I followed this and it worked! I have never programmed anything before. A little bit of trial and error but I got it to work. Just waiting on final approval. Will be doing a weekly flash briefing of legal tips for small businesses.
Hi Obi, thanks for the comment and CONGRATS on getting your first Flash Briefing skill done! When the skill is publish please comment and let me know the name so I can test it out. Thanks again!
*I just want to say, I followed your video closely and it was PERFECT... I am currently submitting my skill for certification.. Brad's Fitness Playbook* Thanks so much!! I'll definitely come back to you for more videos in this space!
That's awesome! Congrats on getting your first skill done. I'll be publishing a tutorial on creating video skills in the coming weeks - you might be interested in looking at that one given your topic and audience.
My skill was approved today thanks to YOU!!!! :) Definitely looking at a video skill tutorial from you that's for sure!! Keep up the amazing work, you've got me hooked!!
Not thanks to me... you did all the work. Congrats!!! Now you're... Brad Newton - Fitness Guru. Adventurer. Coder. :-). I'll have the tutorial out for the video skill next week. Your videos are super well done so you definitely need to build a video skill.
Question. Say for example, you upload a new flash briefing daily. You'd create the MP3, upload it, then take the URL Link that's created in the S3 MGMT console when you upload it, paste that into the "streamURL" line of the JSON code correct? And you'd do that each day. I'm just confused because you gave us the basic code, but didn't explain any lines of it. Can you confirm if this is correct? "uid" - we can just leave that the same as you had? I don't understand this one really. "updateDate" would just be the date/time we're uploading the new breifing. "mainText" - leave blank? "streamURL" is the URL created by the S3 from the .mp3 file you uploaded? "redirectionURL" is the URL we want listeneres directed to? Thanks.
Hi Nick. Yes, you could just upload a new .mp3 and edit the JSON file. You don't really need to change the uid - it just need to be unique for each item in the JSON so if you're just updating the .mp3 url you'll be fine.
hi ! I have few pre- recorded audio files which I will upload to a new bucket but I want alexa to access the audio on daily basis like today one audio file will and tomorrow there will be other audio playing like how to schedule an audio file on particular date or time
Thank you for this video. I came here originally looking to brush up on JSON 101 for alexa skill development and found this very helpful. I'm still JSON illiterate, I've copied the link you provided but i have NO IDEA how to create and save a valid JSON file. Can i just copy the template into notepad on windows 10? how do i create a unique "uid" input?
Hi Justin. Yes, you can just create a new file in notepad and copy the json code into it. Then, save the file with the extension .json - that's all there is to creating a JSON file. To create a new uid check out this online tool www.uuidgenerator.net/ - I hope that helps and thanks for watching!
Great video Steve! Really clear and easy to follow! Just having a few issues with my json file and saving it onto Alexa Developer. Any chance you could take a quick peak? No worries if not!
Hi Dabble, your code is really helping me to build a flash briefing skill. But I have a question for you. you have provided flash briefing code in GitHub.. I can see URL in provided in the skill.json file is different from the file you have under assests(flash-briefing.json) session.
To update daily you'd probably want to do a little coding to manage scheduled content. It wouldn't be too difficult to do but you would have to write some code to make it happen. That would actually make a pretty good tutorial.
Hey! Wondering if you ever made a tutorial on this? I got the flash briefing to work great from the above video but now wondering what the best way to update it every day is? How do I update the json file without having to resubmit it?
Great video, thanks for sharing the info! I have a question that was sort-of covered below, but I want to clarify I understand. If my intention is to have a new mp3 every day, it sounds like I can upload up to 5 mp3 files, and then one .json file for those five. Assuming those five get played over five days, then after that, I would just upload five new files, and edit the existing .json file? Thanks in advance!
Hi I got to the end and enabled the skill on my Echo but it still wont play. Also on the Alexa Skills website it doesn't show that you should say "Alexa, play my flash briefings" as an example, its just blank. Any help here?
Thanks Xavier. To autogenerate the UUID you'd need to use a Lambda function to create the JSON. To manually create a new UUID and include it in the JSON file you could also use www.uuidgenerator.net/. I hope that helps and thanks again!
Hi Steve...once the flash briefing is active...how do you update the .json file without having to resubmit for certification? i made changes and tried to update my .json but it was greyed out....thx
Hey Brent, you can just change the .json file itself by editing it and uploading a new version to S3. You should not need to update the skill. Does that make sense?
Really great work! I got this up and running along with another of your examples. Just plain awesome work. I do have one quick question: In your JSON example code, where does the UID come from? I would imagine that I need to be using my own rather than the one from your code snipped but I can't find where to generate one. Many thanks for this!
