Alexa MyTube Audio Skill

Alexa Youtube Skill

How to Run the Sample

You will need to comply to the prerequisites below and to change a few configuration files before creating the skill and upload the lambda code.

Pre-requisites

This is a NodeJS Lambda function and skill definition to be used by ASK CLI.

You need to have NodeJS and npm installed.
You can download NodeJS for your platform and follow instructions from https://nodejs.org/en/download/
You need an AWS account and an Amazon developer account to create an Alexa Skill.
You need to install and configure the AWS CLI

$ pip install awscli
$ aws configure // https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-chap-getting-started.html

You need to install and to initialize ASK CLI with

$ ask init

You need to download this skill dependencies :

$ (cd lambda && npm install)

Deployment

ASK will create the skill and the lambda function for you.

Lambda function will be created in eu-west-1.

You deploy the skill and the lambda function in one step :

$ ask deploy

IMPORTANT : ask CLI will create an index.handler lambda entry point by default. This projects uses src directory to keep source code separated from test code, so it is important to update the Lambda function configuration with the correct code entry point. You can do this using the AWS command line :

aws lambda update-function-configuration --function-name ask-custom-Multi_Stream_Audio_Player-default --handler src/index.handler --runtime nodejs8.10

Add DynamoDB permission to your Lambda function

After deploying, you will need to add DynamoDB permission to the IAM Role created to execute your function :

connect to AWS Console : https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/home?region=eu-west-1#/roles
select the role created to execute your lambda function (it is named "ask-mytube-default" if you did not change the default name)
click "Attach Policy"
locate and select "AmazonDynamoDBFullAccessPolicy" role and click "Attach Policy"

Copy/paste the skill id to lambda/src/constants.js

export const constants = {
  appId: '<< PASTE YOUR SKILL ID HERE >>',
  dynamoDBTableName: 'Audio-Player-Multi-Stream',
};

Testing from command line

When done, you are ready to test from the command line, or using the Alexa developer console.

 $ ask simulate -l en-US -t "alexa, open audio player"

 ✓ Simulation created for simulation id: 4a7a9ed8-94b2-40c0-b3bd-fb63d9887fa7
◡ Waiting for simulation response{
  "status": "SUCCESSFUL",
  ...

You should see the code of the skill's response after the SUCCESSFUL line.

How it Works

Alexa Skills Kit now includes a set of output directives and input events that allow you to control the playback of audio files or streams. There are a few important concepts to get familiar with:

AudioPlayer directives are used by your skill to start and stop audio playback from content hosted at a publicly accessible secure URL. You send AudioPlayer directives in response to the intents you've configured for your skill, or new events you'll receive when a user controls their device with a dedicated controller (see PlaybackController events below).
PlaybackController events are sent to your skill when a user selects play/next/prev/pause on dedicated hardware controls on the Alexa device, such as on the Amazon Tap or the Voice Remote for Amazon Echo and Echo Dot. Your skill receives these events if your skill is currently controlling audio on the device (i.e., you were the last to send an AudioPlayer directive).
AudioPlayer events are sent to your skill at key changes in the status of audio playback, such as when audio has begun playing, been stopped or has finished. You can use them to track what's currently playing or queue up more content. Unlike intents, when you receive an AudioPlayer event, you may only respond with appropriate AudioPlayer directives to control playback.

You can learn more about the new AudioPlayer interface and PlaybackController interface.

Cleanup

If you were deploying this skill just for learning purposes or for testing, do not forget to clean your AWS account to avoid recurring charges for your DynamoDB table.

delete the lambda function (ask-custom-Multi_Stream_Audio_Player-default)
delete the IAM execution role (ask-lambda-Multi-Stream-Audio-Player)
delete the DynamoDB table (LongFormAudioSample)

mlomboglia / alexa-skill-mytube