Alexa function works in AWS lamda, but not from the Service Simulator

Question

I am relatively new to AWS and Alexa skills. I am building a simple custom skill that gives you a dressing advice depending on the weather.

I have 2 custom intents : dressingTodayIntent & dressingTomorrowIntent. In the Service Simulator of the developer portal, my two intents don't work, I do get a lambda response though, but with an undefined outputSpeech, like this:

{ 
 "version": "1.0", 
 "response": { 
   "outputSpeech": { 
     "type": "SSML", 
     "ssml": "<speak> undefined </speak>" 
   }, 
   "card": null, 
   "reprompt": null, 
   "speechletResponse": { 
     "outputSpeech": { 
       "id": null, 
       "ssml": "<speak> undefined </speak>" 
     }, 
     "card": null, 
     "directives": null, 
     "reprompt": null, 
     "shouldEndSession": true 
   } 
 }, 
 "sessionAttributes": {} 
}

Could it be a scope issue in my intent code?

'DressingTodayIntent': function() {
    var dressingAdvice;
    var speechOutput = getJSON('https://api.darksky.net/forecast/9e0495a835ed823a705a9a567eee982a/48.861317,2.348764?units=si&exclude=currently,minutely,hourly,alerts,flags',
        function(err, forecast) {
            if (err) {
              console.log('Error occurred while trying to retrieve weather data', err);
            } else {
              dressingAdvice = getDressingAdvice(forecast, true);
              console.log("one " + dressingAdvice);
            }
            console.log("two " + dressingAdvice);
            return dressingAdvice;
        });
    console.log("three " + speechOutput);
    this.response.cardRenderer("Your dressing advice for today:", speechOutput);
    this.response.speak(speechOutput);
    this.emit(':responseReady');
},

In AWS Lambda, I see a correct output for the first 2 logs, and an error for the 3rd one:

• first log: "one " + dressingAdvice, as expected
• second log: "two " + dressingAdvice, as expected
• third log: "three " + undefined

Thank you for you help!

Answer 1

When you say "tested from AWS Lambda", I assume that you mean using the AWS console to send a JSON test message to the Lambda, then looking at the response JSON to determine if it is correct?

If so, make sure that it matches the JSON sent to/from the Alexa test page in the dev portal. Sounds like they might be different.

Also, make sure that you are linked to the correct ARN in the Alexa skill.

Answer 2

The undefined is likely a variable scope issue in the code.

I noticed in your response that you don't have any sessionAttributes. Is your code setting or pulling the value for the response from a session value? If so, the values need to be sent back with the sessionAttributes.

Answer 3

I figured out what was wrong, I needed to move the response code into the callback function, like this:

'DressingTodayIntent': function() {
    var speechOutput;
    var self = this;
    var dressingAdvice = getJSON('https://api.darksky.net/forecast/9e0495a835ed823a705a9a567eee982a/48.861317,2.348764?units=si!ude=currently,minutely,hourly,alerts,flags',
        function(err, forecast) {
            if (err) {
              console.log('Error occurred while trying to retrieve weather data', err);
            } else {
              speechOutput = getDressingAdvice(forecast, true);
            }
            self.response.cardRenderer("Your dressing advice for today:", speechOutput);
            self.response.speak(speechOutput);
            self.emit(':responseReady');
        });    
},