https://github.com/josephschmitt/alexa-esb-colors
A skill to ask Alexa the meaning of the Empire State Building colors.
https://github.com/josephschmitt/alexa-esb-colors
Last synced: 2 months ago
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A skill to ask Alexa the meaning of the Empire State Building colors.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/josephschmitt/alexa-esb-colors
- Owner: josephschmitt
- License: mit
- Created: 2016-03-13T23:14:54.000Z (about 9 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2016-03-27T18:48:41.000Z (about 9 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-01-22T13:40:19.207Z (4 months ago)
- Language: Makefile
- Size: 279 KB
- Stars: 1
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
# Alexa Empire State Building Colors Skill
This is a skill built for Amazon's Alexa service that queries the Empire State Building's [Tower
Lights Calendar](https://www.esbnyc.com/explore/tower-lights/calendar). It allows you to ask Alexa
the following:
>Alexa, ask the Empire State Building what the colors are.
>Alexa, ask the Empire State Building what the colors were yesterday.
>Alexa, ask the Empire State Building what the colors will be 3 days from now.
Alexa will respond with the description for the lights from the Tower Lights schedule for the given
day. This is also used as a sample project for those learning how to write Alexa apps using nodejs,
Amazon's Lambda service, and the Alexa Skills Kit.
If you're just getting started developing skills for Alexa, I'd recommend reading [Getting Started
with the Alexa Skills
Kit](https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/getting-started-guide) and
[Developing an Alexa Skill as a Lambda
Function](https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/docs/developing-an-alexa-skill-as-a-lambda-function) to get familiar with the process.
## Testing The Skill Locally
You can use [node-lambda](https://github.com/motdotla/node-lambda) to test this skill locally. In
the `test_events` directory are several event files you can use for testing, and they should map
pretty well to each Intent. To test an intent, simply copy the contents of one of the json files in
that directory and overwrite the contents of `event.json`. Then run `node-lambda run` from the
command line.
## Setting up the Skill
To set up the skill, head on over to [Alexa skills kit
development console](https://developer.amazon.com/edw/home.html) and add a new skill. Fill in the
basic skill information however you choose. For Endpoint, you'll need to fill in your Lambda ARN
which you'll get in the next step. Next, head on over to Interaction Model. In the Intent
Schema field, copy and paste the contents of the `interaction_model/intent_schema.json` file. Then
in the Sample Utterances field, copy and paste the contents of
`interaction_model/sample_utterances.txt`.
## Hosting the Skill
The skill is built to be easily hosted on Amazon's [AWS
Lambda service](https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/). Create your Lambda function (using the
alexa-skills-kit-color-expert blueprint) and make sure you choose Node.js as the runtime. After
you've created your Lambda function, look at the top right of the page to get your Lambda ARN
number and put that in the Alexa Skill Information Endpoint field.
To deploy to Lambda, first makes sure you do an `npm install` at the root of the project.
Once all the dependencies are installed, run `npm run bundle`, which will create a lambda.zip file.
You can then upload that zip file to Lambda for use in your function and skill.
The deploy script bundles up all the necessary files and uploads them to lambda. Since the
`node_modules` directory needs to be uploaded instead of initialized after it's on the server, a
linux copy of one of the packages is manually added during the bundling process (which is what
`node-expat-linux-build/` contains). This will ensure you can deploy from any platform you're
developing for.
You can also use [node-lambda](https://github.com/motdotla/node-lambda) to deploy to your Lambda
function directly from the command line. Simply add a deploy.env file with your environment
configuration (and double check the supplied .env file in this repository) and then run
`node-lambda deploy`. Please visit the [node-lambda](https://github.com/motdotla/node-lambda)
project page for more information on deploying from the command line.