 20 degrees."

Built -In and Cust om Alexa Sk il ls

An Alexa Sk il l Voice Com m and:

"Alexa, ask l ight m anager t o t urn on t he k it chen l ight s every day at 6 am ."

Wake Word: "Alexa"Com m and: "ask" (these are reserved words)Invocat ion Nam e: "light manager " (not always necessary see below)Int ent : "turn on the kitchen lights"Slot s: "every day at 6 am" (not always required)




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Custom Intents

Custom Slots



Lam bda Funct ion Int ent Handler

Lambda functions are the workhorse of the Alexa skill. They determine what response to return to the user 's intent request.

. . / l ambda/ cust om/ i ndex. j s

const Wel comeI nt ent Handl er = {

canHandl e( handl er I nput ) {

r et ur n handl er I nput . r equest Envel ope. r equest . t ype ===

' I nt ent Request ' &&

handl er I nput . r equest Envel ope. r equest . i nt ent . name ===

' Wel comeI nt ent ' ;

} ,

handl e( handl er I nput ) {

const speechText = " Let ' s get l ear ni ng! " ;

r et ur n handl er I nput . r esponseBui l der

. speak( speechText )

. wi t hSi mpl eCar d( ' Hur r y Back! ' , speechText )

. get Response( ) ;

} ,

} ;




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Custom Intents

Custom Slots



ASK CLI allows you to create, deploy, and publish an Alexa skill from the command line.

Prerequisit es- AWS developer account- AWS account with an IAM user- Node- Git

Inst allat ionOn a Windows machine, first run:npm inst all -g --product ion w indows-build-t ools

To install ASK on all machines:npm inst all -g ask-cli

Com m on ASK Com m ands- ask new

Creates a skill from a Git repo template or a built-in template

- ask cloneClones a skill from an "in development" skill in the developer console

- ask deployDeploys the skill

- ask dialogAllows the developer to simulate a session with the skill using written language

- ask sim ulat eAllows the developer to simulate a session with the skill returning JSON objects




Core Concepts

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Custom Intents

Custom Slots



Select the items below to see capturing data from user utterances:

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Cust om Slot s





Core Concepts

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Custom Intents

Custom Slots

Cust om Int ent s

Cust om Int ent s


{ . . . " i nt ent s" : [ / / r equi r ed { " name" : " AMAZON. Cancel I nt ent " , " sampl es" : [ ] } , / / r equi r ed { " name" : " AMAZON. Hel pI nt ent " , " sampl es" : [ ] } , / / r equi r ed { " name" : " AMAZON. St opI nt ent " , " sampl es" : [ ] } , { " name" : " Sampl eI nt ent " , " sampl es" : [ " sampl e" , " a smapl e" , " one sampl e"

] } , . . .}

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Core Concepts

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Custom Intents

Custom Slots

Cust om Slot s

Cust om Slot s

Cust om Types

Custom types are defined by the skill builder and must be defined in the in t eract ionModel. For a custom type, the skill builder must define the values.

. . . " s l ot s" : [ { " name" : " ani mal " , " t ype" " ANI MAL_TYPE" } ] , " sampl es" : [ " { ani mal } " ]. . . , " t ypes" : [ { " name" : " ANI MAL_TYPE" , " val ues" : [ { " name" : { " val ue" : " ani mal " } } ] } ]. . .

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Core Concepts

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Section 3



Custom Intents

Custom Slots

Cust om Int ent s

Cust om Int ent s


{ . . . " i nt ent s" : [ / / r equi r ed { " name" : " AMAZON. Cancel I nt ent " , " sampl es" : [ ] } , / / r equi r ed { " name" : " AMAZON. Hel pI nt ent " , " sampl es" : [ ] } , / / r equi r ed { " name" : " AMAZON. St opI nt ent " , " sampl es" : [ ] } , { " name" : " Sampl eI nt ent " , " sampl es" : [ " sampl e" , " a smapl e" , " one sampl e"

] } , . . .}

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Core Concepts

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Section 3



Custom Intents

Custom Slots

Cust om Slot s

Cust om Slot s

Cust om Types

Custom types are defined by the skill builder and must be defined in the in t eract ionModel. For a custom type, the skill builder must define the values.

. . . " s l ot s" : [ { " name" : " ani mal " , " t ype" " ANI MAL_TYPE" } ] , " sampl es" : [ " { ani mal } " ]. . . , " t ypes" : [ { " name" : " ANI MAL_TYPE" , " val ues" : [ { " name" : { " val ue" : " ani mal " } } ] } ]. . .

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Improving the User Experience

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SKill Sessions and Multi-turn Conversations

Dialogs

Dialog Directive and Entity Resolution

Mult im odal Int er faces



Section 3


Using Cards to Display Information

Dialogs

Dialogs

Select the items below to see dialogs:

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SKil l Sessions and Mult i-t urn Conversat ions

Dialog Direct ive and Ent it y Resolut ion






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Dialogs





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SKill Sessions and Mult i-t urn Conversat ions


Building a Mult i-Turn Conversat ionMulti-turn conversation skills can be used for many things, including a quiz skill where Alexa waits for the user to respond.

