Alexa Recursive Intent Delegation when using Confirmations

Question

I am writing an Alexa dialog with intent confirmation. When confirmation is denied I want to restart the same dialog again by delegating to this very dialog. I am proceeding like described in this stack overflow question. As described in the solution to this question I do the delegation when the dialogState is still IN_PROGRESS. In my case Alexa always responds with the not very meaningful message There was a problem with the requested skill's response. No error message in the application log.

My skill model and the lambda code are as follows:

{
  "interactionModel": {
    "languageModel": {
      "invocationName": "hello",
      "intents": [
        {
          "name": "UserIntent",
          "slots": [
            {
              "name": "UserName",
              "type": "AMAZON.FirstName",
              "samples": [
                "My name is {UserName}",
                "I am {UserName}",
                "{UserName}"
              ]
            }
          ],
          "samples": [
            "My name is {UserName}",
            "I am {UserName}"
          ]
        }
      ],
      "types": []
    },
    "dialog": {
      "delegationStrategy": "SKILL_RESPONSE",      
      "intents": [
        {
          "name": "UserIntent",
          "confirmationRequired": true,
          "prompts": {
            "confirmation": "Confirm.Intent.UserName"
          },
          "slots": [
            {
              "name": "UserName",
              "type": "AMAZON.FirstName",
              "confirmationRequired": false,
              "elicitationRequired": true,
              "prompts": {
                "elicitation": "Elicit.Slot.UserName"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    "prompts": [
      {
        "id": "Elicit.Slot.UserName",
        "variations": [
          {
            "type": "PlainText",
            "value": "What is your name?"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "Confirm.Intent.UserName",
        "variations": [
          {
            "type": "PlainText",
            "value": "You are {UserName}. Is this right?"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

const DeniedUserIntentHandler = {
  canHandle(handlerInput) {
    const request = handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request;
    return request.type === 'IntentRequest' &&
      request.intent.name === 'UserIntent' &&
      request.dialogState === 'IN_PROGRESS' &&
      request.intent.confirmationStatus === 'DENIED';
  },

  async handle(handlerInput) {
    const request = handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request;
    const currentIntent = request.intent;
    const userName = Alexa.getSlotValue(handlerInput.requestEnvelope, 'UserName');

    console.log(`DeniedUserIntentHandler: 
    request.dialogState=${request.dialogState}, request.intent.confirmationStatus=${request.intent.confirmationStatus}, userName=${userName}`);

    return handlerInput.responseBuilder
      .speak('Username was not confirmed. Please try again.')
      .addDelegateDirective({
        name: 'UserIntent',
        confirmationStatus: 'NONE',
        slots: {}
      })
      .getResponse();
  }
};

What I am missing?

tahiat tahiat · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-14T20:33:53

You did not specified whether you DeniedUserIntentHandler get triggered or not. if the error is generated inside DeniedUserIntentHandler then it is due to the wrong format of Delegate Directive.

your return response should be like :

return handlerInput.responseBuilder
  .speak('Username was not confirmed. Please try again.')
  .addDelegateDirective({
                         "type": "Dialog.Delegate",
                         "updatedIntent": {
                               name:"UserIntent",
                               confirmationStatus:"NONE",
                               slots: {
                                 UserName: {
                                 name:"UserName",
                                 confirmationStatus:"NONE",
                                 source:"USER"
                                 }
                               }
                            }
                         })
                         .getResponse();

The reason you are deleting the intent's previous state because you want your intent action to start from beginning.

You can also use your code like this: reference https://forums.developer.amazon.com/questions/92334/answering-no-to-intent-confirmation.html?childToView=206243#comment-206243

currentIntent.confirmationStatus = "NONE";
Object.keys(currentIntent.slots).forEach(
    (slotName) => {
      var slot = intent.slots[slotName];
      delete slot.value;
      slot.confirmationStatus = "NONE";
    }
);

var delegatedirective = {"type": "Dialog.Delegate",
                         "updatedIntent": currentIntent};

Alexa Recursive Intent Delegation when using Confirmations

3 Answers