Alexa (ASK) : How to play multiple audio from different URL? - alexa

Question

I'm a beginner at ASK development and currently stuck on playing audio from multiple different URLs using .addAudioPlayerPlayDirective from handlerInput.responseBuilder. So if I add multiple addAudioPlayerPlayDirective to the responseBuilder it returns error instead. For example :
handlerInput.responseBuilder
.speak(speakOutput)
.addAudioPlayerPlayDirective('REPLACE_ALL', podcastBeginning.url, podcastBeginning.token, 0, null, podcastBeginning.metadata)
.addAudioPlayerPlayDirective('REPLACE_ALL', podcastBeginning.url, podcastBeginning.token, 0, null, podcastBeginning.metadata);
Also, I added the method of the issue below.
const LatestHeadlinesIntentHandler = {
canHandle(handlerInput) {
return handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request.type === 'LaunchRequest' ||
handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request.type === 'IntentRequest' &&
(
handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request.intent.name === 'LatestHeadlinesIntent' ||
handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request.intent.name === 'AMAZON.ResumeIntent' ||
handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request.intent.name === 'AMAZON.LoopOnIntent' ||
handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request.intent.name === 'AMAZON.NextIntent' ||
handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request.intent.name === 'AMAZON.PreviousIntent' ||
handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request.intent.name === 'AMAZON.RepeatIntent' ||
handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request.intent.name === 'AMAZON.ShuffleOnIntent' ||
handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request.intent.name === 'AMAZON.StartOverIntent'
);
},
async handle(handlerInput) {
const response = await httpGet();
let responseBuilder = handlerInput.responseBuilder;
let speakOutput;
let podcastBeginning = audio[0];
let podcastNext = audio[1];
let podcastEnd = audio[2];
let audioCount = 0;
let podcast = {
"token": response.audios[audioCount].intId,
"url": response.audios[audioCount].url,
"metadata" : {
"title": response.audios[audioCount].title,
}
}
if (sucessfulGet === true){
speakOutput = 'Alright, reading you the latest headlines!';
handlerInput.responseBuilder
.speak(speakOutput)
.addAudioPlayerPlayDirective('REPLACE_ALL', podcastBeginning.url, podcastBeginning.token, 0, null, podcastBeginning.metadata)
}else {
speakOutput = "No stories found. Response Code: " + responseCode;
}
return handlerInput.responseBuilder
.getResponse();
}
};
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

The AudioPlayer interface can help you achieve this functionality. It provides directives and requests (i.e next, previous, pause) for streaming audio and monitoring playback progression. For more information :
https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/custom-skills/audioplayer-interface-reference.html
Also there is a an Alexa skill sample (https://github.com/alexa-samples/skill-sample-nodejs-multistream-audio-player/blob/main/lambda/index.js) which handles multiple audio files. The audio data is contained in an array found in /lambda/constants and imported into /lambda/index.js, which contains the logic to handle requests to manage the audio (play, pause, play next, etc) from your skill.
Please also note that each audio item URL must meet the following requirements listed here: https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/custom-skills/audioplayer-interface-reference.html#audio-stream-requirements