Data-Driven Alexa Skills

Design and build innovative, custom, data-driven Alexa skills for home or business. Working through several projects, this book teaches you how to build Alexa skills and integrate them with online APIs. If you have basic Python skills, this book will show you how to build data-driven Alexa skills. You will learn to use data to give your Alexa skills dynamic intelligence, in-depth knowledge, and the ability to remember.

Data-Driven Alexa Skills takes a step-by-step approach to skill development. You will begin by configuring simple skills in the Alexa Skill Builder Console. Then you will develop advanced custom skills that use several Alexa Skill Development Kit features to integrate with lambda functions, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Internet data feeds. These advanced skills enable you to link user accounts, query and store data using a NoSQL database, and access real estate listings and stock prices via web APIs.

What You Will Learn

• Set up and configure your development environment properly the first time
• Build Alexa skills quickly and efficiently using Agile tools and techniques
• Create a variety of data-driven Alexa skills for home and business
• Access data from web applications and Internet data sources via their APIs
• Test with unit-testing frameworks throughout the development life cycle
• Manage and query your data using the DynamoDb NoSQL database engines

Who This Book Is For

Developers who wish to go beyond Hello World and build complex, data-driven applications on Amazon’s Alexa platform; developers who want to learn how to use Lambda functions, the Alexa Skills SDK, Alexa Presentation Language, and Alexa Conversations; developers interested in integrating with public APIs such as real estate listings and stock market prices. Readers will need to have basic Python skills.

Table of Contents

Part I: Getting Started

Chapter 1: Voice User Interfaces

Chapter 2: Routines and Blueprints

Chapter 3: The Developer Accounts

Chapter 4: Creating the VUI for a Custom Data-Driven Skill

Chapter 5: Writing the Back-End Code

Chapter 6: Publishing an Alexa Skill

Part II: Custom Skill Development

Chapter 7: Custom Alexa Skills

Chapter 8: Beyond Hello World

Chapter 9: Configuring the VUI

Chapter 10: Using APL to Present on Screens

Chapter 11: Coding the Lambda Function

Chapter 12: Unit Testing an Alexa Skill

Chapter 13: Storing the Data

Part III: Using APIs in Advanced Skills

Chapter 14: A Personal Net Worth Skill

Chapter 15: The Real Estate API

Chapter 16: The Stock Market API

Chapter 17: What’s Next?

About the Author

Simon Kingaby is a software developer, programming professor, and public speaker residing in middle Tennessee. He believes that voice user interfaces will change the world and that tools like Alexa are just the tip of the iceberg. He spends his days moving data for Deloitte Global and teaching DataViz and FinTech at Vanderbilt University. In 2016, he published his first Alexa skill and has been enthralled by voice development ever since. In 2017, his uncle suddenly went blind and Simon began exploring ways Alexa could be used to help the blind by developing skills from “What’s the time?” and home navigation skills to smart home skills like “Turn on the coffee pot.” In 2019 that same uncle committed suicide, and Simon turned his attention to mental health issues and using Alexa to help identify and prevent suicidal behavior. Now he is focused on enabling developers to use their programming abilities to build data-driven Alexa skills that will make a real difference in the world.