Alexa skill response pagination - alexa

In one intent of my skill have lot of records to display or read for user; i want to paginate response of that intent
Example:
User: how many announcements are in the system
Alexa: there are 6. first 4 are (announcement 1, announcement 2, announcement 3, announcement 4)
Do you want to hear more?
User: Yes
Alexa: Next 2 announcements are (announcement 5, announcement 6)

Use AMAZON.YesIntent intent to capture "Yes" inputs from the user.
When the user asks for announcements use sessionAttributes along with your response to keep track of the read announcement indexes. So that when the user says "Yes", you can use this session attribute to read the next set of announcements. You can also set a STATE attribute too, so that you can validate the state in AMAZON.YesIntent handler before you give the next set of announcements.
Ex:
...
"sessionAttributes": {
"announcements_index": [0,1,2,3],
"STATE": "READ_ANNOUNCEMENTS"
}
...
When the user say "Yes", in your AMAZON.YesIntent handler check whether the state is READ_ANNOUNCEMENTS and based on the announcements_index give the next set of announcements from your announcements list. And in sessionAttributes update the announcements_index.
There is chance that user might say "No", for "Do you want to hear more?". So add a AMAZON.NoIntent too and handle it accordingly.
Do not forget to clear announcements_index and STATE when use case is done.
More on sessionAttributes and Response Parameters here

Related

Discord, sending a message to a different category and channel depending upon which reaction is selected

I have been working on a way within my discord server to try to automate the flow of users who want to try out for a team using bots. Currently I have adopted YAGPDB and have a role menu created in a community level (category) #general_tryouts channel with reactions to specify which game they want to pursue. When they select a reaction they are assigned a temporary role (24 hours) which will grant them access to the game specific category #tryouts channel they've selected. I've been successful with getting all of the roles assigned using YAG's gui interface. However, I would also like for a message to be sent to the game specific #tryouts channel with an embed (similar to a welcome message) stating that they would like to tryout, to notify the 'team' that they are "in the queue". So the process would look something like this:
User A pops into (Some Community) #general-tryouts -> reads the menu asking them which team they want to tryout for and selects option 1 (':one:') -> User A is given the role for TempGame1 and can now see (Some Game) #tryouts AND simultaneously a message is sent to (Some Game) #tryouts on their behalf.
If they choose option 2 they will receive a TempGame2 role and a message should be sent to (Another Game) #tryouts.
If they choose option 3 they will receive a TempGame3 role and a message should be sent to (ThisOther Game) #tryouts.
YAGPDB has the option with it's custom commands to fire a command triggered by a reaction given in a certain channel by someone with a certain role. The issue is getting the result of which reaction they selected, and that dictating where the message is sent. I'm really not even concerned if it's just a generic message. I just want User A to be able to react at a 'community' level and a message to get passed in to (Some Game) #tryout, (Another Game) #tryouts, or (ThisOther Game) #tryouts based on their selection.
My apologies in advance. I am only proficient enough to code a simple I say "ping" you output "pong" sort of transaction, and got in a little over my head in short order. I have looked at the developer resources trying to piece something together to no avail, as well as pulling a similar snippet of code from here and attempting to modify it to suit my needs, also to no avail. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Code Sample
if (reaction.message.id === '730000158745559122') {
let channel = reaction.message.guild.channels.cache.get(targetChannelId);
console.log(reaction.emoji)
if (channel) {
let embed = new Discord.MessageEmbed();
embed.setAuthor(
user.tag,
user.displayAvatarURL({
dynamic: true,
format: 'png',
}),
);
embed.setDescription(`${user} has react a: ${reaction.emoji}`);
channel.send(embed);
}
}
Visual Representation
New
in the code if (reaction.message.id === '730000158745559122') the 73000 portion represents that whole message as a focal point on what the bot is 'listening' for. Any reaction to it, be it 1, 2, or 3 will trigger this singular process. So by what you are saying by using the (id === 123 || id === 456 || id === 789) {} would likely be the way to go if I had more than one message is was 'collecting' on for a lack of better way to state it. I believe what I need to do is
`if (reaction(':one:').message.id === 123 {send message ('nifty embed')to channel.id 12345}
if (reaction(':two:').message.id === 123 {send message ('nifty embed') to channel.id 67890}
if (reaction(':three:').message.id === 123 {send message ('nifty embed') to channel.id 16273}`