Hi Bob. Thanks comment and I glad to hear you like the videos! You can really use any string for the UID value but it's best if it's a URL or a UUID. To create a UUID without coding you can use this site... www.uuidgenerator.net/version4 - I hope that helps!
Thanks for the feedback Billy - glad you enjoyed the video! My ideas for a flash briefing... how about a flash briefing that provides 3-5 random briefings a day from the top 100 most popular flash briefing skills? Sort of a flash briefing for discovering interesting flash briefings. Kind of meta but I'd use it.
I like it, I'm considering doing a real estate flash briefing (news, weekly updates) have you come across any good ones with the same sort of idea that I could take a look at?
I have not but I really have not looked either. I'd go to alexa.amazon.com and search for skills with the term "real estate" to see what's out there. Then, try out the ones that have the best / most ratings and think about how you could improve with yours. Let me know how it goes!
Just started 'Miami Luxury Real Estate' thanks to you! It took time learning but it's approved/live. I'm now trying to figure out how to update (MP3/JSON) for the 2nd week. I guess I simply upload and then delete the weeks prior?
It goes by date so it will always use the most current first. I think it will go back like 3-5 days if I'm not mistaken. So, the ID shouldn't matter - just the date. Make sense?
how do you create the JSON file in the first place? I understand that i am supposed to copy and paste the code, but what do i copy and paste it into? a JSON file? where do I get the JSON file? Help? Please and Thank you!
That's a great question. I should have made that clearer. A JSON file is a plain text file with the extension .json. You can use TextEdit on a Mac or Notepad on Windows to copy and paste the JSON code. I'd also recommend getting a code editor rather than use TextEdit or Notepad. There are a lot of good code editors available but the one I like best is Visual Studio Code which is a free one from Microsoft. Here is a link to download it: code.visualstudio.com/ - I hope that helps.
hey this video is great...i'm just getting started....did you post the info on the wrappers that worked to get audio to play? also is the Json file template available?
Hey Brent, thanks for the comment and I'm glad you liked the video. All of the code including the .json file templates is in the GitHub repo. A link to the repo is in the video description above. Thanks again!
I guess that would really depend on how you work with (and charge) your clients. If your clients need access to their content in S3 it is probably best for each of them to have an account (or at least their own bucket). Also, if you expect a lot of volume from any one client you may want them to get billed to their own account. From a technical perspective, it really doesn't matter much. I hope that helps.
could you make a video on doing text flash briefings and also if you set the date to a date in the future will Alexa NOT read that item until it is that particular date? e.g. can you schedule the items ahead of time?
I am stuck on the part where I create a JSON file. I have copied the code mentioned and uploaded my audio file from audacity but I dont see how to get the json file going?
Hi Patrick. The JSON file needs to be a plain text file with a .json extension that is in the same format that is outlined here github.com/dabblelab/dabblelab-youtube-channel/blob/master/2017-10-27-flash-briefing/readme.md If you're using a Mac you can use TextEdit or Notepad on Windows to create the file. Does that make sense?
Just to confirm, can I record something on my phone, transfer it to my computer, edit it in audacity, then follow the steps in this video and create my own flash briefing? I'm totally stumped but if I get a "yes" to that then im good to go 😂
Yep, you can do that. We also started working on a web tool for publishing Flash Briefing Skills. It's not super pretty yet but it's fairly easy to use and best of all it's free. You can check it out at FlashBriefingManager.com - again, it's a "dabble" right now but it works. Also, it deploys the flash briefing to your Amazon account so you have full control. Let me know what you think if you try it out.
Do you need to upload a new .json file each time you upload a new mp3? I want to do a daily flash briefing and I’m trying to figure out the daily workflow I’ll need to do
No. You just need to update the .json file by adding new daily briefings with a more current date. I believe Alexa will play up to 5 items prioritized but the most recent first. I hope that answers your question.
Hey, how do I alter the JSON file so that only Alexa speaks whatever I've written into the code, in cases where I don't have an mp3 file to go along with it? I altered it to what I thought would work, but when I test it, Alexa doesn't say anything beyond "Here's your flash briefing," along with the following error: Unsupported Directive AudioPlayer is currently an unsupported namespace. Check the device log for more information. Thanks!
