Andrea,
Thanks…to be clear, the extension is part of Ask Alexa…And others extensions (from me and other developers) are being developed. Here is a screenshot of the latest interface for this:
Not sure if that was clear…thanks for your compliments. I try to use best practices from the ‘real world’ on this development!
Awesome! Here’s hoping Amazon will release push voice messages soon…
I am running into issues getting Ask Alexa installed.
I have the application installed via GitHub and configured in my Smart Things App. I also created my AWS account and got the Lambda portion completed. I was able to created by Alexa development account and am at the portion of adding a new Alexa skill. Under the Interactions model tab I have all the code entered as well as the custom slot types, however when I click next or save I get Please wait while this skill is updated. My first time I let it sit for about 1.5 hours. I have attempted it a second time and am getting the same message.
Anyone seen this error?
Yes…And it is not you…it is Amazon…They sometimes have big delays in saving. There are some things you can do. First, if you are using IE, switch to Chrome (if you have it) or any other browser. That sometimes works. If you have browser with ‘privacy mode’ use that to access the site, or simply clear the cache and cookies on the browser you are using. Also, to be clear, are you saving the slots, or the whole page? Sometimes it is a good idea to paste the intents, create the slots, and then copy the utterances and then press Save at the very end.
Again, you should get good results if you change up browsers or clear you cache/cookies.
Let me know if that helps. I am not having any issues right now with it, but that doesn’t mean it is load balanced in another area and the server you are on is having issues.
Often times closing all browser windows and then reopening seems to work.
Using Chrome and saving in interviews worked. Thanks for all the help.
Perfect…good work! I look forward to your feedback!
Can ask alexa be set up to accept follow up commands like echosistant? I have run into times where I would like to turn off multiple devices without having to repeat the wake word over and over. this becomes more of an issue as I continue to add new smart devices.
Yes you can set it up for follow up commands. Under settings —> personalization. Then it will be under continuation of commands
As the post above outlines, Ask Alexa has always had the follow up feature…And you have the option of some of the commands having follow ups and some not. This really allows you to personalize your interaction.
In addition, if you find you are always doing the same sequence of commands Ask Alexa allows you to set up macros that do all kinds of things with one command. I have my good night macro turn off 20 lights give me a weather report and lock the doors all with ‘good night’.
Let me know if you get this working.
Custom Colors question - I want to add a custom color called ‘day light’ to the color options in Ask Alexa. I want the color name to be daylight and it is white with the maximum K rating. (When you slide the slider all the way to the right in the smartthings app.) Someone has mentioned you can do this in Ask Alexa, are there any instructions out there on how to do this?
Thanks!
Are you using actual colored lights (i.e RGB style) or just the while lights that take a Kelvin Setting? Either way, the words “DayLight White” is already defined via the SmartThings API. If you are using colored bulbs, it is a hue of 191 and a saturation of 9. If you are using a white light, it is 6700k. Either way, you can’t use the word “daylight” since it is already part of the app.
It SOUNDS like you are using a Kelvin light, in which case you can go into “Switches/Dimmers/Colored Lights” and you can “Choose Temperature(Kelvin) Lights”. Put the lights in there and then you can use the following pre-set commands “Soft White”, “Warm White”, “Cool White” and “Daylight White” (2700K, 3500K, 4500K and 6700K degrees Kelvin, respectfully)
There is no ‘custom’ color for Kelvin lights, but if you let me know your needs we can discuss putting something into the next version.
Let me know if that helps.
Thanks MichaelS for the quick response. It is an RGB light actually, lightify;
Basically I just want to be able to use Alexa to set the light to ‘daylight white’, or the equivalent of the same thing with a different word.
Ah…If it is an RGB light, you will choose the “Colored Light” area. Again, “Daylight White” is a default color for the RGB lights as well, but I have heard it might be too ‘yellow’. In which case you can define your own color by going into Settings and choosing “Custom Color Setup” (this will only show up if you have a colored light chosen in the main menu). When you have set this up (you will need to use Hue and Saturation settings), be sure to update your Developer Slots with the name you have chosen. You should be read to go then!
