alexa-js
Managing state for intents automatically in the session.
This would be a pretty large change, but the current Amazon Alexa SDK has a concept of states for intents. You can set a state in the session handler and the SDK will trigger a particular callback based on the intent and the recorded state.
We can bake this into the intent handler. I suggest adding a method response.state() (or a method on Session) that you can use to manipulate the response state -- set, get, or clear it.
Then you can update the intent handler to (optionally) include a state and trigger on a state + intent match.
No, although they are related in that they are both features that the Alexa SDK has that we don't.
Would be really nice to see as this will be a common issue (as stated by Amazon itself). Not all intents make sense every time. For example Yes/NoIntent should only be accessible in certain states and not everywhere in your app.
I propose two options for this:
- add an parameter or option to
app.intentwhich is a function (or Promise) and will be called in order to check whether or not this intent may be called. Pro: very dynamic, Cons: maybe too complex for some use-cases, maybe breaking change.
Example:
app.intent(
"OrderSomeItemIntent",
{
check: (req) => { return req.getSession().get('hasLoggedIn') === true; }
},
(req, res) => { console.log("Item ordered"); }
);
- Add some
alexa/alexa-skills-kit-sdk-for-nodejscompatible structure to maintain states. Pros: easy to adapt when switching libraries, easy to understand, Cons: not really dynamic
Example:
const states = {
states.STARTMODE: {
'NewSession': function () {
this.emit('NewSession'); // Uses the handler in newSessionHandlers
}
//...
},
states.GUESSMODE: {
// Intents only available in GUESSMODE
}
}
Any news on this? Especially when developing skills with a larger complexity state handling would be so useful.