I did that, and this is what it looks like: [ { "uid": "urn:uuid:c03fbf4e-95c6-4df7-9b8c-a94fa9e9401e", "updateDate": "2018-04-24T22:34:51.0Z", "titleText": "A hello world audio clip", "mainText": "test test test" } ] I get no errors, but when I try to test the app in the skills console by typing the word "news" into the Alexa simulator, Alexa just says "Here's your flash briefing," then nothing. But earlier today when I played the flash briefing on my actual Alexa device, the skill worked. I suspect it's some kind of bug or glitch with the system as it seems fairly new and I've had similar such weird stuff happen to me over the last few days, with things not working when they should, then suddenly working for no good reason. Anyway, thanks for the tutorial, now I can get off Storyline and handle this skill myself, hopefully. You, sir, are a saint.
That is actually because of a limitation in the skill console. It can be used to test streaming audio or video skills at this point. I'm sure that will change soon but until then, you'll need to just test with your Echo. Storyline is a cool system, the guys over there have done a great job. That said, you'll have a lot more control when you work directly with the code. Glad to be of help.
Hi James. Sorry to hear this video wasn't clear for you. I'm going to review it and see how I might be able to make it clearer. Thanks for the feedback.
Is there a way to test an alexa behavior using text chat ? I'm not talking about testing the alexa skill in the test section on developper tool, but something like retrieve.io but by text?
There is not a "chatbot" like environment for Alexa - it could be built but you be better off looking at Amazon Lex for that in my opinion. Here is a video I did on Lex ua-cam.com/video/RR8BXqRw1nk/v-deo.html - when you create a Lex interaction you can also download it in a format that will work for Alexa. I don't think that's exactly what you're trying to do but I think it's worth looking into. I hope that helps.
Hi Jennifer, I don't believe you can test audio streams with echosim.io. That is also true for the mobile app and the console debugger. Is it working with an Echo device?
Self-fixed! I didn't hit ENTER on the last line of my JSON file. I *knew* it was that file but noooob on the coding! Your tutorials rock, Steve! Can't wait to see what we build with your instruction!
@@dabblelab Steve - I'm trying to create 5 pieces of content for M-F publication. How do I add the 5 audio clips so that the Monday plays on Monday, Tuesday on Tuesday etc?
@@dabblelab So there is this computer program for teachers/parents and students so you can see your grades/lunch ballence/homework etc. And I would like you to make an Alexa skill where it (when you log in) tells you your homework. also Headmaster allows you to have several students so you have to make it ask which student and other questions. If you have any other specific questions I might now answer so here is one of my emails. MaximusK9_email5@yahoo.com also I'd rather you just make and publish cause the best coding skill I got are making fake virus alerts with vbs
Just wondering if echosim.io can play flash briefings?? I tried it but no go. I do not have an echo device so cannot enable it in the companion app as is needed for testing flash briefings - Thanks! :-)
just an added note - I found that the newer kindle fire Tablets are Alexa-enabled. Mine was too old but my husband's is newer so I sent him a beta testing email and was able to test the flash briefing on his Kindle fire.
another note - I have an android tablet so I got the alexa app and I enabled the flash briefing in the app in the tablet (email address same as dev acct) but cannot get testing to work in the simulator or echosim.io - some sources say flash briefings can be tested in the simulator after enabling but I just read some amazon docs that said The Alexa Simulator does not support testing flash briefing skills. I am just trying to get some definitive information at this point on how to best test a flash briefing if you don't own an echo device - I also found I could just go in my browser to alexa.amazon.com/spa/index.html#skills/ and login and go to my dev skills and enable or disable my flash briefing that way but still no luck on the actual testing
So I tried doing a Text Flash Briefing and this works in EchoSim.io but the audio flash briefing does not work - the preamble plays but there is no audio played,
Hey Megan. There are some other options if you don't have an Echo. For example, you could try an app called Reverb reverb.ai/ - it's available for the iPhone, Android, and Mac. You can Also use the Amazon Shopping app - it has Alexa built in now too. I believe they would both work for testing the flash briefing skill. Let me know if that works.
Hi! Thanks for the video :) When I try to test this, it's throwing an error which says 'To hear flash briefing, go to the Alexa app and select at least one skill.' All my skills are enabled. Someone help me with this. Thanks in advance :)
Hey Bhargavi, you're very welcome! On the issue, have you enabled the skill? You first need to enable the skill by saying something like: Alexa, enable 'whatever skill' - where 'whatever skill' is the name of the skill you're enabling. You'll need to do that before you'll hear the flash briefing. I hope that helps.
Dabble Lab, in the skills section, all my skills are enabled. I tried to disable and enable this skill again and again. Still the same error. Please assist!
Yes, the email address is the same. It's kind of strange because when I test it at echosim.io it says the preamble of my flash briefing but then stops and does not continue with my feed. When I try again then it went straight to: 'To hear your flash briefing, go to the Alexa app and select at least one catagory'.
