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Alexa Publishing Auto & Manual

Objective

This document will demonstrate how to automatically publish a Custom Skill from the VoiceWorx platform to Alexa or setup the skill manually in Alexa.

Introduction

After a skill is configured on the VoiceWorx platform, the platform has the inbuilt capability to publish the skill to Alexa, using the different configurations and permissions set in the publishing page of the VoiceWorx platform.

Goal

Our goal is to demonstrate that a skill can be setup in the VoiceWorx channel and automatically published to Alexa verses having to manually set up the skill in the VoiceWorx platform and again manually setup in Alexa Developer Console. Auto-publish can significantly reduce the skill setup process. This document will focus on the manual process, for the auto publish steps, please consult this link here.

Steps

The following shows the general steps/activities that will be carried out in setting up this integration. Note: It is advisable to use same email for signup across the 3 channels below. Step 1 -3 below are required.
  1. 1.
    ​Sign up for Alexa account​
  2. 2.
    ​Sign up for Alexa developer account.
  3. 3.
    ​Sign up for VoiceWorx platform​
  4. 4.
    Ensure you Login With Amazon (LWA) https://developer.amazon.com/alexa/console/ask account is setup by your admin. If you are the account admin, you can follow this instruction to set it up.
  5. 5.
    Set up connection to the external web API
  6. 6.
    Create a custom skill in VoiceWorx.
  7. 7.
    Create a skill in Alexa Developer Console
  8. 8.
    Test the Alexa skill.

Set up connection to the external web API

  1. 1.
    Login to the VoiceWorx platform, use left navigation menu and click “Integration” then select “Connect System”. In the resulting page, click “Connect External Systems”.
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  1. 1.
    In “Connect External System” select or do the following:
Select Integration Category: Custom
Select System Type: Rest API Service
Click: Connect System.
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  1. 1.
    Once in “Rest API Service Setup” select or enter the following:
System Instance Name: ContactFinder
Authorization Type: Basic Auth
Add Web API URL: https://demo.VoiceWorx.ai
Under Basic Auth Settings
Enter Username and Password
Click: Validate System to ensure you have access to the web API endpoint.

Create Custom Skill in VoiceWorx.ai

  1. 1.
    To create a custom skill, use left navigation menu and click “Custom Skills” then select “Manage Skills”. Then click “Create New Custom Skill”.
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  1. 1.
    Now add Custom Skill by doing the following:
Name: Contact Finder
Custom Skill Type: Search
Category: None
Click: Save
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  1. 1.
    In the top menu tabs, select “Data Sources” then “Create New Data Source”. Select or enter the following:
Name: ContactFinderDS
Integration Configuration: Rest API Service: ContactFinder
Manage Connections to create the external platform WebAPI integration
Click: Save
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  1. 1.
    In the top menu tabs, select “Methods” then select “Create New Methods”. Then select or enter the following:
    • Name: GetPhoneNumberByName
    • Request Type: GET
    • Query Path: ?name={{Person}}
    • Result Type: Record
    • Method Path: /api/contacts
    • Method Result-Empty Result Template: Phone Number Not Found For Requested Contact
    • Result Template: {{Person}} phone number is {{Phone}}
    • Click: Save
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  1. 1.
    In the top menu tabs, select “Intents” and “Create New Intent”. Then select or enter the following:
Name: GetPhoneNumberByName
Intent Type: Search
Intent Action: Executive Method
DataSource: ContactFinderDS
DataSource Method: GetPhoneNumberByName
Click: Save
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  1. 1.
    In the top menu tabs, select “Slots” and select “Create New Slot”. Note the Reprompt message is what Alexa will ask if it can’t fill/resolve the person slot. Then select or enter the following:
Name: Person
Slot Order: Blank
Reprompt Message: What is the person name
Type: Person
Custom Skill: ContactFinder
Intent: GetPhoneNumber
Click: Save
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  1. 1.
    In the top menu tabs, select “Utterance” and select “Create New Utterance”. Utterance are words spoken to launch specific intents. Now input or select the following:
Value: What is the phone number for (Person)
Custom Skill: ContactFinder
Intent: GetPhoneNumber
Click: Save
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  1. 1.
    In the top menu tabs, select “Input” and select “Create New Input”. Then input or select the following:
Name: Person
Custom Skill: ContactFinder
Custom Intent: GetPhoneNumber
Data Source: ContactFinderDS
Data Source Method: GetPhoneNumberByName
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Publish to Alexa

