Make SSML test tool available outside of developer console
Right now, in the test tab for a given skill in the developer console, there's an option to provide some SSML text and hear how Alexa would convert that to speech. This utility uses no contextual information about the skill itself, and there's really no reason at all that it needs to be stuck behind a login gate, other than for the purpose of possibly thwarting abuse of said functionality.
As a developer, I would like the ability to provide this same functionality to my users on a public website I run or to my collaborators in a private tool of my own.
Preferably this would exist in the form of an embeddable widget that I could just drop into my site, but an API that would let me do the same thing would be acceptable.
Some sort of rate-limiting mechanism to prevent abuse of the API would be acceptable (and even expected). The ability to choose Alexa's voice by locale (or even a potential integration with Polly voices) would be a nice bonus feature.
To provide a specific use case - I'm looking at building a skill that can consume a small amount of user-generated content, specifically with regard to online handles. I'd like users to be able to test how Alexa will pronounce their IPA-written names before saving and submitting on a website.
Eric Olson
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