Ah, OK. There are issues testing Flash Briefings with echosim.io. That's probably not an issue with your skill. Both the test interface in the developer console and ecosim.io don't support streaming media at this point. If you want to test outside of your Echo try using reverb.ai/ or use the Amazon Shopping App for iOS or Android - it is Alexa-enabled.
But I can test it on my echo device right? My device is set up with the same account and I can see my briefing in my dev skills and is enabled. But when I ask my device; what's my flash briefing, I get; 'To hear your flash briefing, go to the Alexa app and select at least one category'
I'm up and running with a single audio feed! has anyone moved forward with adding multiple audio to play on different days? how do you change the UID? thx!
You can just add multiple items to the .json file and have a different date for each item. Alexa will play the most recent 3 items (I think it's 3, might be 5) so you can back date items that will play in the future. For the UID you can use any unique string for that. If you want to use an actual UUID - here is a site you can use to generate the id without coding. www.uuidgenerator.net/
thanks again...tried adding a new audio for today under my older one in the .json file...it only played yesterdays again....how many numbers have to change in the UID?
Here is a link to the actual feed file. You can just copy and paste the contents. Then, change the dates and the URLs for the audio files. cdn.dabblelab.com/feeds/flash-briefing.json - Let me know if that makes sense.
Thank you for the reply! I added you on LinkedIn because I was going to ask for your help... please excuse my ignorance, but I have watched this video multiple times, and am still confused about the feed portion. Where exactly do I copy and paste the file you kindly shared? Thank you for your help!
I'm pretty dumb with this type of stuff as well... when you say, "copy and paste the contents", what are we copying and pasting the coding into? Is it a word file for future use?
Hi Team, I am following your tutorial to build the first skill - but getting an error on my JSON. I validated it with online JSON validators but found no issues. can you help me? my JSON URL is here : s3.amazonaws.com/alexaskillsgvm/nasanews.json I am getting this error "There was an error parsing the feed. Please ensure that the feed is valid JSON or RSS." while saving the skill.
Hi Muthu. The JSON looks valid to me. One thing I did notice is that the uid is the same as the one I used in the example file. Try changing a few of the characters in the uuid or use www.uuidgenerator.net/ to generate a unique uid. I'm not 100% sure that's the issue but that's the only thing I noticed. Please let me know if that fixes it.
I followed this and it worked! I have never programmed anything before. A little bit of trial and error but I got it to work. Just waiting on final approval. Will be doing a weekly flash briefing of legal tips for small businesses.
Hi Obi, thanks for the comment and CONGRATS on getting your first Flash Briefing skill done! When the skill is publish please comment and let me know the name so I can test it out. Thanks again!
Will do. I had one other question. When updating should I should I add another feed or just upload another new info into aws
I would just upload new info into AWS. Just make sure the date for the content is current and you should be fine.
Umunna Legal Group is the name of the app
Awesome! Now, from your skill, I know the 8 things I need in my next contract. :-) Again, congrats on getting your first skill done!
*I just want to say, I followed your video closely and it was PERFECT... I am currently submitting my skill for certification.. Brad's Fitness Playbook* Thanks so much!! I'll definitely come back to you for more videos in this space!
That's awesome! Congrats on getting your first skill done. I'll be publishing a tutorial on creating video skills in the coming weeks - you might be interested in looking at that one given your topic and audience.
I'll be looking out for it! You are an absolute legend... keep up the great work!!
My skill was approved today thanks to YOU!!!! :) Definitely looking at a video skill tutorial from you that's for sure!! Keep up the amazing work, you've got me hooked!!
Not thanks to me... you did all the work. Congrats!!! Now you're... Brad Newton - Fitness Guru. Adventurer. Coder. :-). I'll have the tutorial out for the video skill next week. Your videos are super well done so you definitely need to build a video skill.
hahahahaha no way man..... not the coding bit!!!!! i'll just stick to fitness and consult YOU as the Alexa expert!! :-)
Question. Say for example, you upload a new flash briefing daily. You'd create the MP3, upload it, then take the URL Link that's created in the S3 MGMT console when you upload it, paste that into the "streamURL" line of the JSON code correct? And you'd do that each day. I'm just confused because you gave us the basic code, but didn't explain any lines of it. Can you confirm if this is correct? "uid" - we can just leave that the same as you had? I don't understand this one really. "updateDate" would just be the date/time we're uploading the new breifing. "mainText" - leave blank? "streamURL" is the URL created by the S3 from the .mp3 file you uploaded? "redirectionURL" is the URL we want listeneres directed to? Thanks.