There are three ways to accomplish this.

DialogReprom pt






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Dialogs





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Building a Mult i-Turn Conversat ionMulti-turn conversation skills can be used for many things, including a quiz skill where Alexa waits for the user to respond.

There are three ways to accomplish this.

DialogReprom pt

reprom pt (t ext )

Using reprom pt in your response will automatically set the shouldEndSession to false. By telling the responseBuilder that there is a reprompt, you notify the skill that it should wait for a user response and thus the session is held open.

The session will be held open for eight seconds in this instance. If no response is received, the test given to reprom pt is spoken by Alexa and the session is held open another eight seconds.

If no user input is received, the session closes.

Exampl e of r epr ompt


. speak( t ext ) . r epr ompt ( r epr ompt _t ext ) . get Response( ) ;






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Dialogs





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Dialog Direct ive and Ent it y Resolut ion

Dialog Direct ive and Ent it y Resolut ion, Par t 1

Dialog

Adding a dialog directive to your skill allows for a m ore nat urally f low ing conversat ion st yle that can be used to fill slots for an Alexa skill.

The dialog model identifies slots that are required, the prompts Alexa uses to get the slot values, confirmation by the user if necessary, conf irm at ion of t he whole int ent if necessary, and can validate the slot value and reprompt for the slot value if it does not pass validation.

The sk il l builder can delegate the dialog to Alexa to control, control the dialog via code, or a combination of the two.

When Alexa is delegated the control, all the slots are filled, the entire intent is sent for processing, and the skill builder can focus on t he logic of t he processing of t he slot s.






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Dialogs





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Select the items below to see multimodal interfaces:

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Using Cards t o Display Inform at ion






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Dialogs





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The Alexa Sk il ls Kit provides dif ferent t ypes of cards:

- A Simple card displays plain text. You provide text for the card t it le and content.

- A Standard card also displays plain text but can include an image. You provide the text for the t it le and content, and the URL for the image to display.

- A LinkAccount card is a special card type only used with account linking. This card lets users start the account linking process.

- An AskForPermissionsConsent card is sent to the Alexa app when a skill requires the customer to grant specific permissions.

an exampl e of a Si mpl e car d


. speak(

" Thi s i s t he t ext Al exa speaks.

Go t o t he Al exa app t o see t he

car d! "

)

. wi t hSi mpl eCar d(

" Thi s i s t he Ti t l e of t he Car d" ,

" Thi s i s t he car d cont ent . Thi s

car d j ust has pl ai n t ext

cont ent . \ r \ nThe cont ent i s

f or mat t ed wi t h l i ne br eaks t o

i mpr ove r eadabi l i t y . "

)

. get Response( ) ;





State Management

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Request, Session and Persistent Attribute Scope

At t r ibut es



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At t r ibut es

At t r ibut es

Select the items below to see attributes:

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Request , Session and Persist ent At t r ibut e Scope






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At t r ibut es



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At t r ibut es

Attributes can be used to store data as a key-value pair. A key-value pair al lows you t o nam e a value. For example, you might have a list of dog names. In a paper list, it might look like this:

Dog nam es:Male: Fem ale:

Dexter AliceAlfred NancySpot ZoeyFred

You could ask, what is the t h ird nam e in the male dog names list? Spot.

In JavaScript, this list might look more like this:

var dogNames = { " mal e" : [ " Dext er " , " Al f r ed" , " Spot " , " Fr ed" ] , " f emal e" : [ " Al i ce" , " Nancy" , " Zoey" ]}

In this case, the keys would be m ale and fem ale. They must be strings. But their values are arrays.

To access the name Spot from the attribute dogNam es:

dogNam es.m ale[2] <? Note that array indexes start at 0

Next






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At t r ibut es



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Alexa At t r ibut e Types

Show Types

Persist ent :Persistent attributes are attributes that are stored between sessions. These attributes can be recalled on a per-user basis when the user returns to the skill.

Met hods:get Persist ent At t r ibut es()set Persist ent At t r ibut es()savePersist ent At t r ibut es()delet ePersist ent At t r ibut es()

Session:These attributes are available until the session ends. Once the session is over, they no longer exist.

Met hods:get SessionAt t r ibut es()set SessionAt t r ibut es()

Request :These attributes are only available inside of the request cycle. Once the request cycles have ended, the attributes no longer exist.

Met hods:get Request At t r ibut es()set Request At t r ibut es()






Now Your Journey Begins

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Review

Where To Go From Here



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Review

Review

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Linux Academ y Courses t hat w il l help you cont inue t o develop bet t er Alexa sk il ls:

Review


AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate Level

Amazon DynamoDB Deep Dive

Lambda Deep Dive

Managing Data in S3 with Versioning and Lifecycle Rules

Testing and Debugging Lambda Functions







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