Alexa
=====




The Alexa service provides capabilities for building your own Alexa skills!

An Alexa skill consists of some general information (such as the name to use
for invocation) as well as a list of supported intents. An intent is a command
or question to which the skill can respond. Intents consist of a name, list of
utterances, and any required slots. Utterances are examples of how the user might
phrase questions or commands. Slots are used to define placeholders for concepts
like names, cities, etc.

When Alexa determines that a request was made to a given intent, the slots are
resolved to their corresponding values and then passed to the "handler" for the
intent.



Before using any Alexa RPCs, you will first need to `register as a developer with Amazon <https://developer.amazon.com/settings/console/registration?return_to=/settings/console/mycid>`_ and login to Amazon `here </services/routes/alexa/login.html>`_.

.. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 2
    :caption: Walkthroughs
    
    first-steps.rst

After checking out the walkthroughs, feel free to check out the `best practices for defining utterances <https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/custom-skills/best-practices-for-sample-utterances-and-custom-slot-type-values.html#sample-utterance-phrasing>`_.



.. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 2
    :titlesonly:
    :caption: RPC Categories






RPCS
----

.. function:: Alexa.createSkill(configuration: Object)

    Create an Alexa Skill from a configuration.

    **Arguments:**

    - ``configuration: Object`` (`Object </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#Object>`__) 

        - ``name: String`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) - The name of the skill
        - ``invocation: String`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) - The name to use to invoke the skill (eg, "tell <invocation> to <intent>")
        - ``intents: List<Intent>`` (`List </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#List>`__ | `Intent </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#Intent>`__) - Intents (ie, commands) supported by the skill.
        - ``description: String?`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) 
        - ``category: SkillCategory?`` (`SkillCategory </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#SkillCategory>`__) 
        - ``keywords: List<String>?`` (`List </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#List>`__ | `String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) 
        - ``summary: String?`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) 
        - ``examples: List<String>?`` (`List </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#List>`__ | `String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) 


    **Returns:** ``String`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) - ID


.. function:: Alexa.deleteSkill(ID: String)

    Delete the given Alexa Skill (created within NetsBlox).

    **Arguments:**

    - ``ID: String`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) - ID of the Alexa skill to delete


.. function:: Alexa.getSkill(ID: String)

    Get the configuration of the given Alexa Skill.

    **Arguments:**

    - ``ID: String`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) 


.. function:: Alexa.getSkillCategories()

    Get a list of all valid categories for Alexa skills.


.. function:: Alexa.getSlotTypes()

    Get a list of all valid slot types that can be added to an intent.
    For more information, check out https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/custom-skills/slot-type-reference.html


.. function:: Alexa.invokeSkill(ID: String, utterance: String)

    Invoke the skill with the given utterance using the closest intent.

    **Arguments:**

    - ``ID: String`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) - Alexa Skill ID to send utterance to
    - ``utterance: String`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) - Text to send to skill

    **Returns:** ``String`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) - ID


.. function:: Alexa.listSkills()

    List the IDs of all the Alexa Skills created in NetsBlox for the given user.

    **Returns:** ``List<String>`` (`List </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#List>`__ | `String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) - IDs


.. function:: Alexa.updateSkill(ID: String, configuration: Object)

    Update skill configuration with the given ID.

    **Arguments:**

    - ``ID: String`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) - ID of the skill to update
    - ``configuration: Object`` (`Object </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#Object>`__) 

        - ``name: String`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) - The name of the skill
        - ``invocation: String`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) - The name to use to invoke the skill (eg, "tell <invocation> to <intent>")
        - ``intents: List<Intent>`` (`List </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#List>`__ | `Intent </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#Intent>`__) - Intents (ie, commands) supported by the skill.
        - ``description: String?`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) 
        - ``category: SkillCategory?`` (`SkillCategory </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#SkillCategory>`__) 
        - ``keywords: List<String>?`` (`List </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#List>`__ | `String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) 
        - ``summary: String?`` (`String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__) 
        - ``examples: List<String>?`` (`List </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#List>`__ | `String </docs/fundamentals/rpc-arg-types.html#String>`__)