Hi Nick. Yes, you could just upload a new .mp3 and edit the JSON file. You don't really need to change the uid - it just need to be unique for each item in the JSON so if you're just updating the .mp3 url you'll be fine.
hi ! I have few pre- recorded audio files which I will upload to a new bucket but I want alexa to access the audio on daily basis like today one audio file will and tomorrow there will be other audio playing like how to schedule an audio file on particular date or time
I'll be getting to this today.... Hopefully it works out. Thanks for the help.
You're welcome, Andrew. Let me know how it goes.
Thank you for this video. I came here originally looking to brush up on JSON 101 for alexa skill development and found this very helpful. I'm still JSON illiterate, I've copied the link you provided but i have NO IDEA how to create and save a valid JSON file. Can i just copy the template into notepad on windows 10? how do i create a unique "uid" input?
Hi Justin. Yes, you can just create a new file in notepad and copy the json code into it. Then, save the file with the extension .json - that's all there is to creating a JSON file. To create a new uid check out this online tool www.uuidgenerator.net/ - I hope that helps and thanks for watching!
Great video Steve! Really clear and easy to follow! Just having a few issues with my json file and saving it onto Alexa Developer. Any chance you could take a quick peak? No worries if not!
Hey Scott! I'm glad you liked the video. What is the error message you're getting when you're trying to save the json file?
Hi Dabble, your code is really helping me to build a flash briefing skill. But I have a question for you. you have provided flash briefing code in GitHub.. I can see URL in provided in the skill.json file is different from the file you have under assests(flash-briefing.json) session.
So if I update daily, what's the best workflow to do that?
To update daily you'd probably want to do a little coding to manage scheduled content. It wouldn't be too difficult to do but you would have to write some code to make it happen. That would actually make a pretty good tutorial.
Hey! Wondering if you ever made a tutorial on this? I got the flash briefing to work great from the above video but now wondering what the best way to update it every day is? How do I update the json file without having to resubmit it?
No, I have not done that tutorial yet. However, I have it planned for this week or next.
Sweet, I will keep an eye out for it! Thanks!
who else is here because of Garyvee ?!
Great video, thanks for sharing the info! I have a question that was sort-of covered below, but I want to clarify I understand. If my intention is to have a new mp3 every day, it sounds like I can upload up to 5 mp3 files, and then one .json file for those five. Assuming those five get played over five days, then after that, I would just upload five new files, and edit the existing .json file? Thanks in advance!
Hi Thor. Yes, that is correct. You can just upload new .mp3 files and edit the .json file to reference the new .mp3 files.
Hi I got to the end and enabled the skill on my Echo but it still wont play. Also on the Alexa Skills website it doesn't show that you should say "Alexa, play my flash briefings" as an example, its just blank. Any help here?
Great video! I just have one question. How do you autogenerate the uid field of the json file? Thanks!
Thanks Xavier. To autogenerate the UUID you'd need to use a Lambda function to create the JSON. To manually create a new UUID and include it in the JSON file you could also use www.uuidgenerator.net/. I hope that helps and thanks again!
Hi Steve...once the flash briefing is active...how do you update the .json file without having to resubmit for certification? i made changes and tried to update my .json but it was greyed out....thx
Hey Brent, you can just change the .json file itself by editing it and uploading a new version to S3. You should not need to update the skill. Does that make sense?
Really great work! I got this up and running along with another of your examples. Just plain awesome work. I do have one quick question: In your JSON example code, where does the UID come from? I would imagine that I need to be using my own rather than the one from your code snipped but I can't find where to generate one. Many thanks for this!
Hi Bob. Thanks comment and I glad to hear you like the videos! You can really use any string for the UID value but it's best if it's a URL or a UUID. To create a UUID without coding you can use this site... www.uuidgenerator.net/version4 - I hope that helps!
Will other people be able to access your flash briefing by searching it up in the alexa app?
Yes. If you get the skill certified and published in the skill store.
do you have to pay at all for certification?
for someone who does not know what coding even is, I really enjoyed this video and took so much from it. Whats everyone's flash briefing ideas?? :) :)
Thanks for the feedback Billy - glad you enjoyed the video! My ideas for a flash briefing... how about a flash briefing that provides 3-5 random briefings a day from the top 100 most popular flash briefing skills? Sort of a flash briefing for discovering interesting flash briefings. Kind of meta but I'd use it.
I like it, I'm considering doing a real estate flash briefing (news, weekly updates) have you come across any good ones with the same sort of idea that I could take a look at?
