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 estatelistings and stock market prices. Readers will need to have basic Python skills.

  Covers accessing data from Internet data sources Addresses the needs of business users and those creating serious applications Demonstrates best practices: source code mgmt, DevOps, CI, unit testing, Agile development

  Autorentext

  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.

  Inhalt
  Part I. Getting Started.- 1. Voice User Interfaces.- 2. Routines and Blueprints.- 3. The Developer Accounts.- 4. Creating the VUI for a Custom Data-driven Skill.- 5. Writing the Back-end Code.- 6. Publishing an Alexa Skill.- Part II: Custom Skill Development.- 7. Custom Alexa Skills.- 8. Beyond Hello World.- 9. Configuring the VUI.- 10. Using APL to Present on Screens.- 11. Coding the Lambda Function.- 12. Unit Testing an Alexa Skill.- 13. Storing the Data.- Part III: Using APIs in Advanced Skills.- 14. A Personal Net Worth Skill.- 15. The Real Estate API.- 16. The Stock Market API.- 17: What's Next?.