Just stumbled over this app/framework and tried to install it. But somehow when trying to set up the github repo I get this error in SmartThings IDE:
“GitHub repository MichaelStruck/SmartThingsPublic not found”
Now, this is not the first GitHub repository I have linked to (I currently have 12 in my list) so I’m stumped.
Others have had similar issues lately…wondering if something is wrong with the GitHub/IDE integration…here is where the files sit:
http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Ask_Alexa#Latest_Versions
The exact settings you need to put into the IDE are here:
http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Ask_Alexa#Advanced_Installation
Seems to be a smartthings issue. From an email I just got: “Users are receiving an error when attempting to edit or update a SmartApp or device handler which is associated with Github. We are actively investigating.”
Welcome to a very exciting Friday report!
As many of you know, @tonesto7 (Tony) asked me to beta test his Community Installer and help write the documentation. Something else many of you know is that Tony also took the mantel for Echosistant as the original authors moved to ST competitor, Hubitat. As Tony and I worked together and discussed both of our products, we came to the conclusion that we had more similarities than differences in our respective Alexa SmartApps. While each developer has his/her own style and philosophies about coding and product design, in this case we got past those and decided that for the benefit of the community we would NOT compete with each other, but instead find a way to merge our apps’ respective ‘technologies’ into one product.
Echosistant v5 will now be shelved and instead Ask Alexa will inherit some of the install features of this unreleased version Tony and team have been working on. This will take away the last major hurdle for a beginner to start using Ask Alexa immediately. Tony’s install code will allow you to tap a few buttons and AUTO DEPLOY/UPGRADE your Amazon Lamba and Developer account. This means auto creation of the skill(s), or updating of the skills when you make a change to the parameters of your application. No more need to copy and paste between screens; however, for those that WANT TO manually install it yourself you will ALWAYS have that option.
This collaboration is really in the spirit of what SmartThings intended by allowing the core functions of SmartThings to be enhanced by the community.
As for a timeline, we are working on a schedule for integration. The next version of Ask Alexa (v 2.3.9 without the skill and Lambda installer) is already operational and has the Echo speaker identification code it. After that release, we will focus on getting the installer code ready for release (version 2.4.0) . I anticipate the end of March being a target for us. However, we are more concerned with getting it right instead of pushing it out fast.
I am going to post this in the Echosistant threads as well…
Again, very exciting news indeed!
Yes exciting news to say the least. I am glad that what some people call Drama is over. I can’t see the fruit of the collaboration. Good luck, and smooth sailing!
A lot of people get passionate about their respective apps, but Tony is level headed and I expect some great things going forward!
Thanks for the comments.
Programmers getting passionate about their code? I would have never guessed 
As someone who was in an alpha of a random feature of EchoSistant, and had sort of abandoned Ask Alexa as the use cases of echosistant were working for me, what would be the best way forward for me… I’ve been mostly out of town over the last 3 months, and will probably not be home much for the next 2 either.
I’m guessing scrap/delete both apps, and start over with the community installer.
P.S. Excited to see the great parts of both of these apps merging together to create a unified Alexa Interface.
P.P.S. This is also assuming ST fixes the current github integration bug that is preventing me from updating my NST Manager (was on initial tokens), ask alexa, and all my other apps…
Thanks for your note. I should probably clarify what all this ‘merger stuff’ means:
No one is going to be left out in the cold for being able to use Ask Alexa. I DO recommend reading the documentation before doing anything as many questions will be answered in there. The GOOD news is that this documentation will be radically shortened when we get the automatic installation up and running (end of March). http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Ask_Alexa
I am getting the message that either I don’t have WebCore installed or I don’t haven’t created any pistons yet, although I have several pistons running in WebCore. Please advise. Thanks in advance.
version 2.3.8
lambda 1.3.0
voice rpt 1.0.0
Is this a new installation or an upgrade of either of the applications? Behind the scenes, WebCoRE is presenting Ask Alexa with a list of the piston names. However, Ask Alexa must be able to ‘listen’ for these names. So, if it is not seeing it, do the following:
Let me know if that works. If not, we can work together to ensure the ‘listeners’ are in place (which should be automatic).
Thank you Sir. That did the trick.
Glad that worked! Enjoy!
Here we are at another Friday! I appreciate all of the comments that have been sent publicly and privately about Ask Alexa integrating some of the features of Echosistant v5. The big one is, of course, the ability to ‘auto deploy’ the Lambda and Developer Skill without the copying/pasting of information between screens. I had already started some of this months ago, and with the assistance of @tonesto7, we can finish off that feature.