I have not but I really have not looked either. I'd go to alexa.amazon.com and search for skills with the term "real estate" to see what's out there. Then, try out the ones that have the best / most ratings and think about how you could improve with yours. Let me know how it goes!
Project Management Communications
Just started 'Miami Luxury Real Estate' thanks to you! It took time learning but it's approved/live. I'm now trying to figure out how to update (MP3/JSON) for the 2nd week. I guess I simply upload and then delete the weeks prior?
I do have a question though, if I want to add more than one entry into the RSS (json) file... what ID numbers should I use for each entry up to 5?
It goes by date so it will always use the most current first. I think it will go back like 3-5 days if I'm not mistaken. So, the ID shouldn't matter - just the date. Make sense?
makes perfect sense!! so cool watching the Play stats inside the dashboard!! :-))))))
how do you create the JSON file in the first place? I understand that i am supposed to copy and paste the code, but what do i copy and paste it into? a JSON file? where do I get the JSON file? Help? Please and Thank you!
That's a great question. I should have made that clearer. A JSON file is a plain text file with the extension .json. You can use TextEdit on a Mac or Notepad on Windows to copy and paste the JSON code. I'd also recommend getting a code editor rather than use TextEdit or Notepad. There are a lot of good code editors available but the one I like best is Visual Studio Code which is a free one from Microsoft. Here is a link to download it: code.visualstudio.com/ - I hope that helps.
hey this video is great...i'm just getting started....did you post the info on the wrappers that worked to get audio to play? also is the Json file template available?
Hey Brent, thanks for the comment and I'm glad you liked the video. All of the code including the .json file templates is in the GitHub repo. A link to the repo is in the video description above. Thanks again!
got it thx! one more thing sorry....what's the redirection in the .json file? do i need it?
Hi Steve....should i create an S3 AWS account for each client to hold audio for each briefing?
I guess that would really depend on how you work with (and charge) your clients. If your clients need access to their content in S3 it is probably best for each of them to have an account (or at least their own bucket). Also, if you expect a lot of volume from any one client you may want them to get billed to their own account. From a technical perspective, it really doesn't matter much. I hope that helps.
could you make a video on doing text flash briefings and also if you set the date to a date in the future will Alexa NOT read that item until it is that particular date? e.g. can you schedule the items ahead of time?
Oh, that one is on my list for sure! I have a few videos that I'm planning before that one but stay tuned. Thanks!
I am stuck on the part where I create a JSON file. I have copied the code mentioned and uploaded my audio file from audacity but I dont see how to get the json file going?
Hi Patrick. The JSON file needs to be a plain text file with a .json extension that is in the same format that is outlined here github.com/dabblelab/dabblelab-youtube-channel/blob/master/2017-10-27-flash-briefing/readme.md If you're using a Mac you can use TextEdit or Notepad on Windows to create the file. Does that make sense?
Just to confirm, can I record something on my phone, transfer it to my computer, edit it in audacity, then follow the steps in this video and create my own flash briefing? I'm totally stumped but if I get a "yes" to that then im good to go 😂
Yep, you can do that. We also started working on a web tool for publishing Flash Briefing Skills. It's not super pretty yet but it's fairly easy to use and best of all it's free. You can check it out at FlashBriefingManager.com - again, it's a "dabble" right now but it works. Also, it deploys the flash briefing to your Amazon account so you have full control. Let me know what you think if you try it out.
Do you need to upload a new .json file each time you upload a new mp3? I want to do a daily flash briefing and I’m trying to figure out the daily workflow I’ll need to do
No. You just need to update the .json file by adding new daily briefings with a more current date. I believe Alexa will play up to 5 items prioritized but the most recent first. I hope that answers your question.
Dabble Lab thanks!!
You are very welcome! Let me know when your skill is live - I'd like to check it out.
Great! Everything is testing great but it won't accept my PNG or Jpeg file...I'm not sure why just yet
I figured it out! 8 bit vs 24 bit! I'll let you know when it's live!
Hey, how do I alter the JSON file so that only Alexa speaks whatever I've written into the code, in cases where I don't have an mp3 file to go along with it? I altered it to what I thought would work, but when I test it, Alexa doesn't say anything beyond "Here's your flash briefing," along with the following error:
Unsupported Directive
AudioPlayer is currently an unsupported namespace. Check the device log for more information.
Thanks!
Just add your text to a property named "mainText" and remove the "streamUrl". That should do it.