Quite honestly, you probably don’t need to set up a customer color…the API I use has over 150 colors available. The listing is in the cheat sheet, or you can find it here: http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Ask_Alexa#Frequently_Asked_Questions_.28FAQs.29
Let me know if this helps!
Thanks MichaelS, very much appreciated!
Hi Michael I’m running version 2.2.3a this weekend everything was working great. Except last night I started getting a message from my Amazon Echo stating “There was an error in the execution of the Ask Alex smart app. If this continue contact the author of the smart app” Any ideas?
I have no ability on my end to change anything once you install the code.
One thing I would check it to go through Setting>>Setup Variables again and look at the 3 lines you copy to Lambda. If the Oauth changed on SmartThings that COULD affect it.
Next step would be to revoke your Oauth, then take the new code and paste that to Lambda…
Could anyone else have been in your accounts? Might not be a bad idea to recopy the Lambda code and the IDE code just in case.
Let me know if any of this stuff works.
I’m the only one with access to my account but the codes did changed. I pasted the new code to Lambda and had to reconfigure the devices in Ask Alexa since it lost its configuration as well.
Its working again not sure why the codes changed.
Thanks for your help
It may have been on SmartThings side with some sort of expiration…I know they have been toying with that idea. In addition, it may have been a rouge finger press on the app.
Either way, I am glad you got it working again!
I wanted to give you a Friday update on the next version of Ask Alexa (designated 2.2.4). I have completed the code (I am actually working now on 2 versions ahead, making framework changes back to 2.2.4) and I am currently testing this with a number of beta testers. I am VERY happy with this is going and thought I would share some of the high level items:
Alexa Alexa Extensions: As mentioned last time, I have changed the framework of Ask Alexa to allow for other apps (from me and others) to ‘plug in’ to the main app, giving you added capabilities without bloating the main code. As was discovered by the developer of CoRE, there is a hard limit to how large a SmartApp can be. I have been programming for quite a while, and started when computers had very little memory, so I am used to writing efficient code. Ask Alexa has only grown slightly over the year it has been out, and I am constantly finding ways to accomplish more with less code; however that is not sustainable so the extension model will allow me to grow the capabilities of the app and not re-write it every few months, forcing you all to redo all of the hard work you already put into configuring the application for your needs. There WILL be one exception in a revision or two…I am splitting out the weather reporting function into its own extension in one or two versions from now. The functionality will stay the same (thanks @storageanarchy again for the code), but with it being an extension you will be able to do some rather fun stuff with this and all extensions after version 2.2.6+. And as always, you won’t have to reload your app from scratch to just get these new features. You will just add to what you already have and keep all of you settings.
Message Queues: Another big enhancement for Ask Alexa as we get ready for Amazon push notifications. Now external apps won’t need to write a skill themselves to go from SmartThings to Alexa output….Ask Alexa will be the ‘hub’ of the communications. While we wait for this, if you have connected speakers (or synth devices) in every room you can get a similar experience with 2.2.4. While this is a new structure, I have put pieces into place to allow for legacy operation (via the primary message queue) so you don’t lose functionality of what you might already be running with partners like Big Talker, Nest, Lock or Device Manager. All partners have been given the specs to work with the new structure, and some of them will already work when the next version of Ask Alexa is released.
Outside of the small bug fixes and optimizations that were done, this may SEEM like a small update, but it will require you to update your Lambda, intents, slots, utterances and your IDE code (basically everything). As such, while the code is done, I am going to wait another week while I really document the new additions. However, for anyone that is interested in beta testing the new version and the documentation for me (and you have external speakers/synth devices), I would greatly appreciate it. I have room for maybe a couple more people in the beta pool. If you are a developer of an app that does notification and want to be able to send messages to the Alexa device, I recommend you reach out to me.
Enjoy the weekend!