Errors with multi turn dialog in alexa skills

I have created a skill with name "BuyDog" and its invocation name is "dog app"
So that should mean, I can use the intents defined inside only after the invocation name is heard. (is that correct?)
Then I have defined the Intents with slots as:
"what is {dog} price."
"Tell me the price of {dog}."
where the slot {dog} is of slot type "DogType". I have marked this slot as required to fulfill
Then I have added the endpoint to AWS lambda function where I have used the blueprint code of factskills project in node.js, and done few minor changes just to see the working.
const GET_DOG_PRICE_MESSAGE = "Here's your pricing: ";
const data = [
'You need to pay $2000.',
'You need to pay Rs2000.',
'You need to pay $5000.',
'You need to pay INR 3000.',
];
const handlers = {
//some handlers.......................
'DogIntent': function () {
const factArr = data;
const factIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * factArr.length);
const randomFact = factArr[factIndex];
const speechOutput = GET_DOG_PRICE_MESSAGE + randomFact;
}
//some handlers.......................
};
As per the about code I was expecting when
I say: "Alexa open dog app"
It should just be ready to listen to the intent "what is {dog} price." and the other one. Instead it says a random string from the node.js code's data[] array. I was expecting this response after the Intent was spoken as the slot was required for intent to complete.
And when
I say: "open the dog app and Tell me the price of XXXX."
It asks for "which breed" (that is my defined question) But it just works fine and show the pricing
Alexa says: "Here's your pricing: You need to pay $5000."
(or other value from the data array) for any XXXX (i.e. dog or not dog type).
Why is alexa not confirming the word is in slot set or not?
And when
I say: "open the dog bark".
I expected alexa to not understand the question but it gave me a fact about barking. WHY? How did that happen?
Does alexa have a default set of skills? like search google/amazon etc...
I am so confused. Please help me understand what is going on?
Without having your full code to see exactly what is happening and provide code answers, I hope just an explanation for your problems/questions will point you in the right direction.
1. Launching Skill
I say: "Alexa open dog app"
It should just be ready to listen to the intent...
You are expecting Alexa to just listen, but actually, Alexa opens your skill and is expecting you to have a generic welcome response at this point. Alexa will send a Launch Request to your Lambda. This is different from an IntentRequest and so you can determine this by checking request.type. Usually found with:
this.event.request.type === 'LaunchRequest'
I suggest you add some logging to your Lambda, and use CloudWatch to see the incoming request from Alexa:
console.log("ALEXA REQUEST= " + event)
2. Slot Value Recognition
I say: "open the dog app and Tell me the price of XXXX."
Why is alexa not confirming the word is in slot set or not?
Alexa does not limit a slot to the slot values set in the slotType. The values you give the slotType are used as a guide, but other values are also accepted.
It is up to you, in your Lambda Function, to validate those slot values to make sure they are set to a value you accept. There are many ways to do this, so just start by detecting what the slot has been filled with. Usually found with:
this.event.request.intent.slots.{slotName}.value;
If you choose to set up synonyms in the slotType, then Alexa will also provide her recommended slot value resolutions. For example you could inlcude "Rotty" as a synonym for "Rottweiler", and Alexa will fill the slot with "Rotty" but also suggest you to resolve that to "Rottweiler".
var resolutionsArray = this.event.request.intent.slots.{slotName}.resolutions.resolutionsPerAuthority;
Again, use console.log and CloudWatch to view the slot values that Alexa accepts and fills.
3. Purposefully Fail to Launch Skill
I say: "open the dog bark".
I expected alexa to not understand the question but it gave me a fact about barking.
You must be doing this outside of your Skill, where Alexa will take any inputs and try to recognize an enabled skill, or handle with her best guess of default abilities.
Alexa does have default built-in abilities (not skills really) to answer general questions, and just be fun and friendly. You can see what she can do on her own here: Alexa - Things To Try
So my guess is, Alexa figured you were asking something about dog barks, and so provided an answer. You can try to ask her "What is a dog bark" and see if she responds with the exact same as "open the dog bark", just to confirm these suspicions.
To really understand developing an Alexa skill you should spend the time to get very familiar with this documentation:
Alexa Request and Response JSON Formats
You didn't post a lot of your code so it's hard to tell exactly what you meant but usually to handle incomplete events you can have an incomplete even handler like this:
const IncompleteDogsIntentHandler = {
// Occurs when the required slots are not filled
canHandle(handlerInput) {
return handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request.type === 'IntentRequest'
&& handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request.intent.name === 'DogIntent'
&& handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request.dialogState !== 'COMPLETED'
},
async handle(handlerInput) {
return handlerInput.responseBuilder
.addDelegateDirective(handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request.intent)
.getResponse();
}
you add this handler right above your actual handler usually in the index.js file of your lambda
This might not fix all your issues, but it will help you handle the event when a user doesn't mention a dog.