I did that, and this is what it looks like:
[
{
"uid": "urn:uuid:c03fbf4e-95c6-4df7-9b8c-a94fa9e9401e",
"updateDate": "2018-04-24T22:34:51.0Z",
"titleText": "A hello world audio clip",
"mainText": "test test test"
}
]
I get no errors, but when I try to test the app in the skills console by typing the word "news" into the Alexa simulator, Alexa just says "Here's your flash briefing," then nothing. But earlier today when I played the flash briefing on my actual Alexa device, the skill worked. I suspect it's some kind of bug or glitch with the system as it seems fairly new and I've had similar such weird stuff happen to me over the last few days, with things not working when they should, then suddenly working for no good reason.
Anyway, thanks for the tutorial, now I can get off Storyline and handle this skill myself, hopefully. You, sir, are a saint.
That is actually because of a limitation in the skill console. It can be used to test streaming audio or video skills at this point. I'm sure that will change soon but until then, you'll need to just test with your Echo. Storyline is a cool system, the guys over there have done a great job. That said, you'll have a lot more control when you work directly with the code. Glad to be of help.
hey guys...what am i missing? thx Error: There was an error parsing the feed. Please ensure that the feed is valid JSON or RSS.
Most likely it's permissions. Make sure you can open the URL to the .json file in a web browser.
yes....it opened.....does the .json file have to be named anything specific to the other file?
Can you post the URL to the .json file so I can take a look?
got it!! thx so much!
Yeah you presume we understand where to get the JSON file from. You didn't show us that part and now I'm completely lost!
Hi James. Sorry to hear this video wasn't clear for you. I'm going to review it and see how I might be able to make it clearer. Thanks for the feedback.
Is there a way to test an alexa behavior using text chat ? I'm not talking about testing the alexa skill in the test section on developper tool, but something like retrieve.io but by text?
There is not a "chatbot" like environment for Alexa - it could be built but you be better off looking at Amazon Lex for that in my opinion. Here is a video I did on Lex ua-cam.com/video/RR8BXqRw1nk/v-deo.html - when you create a Lex interaction you can also download it in a format that will work for Alexa. I don't think that's exactly what you're trying to do but I think it's worth looking into. I hope that helps.
Nice idea, I continue the tutorials on Alexa andI'll give it a try, thanks :)
Hi! please help me .. I just followed ur instructions and test it using echosim.io/. but the audio's not playing only the feed info. Can u help me ?
Hi Jennifer, I don't believe you can test audio streams with echosim.io. That is also true for the mobile app and the console debugger. Is it working with an Echo device?
Steve, I'm back! But… there seems to be a problem with my JSON file. Any suggestions to trouble-shoot?
Self-fixed! I didn't hit ENTER on the last line of my JSON file. I *knew* it was that file but noooob on the coding! Your tutorials rock, Steve! Can't wait to see what we build with your instruction!
HI Hans, welcome back! What seems to be going on your JSON file? Can you tell me what the error message is? Might just be a small typo.
Dabble Lab see comment above, I fixed it! Thanks Steve. I’ll let you know when I have a final copy ready for the real world.
Ah, sorry, I missed that... but glad you got it figured out!
@@dabblelab Steve - I'm trying to create 5 pieces of content for M-F publication. How do I add the 5 audio clips so that the Monday plays on Monday, Tuesday on Tuesday etc?
Can you make a video on how to make a skill where Alexa reads you homework from headmaster?
Can you explain how you'd want the skill to work in more detail?
@@dabblelab So there is this computer program for teachers/parents and students so you can see your grades/lunch ballence/homework etc. And I would like you to make an Alexa skill where it (when you log in) tells you your homework. also Headmaster allows you to have several students so you have to make it ask which student and other questions. If you have any other specific questions I might now answer so here is one of my emails. MaximusK9_email5@yahoo.com also I'd rather you just make and publish cause the best coding skill I got are making fake virus alerts with vbs
how did you make the .json file?
Just wondering if echosim.io can play flash briefings?? I tried it but no go. I do not have an echo device so cannot enable it in the companion app as is needed for testing flash briefings - Thanks! :-)
I guess my REAL question is is there any way to test a flash briefing (audio or text) if you don't own an echo device
just an added note - I found that the newer kindle fire Tablets are Alexa-enabled. Mine was too old but my husband's is newer so I sent him a beta testing email and was able to test the flash briefing on his Kindle fire.
another note - I have an android tablet so I got the alexa app and I enabled the flash briefing in the app in the tablet (email address same as dev acct) but cannot get testing to work in the simulator or echosim.io - some sources say flash briefings can be tested in the simulator after enabling but I just read some amazon docs that said The Alexa Simulator does not support testing flash briefing skills. I am just trying to get some definitive information at this point on how to best test a flash briefing if you don't own an echo device - I also found I could just go in my browser to alexa.amazon.com/spa/index.html#skills/ and login and go to my dev skills and enable or disable my flash briefing that way but still no luck on the actual testing
So I tried doing a Text Flash Briefing and this works in EchoSim.io but the audio flash briefing does not work - the preamble plays but there is no audio played,
Hey Megan. There are some other options if you don't have an Echo. For example, you could try an app called Reverb reverb.ai/ - it's available for the iPhone, Android, and Mac. You can Also use the Amazon Shopping app - it has Alexa built in now too. I believe they would both work for testing the flash briefing skill. Let me know if that works.