  1. 1.
    To publish to Alexa, select “Publish” in the top menu tabs then click “Add Skill Publishing”. Then input or select the following:
External Skill Name: ContactFinder. (This will be the name of the skill in Alexa. Therefore, make it unique and different from the names of your other skills in Alexa.)
Skill Type: Select Search
Channel: Select Alexa
Uncheck the following: Require account linking, Auto Publish
Skill Invocation Name: ContactFinder. (This will be what users say to launch your skill in Alexa. It must be in lower case alphabets cannot contain START, BEGIN, STOP, EXIT, LAUNCH and cannot contain number or special characters.)
Optional: Replace all placeholder values in all “Message”. Uncheck all the settings shown in the second image below.
Click: Save.
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Create a skill in Alexa Developer Console

Note: This section shows how to manually set up a skill in the Alexa Developer Console. Please not that this step can be automatically performed by publishing directly from the VoiceWorx platform. To learn how to publish directly from the VoiceWorx platform please follow this tutorial.
  1. 1.
    Login to https://developer.amazon.com/alexa/console/ask with the credentials set up in step 2 above.
  2. 2.
    Click “Create Skill” in the resulting page.
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  1. 1.
    Now do the following:
Add a Skill Name: Contact Finder.
Custom Skill: Select
Click: Create skill in top right-hand corner.
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  1. 1.
    On the resulting page, ensure “Start from Scratch” is selected and select “Continue with template” in top right-hand corner.
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  1. 1.
    A “Creating A Custom Skill” screen will appear as seen below.
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  1. 1.
    After the skill is built, click “Invocation” and type in a simple unique word. When Alexa hears this, it will invoke the skill. For this exercise, Type in “Contact Finder”. To invoke the skill, say “Alexa Start Contact Finder”.
  2. 2.
    On the left navigation menu click “Interaction Model” then click “Intents” then click, “Add Intent”.
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  1. 1.
    Type “PhoneByName” in the text box and click “Create Custom Intent”
  2. 2.
    Add Utterances: Utterances are what the users say to invoke the intent. Utterance contain “Slots”. Slots are the unique variables in utterances. In this exercise we will add a Slot “Person” in the utterance. In the Alexa console, to add a Slot, type “{“. Once you type in “ { “ in the Utterance text box, a “Add/Create New Slot” modal shows. Add a slot named Person in the Utterance. Note: Your slot names must match what was defined in VoiceWorx.
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  1. 1.
    Update the “Person” Slot we just created. Make it a Slot Type “AMAZON.SEARCHQUERY”. To do this, scroll down the utterance page, to the “Intent Slots” section. In the Slot Type column, expand the Slot Type drop down and select “AMAZON.SEARCHQUERY”.
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  1. 1.
    Click “save” then click “Build Model”.
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  1. 1.
    To set the VoiceWorx endpoint in Alexa developer console do the following:
Click: Endpoint
Select: “Https” endpoint
Set “Default Region”: Visit https://alexa.VoiceWorx.ai/api/v1/alexa/request and select “My Development Endpoint Is a Subdomain of a Domain that has a wildcard certificate”
Click: Save Endpoint
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  1. 1.
    Go to the skills list home page in Alexa Developer Console, copy the skill ID and update the Skill ID in the VoiceWorx.
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  1. 1.
    Go to the VoiceWorx platform (https://portal.VoiceWorx.ai/) and in the left navigation menu select “Custom Skill” then select “Manage Skills”. Select the “Contact Finder Skill”.
  2. 2.
    Then in the top menu tabs click Publish” tab and click “Edit”.
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  1. 1.
    On the “Edit Skill Page”, update the External ID to the ID you copied from Alexa Developer Console then click “save”.
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Test the Skill

  1. 1.
    Goto Alexa Developer Console. Select “Contact Finder” Skill. Click “Test” tab in the top menu, then below “Test” tab change the skill test status from “Off” to “Development”.
  1. 1.
    Invoke skill by typing the invocation name “Contact Finder” inserted in the publishing step in VoiceWorx. If the invocation is successful, your configured welcome message will be displayed in the Alexa Developer Console.
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Congratulations!
You have successfully completed Alexa Publishing.
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Alexa Publishing Auto and Manual
Last modified 2yr ago