How to Develop alexa to speak latest response again

In Details:
Example:
user:- asks About Cricket News.
Alexa:- Reads about the new.
If users says come again or replay
user: Come again.
Alexa: Must read it again what it spoke earlier.
How to handle this situation using webhooks.
Thanks in advance.
You can make use of sessionAttributes to keep track of the last response that Alexa spoke. Whenever you return a response just store the speech and re-prompt in sessionAttributes and whenever a ComeAgainIntent is triggered, take the value from the sessionAttributes and respond accordingly.
Ex:
...
"sessionAttributes": {
"lastResponse": {
"speech": "This was my last speech",
"reprompt": "This was my lst reprompt"
}
}
...
Every time before building the response store the response as lastSpeech in session attributes and write a comeAgainIntent or use amazon.REPEAT intent to repeat the response by getting lastSpeech from session attributes.

Two user requests modify the same datastore entity in Google App Engine Application?

Is it a good practice? One user makes request and gets entity from datastore, changes it and saves. Another user does this simultaneously with the same entity. Will second user see first user's changes if first user's request isn't yet completed? What pattern should I use if I want two users to make "agreement"? First says "yes", than second says "yes", than the deal is done. Do i have to use polling from client-side to monitor it?
You will need transactions for that.
Read here for more info and practices : https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/python/datastore/overview
Transactions happen with the logic that the first that commits wins!
But retries are possible...
#db.transactional(retries=3)
def make_agreement_for_user_a(agreement):
agreement = Agreement.get(agreement)
if agreement.user_a:
return "User A has already agreed"
agreement.user_a = TRUE
agreement.put()
if agreement.user_b:
return "Agreement complete"
return "User A agreed"
#db.transactional(retries=3)
def make_agreement_for_user_b(agreement):
agreement = Agreement.get(agreement)
if agreement.user_b:
return "User B has already agreed"
agreement.user_b = TRUE
agreement.put()
if agreement.user_a:
return "Agreement complete"
return "User B agreed"
It's just an example and it's not optimized neither check if there is already an agreement.
The rest is up to you

paypal pay now and returned variables

I am making a paypal pay now button for my website to add credits that can be used.
I understand the whole buy now and ipn thing but I what I would like to do is that when the user finishes his pay, there should be a way for the IPN to get the username so that I could add the credits into the database.
Is there a way to have the username sent together with the transaction so that it is returned, too? Thank you.
Please do not rely on the notify url.
You can send a 'custom' parameter in your dictionary object to paypal as listed in the Paypal IPN Docs.
paypal_dict = {
"business": "yourpaypalemail#example.com",
"amount": "10000000.00",
"item_name": "name of the item",
"invoice": "unique-invoice-id",
"notify_url": "http://www.example.com/your-ipn-location/",
"return_url": "http://www.example.com/your-return-location/",
"cancel_return": "http://www.example.com/your-cancel-location/",
"custom": request.user.username, #or you can use request.user.pk
}
The 'custom' value will be saved on paypal's server with the transaction and in your IPN object. This is a much better option than having payments with no customer identified.
In the button params, set the notify_url variable to an URL of maximum 255 characters.
PayPal will HTTP POST to this URL with the IPN details (payment_status, payment_date, etc.).
When creating the button, add params to this URL, such as http://yourwebsite.com?username_for_credits=john%20doe
.
When PayPal will make the IPN HTTP POST, you will get back the username you want.

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