Hi! Thanks for the video :)
When I try to test this, it's throwing an error which says 'To hear flash briefing, go to the Alexa app and select at least one skill.' All my skills are enabled. Someone help me with this. Thanks in advance :)
Hey Bhargavi, you're very welcome! On the issue, have you enabled the skill? You first need to enable the skill by saying something like: Alexa, enable 'whatever skill' - where 'whatever skill' is the name of the skill you're enabling. You'll need to do that before you'll hear the flash briefing. I hope that helps.
Dabble Lab, in the skills section, all my skills are enabled. I tried to disable and enable this skill again and again. Still the same error. Please assist!
also....what software do i create the .Json file in? thx
Any plain text editor will work. I use Atom which is open source. You can get it from atom.io but any text editor will work.
from a rookie, this was "it" for the missing link... 98% there.
My flash briefing has been enabled in my skills, but my echo does not play it. Anyone else having this problem?
Hey Phoebe, is the email address you used to setup your Echo the same as the one you used for your Amazon developer account?
Yes, the email address is the same. It's kind of strange because when I test it at echosim.io it says the preamble of my flash briefing but then stops and does not continue with my feed. When I try again then it went straight to: 'To hear your flash briefing, go to the Alexa app and select at least one catagory'.
Ah, OK. There are issues testing Flash Briefings with echosim.io. That's probably not an issue with your skill. Both the test interface in the developer console and ecosim.io don't support streaming media at this point. If you want to test outside of your Echo try using reverb.ai/ or use the Amazon Shopping App for iOS or Android - it is Alexa-enabled.
But I can test it on my echo device right? My device is set up with the same account and I can see my briefing in my dev skills and is enabled. But when I ask my device; what's my flash briefing, I get; 'To hear your flash briefing, go to the Alexa app and select at least one category'
Can you post the URL to your Flash Briefing feed so I can take a look at it?
I'm up and running with a single audio feed! has anyone moved forward with adding multiple audio to play on different days? how do you change the UID? thx!
You can just add multiple items to the .json file and have a different date for each item. Alexa will play the most recent 3 items (I think it's 3, might be 5) so you can back date items that will play in the future. For the UID you can use any unique string for that. If you want to use an actual UUID - here is a site you can use to generate the id without coding. www.uuidgenerator.net/
thanks again...tried adding a new audio for today under my older one in the .json file...it only played yesterdays again....how many numbers have to change in the UID?
makes sure to add the most current ones to the top of the file. there are no rules on how much of the UID needs to change - just need to be unique.
Completely clueless as to how you created the json file...
Here is a link to the actual feed file. You can just copy and paste the contents. Then, change the dates and the URLs for the audio files. cdn.dabblelab.com/feeds/flash-briefing.json - Let me know if that makes sense.
Thank you for the reply! I added you on LinkedIn because I was going to ask for your help... please excuse my ignorance, but I have watched this video multiple times, and am still confused about the feed portion. Where exactly do I copy and paste the file you kindly shared?
Thank you for your help!
I'm pretty dumb with this type of stuff as well... when you say, "copy and paste the contents", what are we copying and pasting the coding into? Is it a word file for future use?
or, I guess the better question would be --- what format is the json file coding in in order to upload?
Hi Team, I am following your tutorial to build the first skill - but getting an error on my JSON. I validated it with online JSON validators but found no issues. can you help me? my JSON URL is here : s3.amazonaws.com/alexaskillsgvm/nasanews.json
I am getting this error "There was an error parsing the feed. Please ensure that the feed is valid JSON or RSS." while saving the skill.
Hi Muthu. The JSON looks valid to me. One thing I did notice is that the uid is the same as the one I used in the example file. Try changing a few of the characters in the uuid or use www.uuidgenerator.net/ to generate a unique uid. I'm not 100% sure that's the issue but that's the only thing I noticed. Please let me know if that fixes it.
Dabble Lab Thank you. It works now. I am learning a lot from your videos. My best wishes.
Great! I'm glad to hear it's working and that you're learning a lot from the videos. Thanks for the great feedback.