For those of you that are coming back to Ask Alexa from Echosistant, or were exclusively Echosistant users, WELCOME. I did publish a list of ‘what this means’ and thought I would re-publish that and add to them based on feedback/questions I have received:
One feature that both applications had planned and WILL be in the next release of Ask Alexa (March 16!) is the ability to do speaker (Echo) identification. For example, if you are in the bedroom (and have a group created with the devices in that room) and you say ‘Alexa, tell smart things to turn on the lights in here’ it will turn on the lights just in that room. Move to another room and say the same thing, and only THAT room will react. But, why explain this…better to show you….
While the features are working I am putting the finishing touches on the new features. In addition, I am going out of town next week so I will spend the next couple weeks getting the documentation put up and ensuring the speaker identification is working as I expect. So, check back here on March 16th for the these features, and hopefully by April we will get the auto deploy features in and operational.
Oh, and let’s end with the logo change for SmartThings…Already implemented this in Ask Alexa…you may have to clear your app’s image cache, but the backend image has changed:
Hello, First time setup here, I managed to get everything working, I can run the service simulator and get a response, however when I check my logs on the hub I see the following:
postEventToEndpoint: Error while trying to post event back to Amazon groovyx.net.http.HttpResponseException: Unauthorized
Any idea what is causing this and how to fix it? It’s on every command being done by askAlexa. OAuth is enabled.
Second, I have several Echo Dots and an Echo, how can I get them added into askAlexa to be able to select an echo device within askAlexa? Thank you.
Jason
Jason,
When you say you managed to get everything working, do you mean that you are able to do voice commands? Why are you only running the simulator? If the voice commands don’t work on the device then it is not working and we need to start with that.
Let me know what exactly you mean in terms of ‘working’. I would start by doing this:
Alexa, open smart things…does that work?
If so, give a command to a light…does that work?
If not, what are the verbal errors you hear?
Yes, I can give it commands and it turns on and off lights no problem. I want to use Alexa natively with my devices to turn stuff on and off, I was hoping to use askAlexa for reporting and status updates primarily on devices. I don’t have any verbal errors just the one I showed which shows up in the smartthings log. I was hoping to use this to get a battery report of my battery operated devices along with the tips from my ecobee thermostat and various other reports, however I’m finding it difficult to get Alexa to tell me what I want to hear.
I created 2 message queues, one called battery, and another called Weather. When I ask Alexa to tell me my daily weather report (which is what I called the report), I get a report which is pretty lengthy. I created a second report to the same queue called “tomorrows weather report” but it won’t read it back. It fails with no error, just acts like there’s no data. I setup a Battery report to a battery message queue for which I thought when I asked it for a battery report but it just tells me I have a report called “Battery”.
I re-ran my ecobeeinit and turned on the tips for my Ecobee 4 for askAlexa but I’m not sure how to get them to play (right phrase)?
Thanks for any tips / tricks / help you could provide. I also have my install working with WebCore as I managed to create virtual switches which I am using with WebCore to use Alexa to turn on and off light switches that are motion activated to keep them on and ignore the motion.
Ok…good…I am glad you have this working.
Regarding your first question (let’s take these one at a time):
So you are running a weather report from Ask Alexa? How are you invoking that? Is it something like “Alexa, Ask Smart Things to play {report name}” ? If you are getting no output from the speakers, is the live logging (in ST’s IDE) showing any error? Make sure you filter for Ask Alexa. Did you update the Amazon Developer’s slots with the name of your report?
Without knowing what is in your report or what you are saying (or what the log is saying) I am kind of shooting in the dark here. Can you provide a bit more information?
Just trying what you mention, here is what I found. First, you probably need to rename your report from “weather” to something else. “Weather”, by itself is a reserved word so you will come up with some confusion in Ask Alexa by using that word. I created a report called “Tomorrows Weather” and that worked.(but I strongly recommend removing weather from any title):
And here is the output from Ask Alexa:
I also changed the name to Tomorrows Weather Report. Again, ran into a bit of difficulty because ‘weather’ is used in the name. However, I did get results:
Regarding the Ecobee integration., I can’t help much with that as I don’t have one of those units. Are you using the DTH from @yvesracine. That is the only one that supports the tips…the native Ecobee does not as I understand it.
