Michael, again man, no disrespect meant to Tony or you. But this childish behavior is not limited to this thread. Just got a PM with this foolishness as well. But I will keep it out of here!
Letās just keep this thread about the Ask Alexa and its installation/usageā¦I appreciate you cleaning up Fridayās ādiscussionā with Tonyā¦I am glad everyone is passionate about these apps!
Iām trying to install Ask Alexa, but Iām stuck on on the last part of configuring the SmartApp where you go to Settings > Setup Variables to get the html link for the Lambda code (one-step method). When I click Setup Variables I get the following error:
{āerrorā:true,ātypeā:ājava.lang.NullPointerExceptionā,āmessageā:āAn unexpected error occured.ā}
In the IDE Live Logging it gives me the following error:
java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke method toLowerCase() on null object
Any ideas where I went wrong? Should I skip this and try the two-step method? If there is a better place to troubleshoot this issue, please let me know.
It sounds like you donāt have the latest version of the application. You should be at 2.3.6a. A quick fix to this is to simply go to Settings>>Personalization and ensure that the invocation name at the bottom of the screen is not blank. 2.3.6a fixes this, however, and I recommend being on the latest version.
Let me know if that fixes your issue; otherwise please PM me and we can work together to solve this.
The invocation name was set to āSmart Thingsā, and the version installed was 2.3.6a. I still got the error until I deleted the invocation name, and put it back to āSmart Thingsā. Not sure exactly what was going on, but it looks like the problem is corrected and Iām moving forward. Thanks for your help and quick reply!
No problemā¦very interesting and I will attempt to reproduce itā¦Thanks for the heads up!
EDIT
Was just able to reproduce itā¦will fix it and will put it with the release this Friday!
EDIT 2 Found the mistake and published it with a quick fixā¦Thanks!
I have been trying to get askAlexa to work for the past couple of days but I seem to be running into a roadblock. I am able to get the askAlexa smartapp (version 2.3.6a) published and it shows up in smartthings now easily. The next step is to install the lambda function and I am having issues.
When I click āSetup Variablesā I get an error code:
{āerrorā:true,ātypeā:java.lang.NullPointerException",āmessageā:āAn unexpected error ccurred.ā}
I tried erasing the smart app and reinstalling it manually and then again automatically (with github) and i have the same issue.
I tried live logging in smartthings and when I click the āsetup Variablesā I get this error code in the live logging:
java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke method toLowerCase() on null object
What am I doing wrong?
Thank you
Anthony,
This is the exact error as the user above. I just fixed the GitHub location files. If you grab that and overwrite what you have in your ide it should work.
Please report back and let me know if it indeed worked for you.
I did what the last user wrote and erased the invocation name and then put it back to Smart Things. Went back in and now it works. Thanks!
Perfectā¦a more permanent fix is now published on GitHub, but you should be fine going forward. Enjoy!
If you are looking at this thread contemplating installing Ask Alexa for the first time, just FYIā¦there is a new version coming out tomorrow (Friday 1/19). I wouldnāt hesitate as the upgrade is simply new IDE code, but just FYI for those on the fence. New features include WebCoRE xParams that can now be created within the app and MyNextManager integrations.
Edit New version here: [RELEASE] Ask Alexa 2.3.7
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Geeze Mike, now I have one more thing I need to do this weekend. Thanks a lot 
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It is an easy upgrade if it helpsā¦I have some other things in the works for the next release I think some folks will enjoy. So I know what I will be doing this weekend 
Welcome to another Friday! It is strange not having any football on TV until the Super Bowlā¦What will I do?!? Guess I will continue to update the apps! Actually, that is exactly what I have been doingā¦
First, for those of you that are fans of the FooBot device @storageanarchy send me a pull request that improves the calculation accuracy along with formatting a little bit better on iOS devices. Thanks again to Barry for his work in keeping me āpreciseā (inside joke). Files and other information can be found here: http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Foobot_Air_Quality_Monitor
For Ask Alexa, I have been working with @bangali to integrate his up-and-coming Room Occupancy concept. You will not only be able to query the status of a roomās occupancy but also change the status based on occupancy (like sleep or enabled). Think of it like the concept of the ācheck inā that I put into Ask Alexa last year, but on a more āmicroā or room level. Until the release, I recommend checking out the app here: Rooms Manager smartapps and Rooms Occupancy DTH (Smarter Lighting with automated rules driven lighting)
In other Ask Alexa news, I have not yet been able to figure out who sent me the bitcoins I mentioned a couple weeks ago. I ended up cashing them out, and thank goodness as they have dropped in price. The link I put into my release notes is only for donations for Ask Alexa, so I know they came from someone here. Again, all I want to do is thank youā¦if you are reading this, I DO appreciate the donation!
While I thought the Christmas rush was the reason for the increased number of Ask Alexa installs, I have been actually rather pleased to see from my statistics that the rate of 5 to 10 installs per week is being maintained. I donāt track this to the granular level to see if a single person may be attempting multiple installs, but I can tell there is a consistent number of installs happening. I REALLY appreciate everyone who installs and uses the app! And, my installation questions have been reduced due to the new process of installation where the custom code is given to you and you donāt have to constantly copy/paste information.
Finally, thanks to @Michael_Deffendall for helping me improve the documentation even further. Amazon is constantly updating their web sites, so I need to keep on the documentation to match it. In a rare set of events, Amazon has actually made the AWS process even easier now. Again, thanks to Michael for the great suggestions on how to improve the installation and the documentation!
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Thanks for the call-outā¦ 
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I will need to look into this room occupancy thingā¦Does SmartThings have bluetooth beacons or is this using some other technology!
Great work Michael on keeping this program going!
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on mobile so quick response - no it does not use beacons. it uses a combination of sensors everything from presence, contact, switch, power, lux and others to set rooms occupancy state and execute a set of user created rules in the app to turn on/off switches, execute routines etc.
please do check it out. happy to answer other questions about it.
thanks.
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thanks for adding support for rooms occupancy status and state update with Ask Alexaā¦ much appreciated.
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I finally got around to updating my AskAlexa installation. It took longer to read the instructions than to do the work.
RE: @bangali 's Rooms Manager. What kind of black magic do I need to do to get room status updates. I didnāt see any specific slot to place my Rooms Occupancy devices, so I added them under switches, added them to AskAlexa rooms and then added them to the room report. The Room Report is seeing the device- but reading it as ānullā
Whatās the correct configuration to add a Rooms Occupancy object for control and reporting?
As always - great work!