Alexa-APL-Fact-Skill - Monkey Facts

Welcome! You too create a "Multi Modal Fact Skill Compatible with APL" with the help of the Monkey Facts skill! OK, just kidding, maybe. This sample skill demonstrate the Alexa Presentation Language (APL). Ask for a fact and you'll be provided with an image and a fact about Monkey.

This Alexa sample skill is a template for a basic fact skill in update with the APL compatibility to the existing template provided by Alexa fact skill . Provided a list of interesting facts about a topic, Alexa will select a fact at random and tell it to the user when the skill is invoked.

You can try out the skill at Skill

Prerequisites

• An Alexa Developer Account (sign up here: https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit)
• (Optional) An AWS Account (sign up here: https://aws.amazon.com)
• (Optional) An Amazon Echo Device with a screen (e.g. Amazon Echo Show)

Note: The AWS Account is optional because you can create this sample as an Alexa Hosted skill. The Echo Show is optional because you can see the display in the simulator.

Brief Steps

Note: The below steps assume you have general familiarity with how to use the Alexa Developer Console. If you've never created a skill before, check out the fact skill tutorial to get the feel for it.

1. From the Alexa Developer Console create a new skill.

   1. Name the skill whatever you want, but we recommend Monkey Facts!
   2. Choose the language model you want to use, as long as as it is English (IN) which corresponds to en-IN. The skill is ready for other Locale too.
   3. Choose the Custom interaction model.
   4. Choose Alexa Hosted.

2. It may take a minute, but when your skill is ready, go to the JSON Editor section and replace all the contents with the interaction model from here . Click Save Model.

3. Click on Interfaces and enable Alexa Presentation Language. (Auto Delegation should already be enabled.)

4. Save that change and build your model.

5. Click on the Code tab and update the following files with the contents from this repo:

   • index.js with this index.js (Pro tip: click the Raw button to make it easier to copy)
   • package.json with this package.json

6. In the lambda folder, create a file named main.json and source the contents from here.

7. To make your own Fact skill update the skill name and the facts data in index.js and json editor correspondingly.

8. Save and Deploy the function

9. Click on the Test tab, enable the skill and check it out. Phrases you can try include:

   • open monkey facts (or whatever invocation name you used)

10. Visit developer promotions to earn rewards.