Custom App with Publishing to Lex : Contact Finder

Objective:

This document will demonstrate how to use the Custom App feature of the VoiceWorx platform.

Introduction to API:

The VoiceWorx platform can integrate with external platform via web API’s and to demonstrate this capability, we have created a demo API endpoint (https://demo.voiceworx.ai/api/Contacts) in our demo web app “demo.voiceworx.ai”. We created multiple API endpoints for Contacts module and will be using the endpoint that searches an underlying Contacts database and returns the contact number of a specific person.

The demo web app that we created has the ability to perform CRUD operations against the underlying Contacts database that is triggered by calls to the exposed contact API’s in demo.voiceworx.ai

Web App URL : http://demo.voiceworx.ai

Contact Finder : https://demo.voiceworx.ai/api/Contacts?Name={Name}

Here is a sample contact in the database.

Goal:

Our goal is to demonstrate the capability of the VoiceWorx platform to integrate with external platforms and perform CRUD operations against them via web API calls. We will create an Alexa Skill called “Contact Finder”. This Alexa app will look up and return a person’s number that is stored in the contacts database and is accessible via the contacts API endpoints in demo.voiceworx.ai. Note: the example uses Basic Authentication so username/passwords to the external resource is required.

Pre-requisites:

An active AWS Account

You should have an active AWS Account. If you do not have it, you can create an AWS account at https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup#/start

AWS Accounts Include 12 Months of Free Tier Access

A VoiceWorx Account

For steps to create a VoiceWorx account, follow the steps at https://docs.voiceworx.ai/general/voiceworx-create-account

AWS Account - Access Key, Secret access key and AWS Region Name To be able to connect to Amazon Lex from the VoiceWorx platform, one AWS IAM user is required and user should have the required permissions to access Lex service.

Following is a json document which you can use to create an IAM policy and assign it to the IAM user in the AWS console.

{

"Version": "2012-10-17",

"Statement": [

{

"Sid": "VoiceWorx",

"Effect": "Allow",

"Action": [

"lex:*",

"lambda:*",

"iam:*"

"Resource": "*"

}

]

}

For more information on creating IAM users and assigning policies, refer to the AWS official documentation https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/create-access-key/

You can also refer to the simplified VoiceWorx documentation at https://docs.voiceworx.ai/aws-iam-users

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 1-2 below are compulsory.

Sign up for AWS account (Part of pre-requisites)
Sign up for VoiceWorx platform (Part of pre-requisites)
Setup connection to Amazon Lex
Setup connection to the external web API
Create a custom skill in Voiceworx.
Publish the skill
Test the Amazon Lex skill.

Setup connection to Amazon Lex

To Configure Lex, browse to: Integration > Connect System > Connect External System in the VoiceWorx platform and select options as shown below.

Once you click on “Connect System” button, you will be redirected to the configuration screen where you need to provide connection information as shown below.

If you do not have this information ready, please refer to the pre-requisites #4

The table below explains each of the inputs shown on this screen.

Input

Information

Service Instance Name

You can give any value of your choice.

Consumer Key

This is your AWS Access key ID

Consumer Secret

This is your AWS Secret access key

Region

AWS Region Name. The Lex service will be used in this region.

When used to publish the skill, it will be published in this region.

Fill the required information and click on “Validate and Save Settings” button, this will validate the details and if it is correct, integration will be saved, and you will be redirected to the integrations listing page as shown below.

Now the Lex connection is ready to use for future usage.

Setup connection to the external web API

Login to the VoiceWorx platform, use left navigation menu and click “Integration” then select “Connect System”. In the resulting page, click “Connect External Systems”.

In “Connect External System” select or do the following:

Select Integration Category: Custom

Select System Type: Rest API Service

Click: Connect System.

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.

Click on Validate System and Click on Save after the connection is validated.

Once validated, you should be able to see Save button, click on it to save the connection.

Create Custom Skill in Voiceworx.ai

To create a custom app, use left navigation menu and click “Custom Apps” then select “Manage Apps”. Then click “New Custom App”.

Now add Custom Skill by doing the following:

Name: Contact Finder

Custom Skill Type: Search

Category: None

Click: Save

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 (integration configured in Step 2)

Manage Connections to create the external platform WebAPI integration

Click: Save

In the top menu tabs, select “Methods” then select “Create New Methods”.

Provide following details in the resulting Create Method box and click on Save.

- Name:GetPhoneNumberByName
- Request Type: GET
- Query Path: ?name={{Person}}
- Result Type: Record
- Method Path: /api/contacts
- Empty Result Template: Sorry the searched contact could not be found. How else can I help you?
- Result Template: {{Person}} contact number is {{Phone}}. How else can I help you?
- Click: Save

Let’s test if the method is extracting the contact information correctly. Click on Test button.

Fill the following parameter and click on Method Test, then on Result section, click on Result tab.

Person : Martin

In the top menu tabs, select “Intents” and “Create New Intent”.

Then select or enter the following:

Name: PhoneByName

Intent Type: Search

Intent Action: Execute Method

DataSource: ContactFinderDS

DataSource Method: GetPhoneNumberByName

Click: Save

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: person name?

Type: Text

Custom App: ContactFinder

Intent: PhoneByName

Click: Save

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: get phone number for {Person}

Custom Skill: ContactFinder

Intent: PhoneByName

Click: Save

Important: To insert slot in an utterance, type ‘{‘and a drop-down of available slots will appear.

You can add as many utterances as you would like.

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: PhoneByName

Data Source: ContactFinderDS

Data Source Method: GetPhoneNumberByName

You will be able to view the created input as below:

For the Slot you have created, now create a corresponding parameter by clicking on Manage Parameters.

Create an Input Parameter and fill the following details:

Name: Person

Parameter: Person

Data Type:Text

Click on Save

You shall have the input parameter here.

Publish to Amazon Lex

To publish to Amazon Lex,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 bot in Lex, therefore, make it unique and different from the names of your other bots on Amazon Lex.)

Skill Type: Select Search

Channel: Select Amazon Lex

Version: Lex V1

Uncheck: Auto Publish (Next step explains what happens if you keep it checked)

Optional: Replace all placeholder values in all “Message”. Uncheck all the settings shown in the second image below.

Click: Save.

In the top menu tabs select “Publish” then click “Publish to Lex”, this will redirect you to the Publish skill to Amazon Lex screen.
Once you are on Publish Skill to Amazon Lex, select and do the following:

Selected Skill: Contact Finder (Should be pre-selected)

External Skill Name: Contact Finder (Read only, should be pre-selected)

Select Amazon Lex Account: Lex

Select the Lex account you have already setup. If not, you can do it by clicking on “Add New Lex Account” button and following the steps.

Click: Publish To Lex

Note: In previous step#23, if you have checked “Auto Publish”, you will be directly getting this screen. (In other words, step#24 will be skipped or auto executed)

On the resulting screen, ensure that a success message shows for the publishing steps before clicking the “Go To Lex Skill”. If success message not shown, click “Go To Skill Publishing” to fix any issue shown in publishing result.

Test the skill on Amazon Lex

On the Amazon Lex bot page, ensure “Build Completed” else you may not be able to Test the bot.

Once you are on Lex, you should see a screen like this,

Make sure it’s displaying skill name ContactFinder at the top left and then click on the Test Chatbot option at the right side. Click on Text Chatbot and you should see Test bot screen as shown below.
Start testing by writing utterance in the chat area and lex will connect to the skill configured in the VoiceWorx platform and you should get relevant response.