According to the docs, APL Text items support some HTML-like markup, with a custom escape method for special characters:

https://developer.amazon.com/docs/alexa-presentation-language/apl-text.html

There should be a function in the SDKs that we can use for escaping a plain text string, to display it as-is.

Also, the chart under "Markup characters in text must be replaced with character entity references" is a little confusing. E.g. what are we supposed to replace &, <, and > with?

To avoid having ask-cli installed globally which is not good when working with other developers together who might have version mismatches, it would be nice when you could trigger ask commands with npm scripts.

For example:
package.json:
"scripts": {
"validate": "ask validate"
}

Currently this throws errors like described here:
https://forums.developer.amazon.com/questions/211596/run-ask-commands-as-npm-script.html?childToView=212326#comment-212326

via some script we hit an api for a specific user that is in front of line and Alexa responds with example speech.

"Hi Jhon, welcome to Demo clinic"

or
"Hi Dave, welcome to Demo clinic"

I'd like to have a Lambda Layer for the ASK SDK Python available also in Europe region. Today it is available only in US.
See also here for reference: https://github.com/alexa/alexa-cookbook/blob/master/resources/lambda-layers/ask-sdk-lambda-layers.md

Can we have a command line version of the Test console? Right now, ask-cli only works with custom skills and not smart home skills.

It would be useful to permit the passing of Lambda Environment Variables as part of ask cli (and IDE plugins) configuration - OR - To bind the ask cli features as part of AWS SAM.

The JSON editor should have undo back to the last "no big red x" version in a single click. That way after I spend a bunch of time trying to figure out what it is unhappy about I can start again from a known good place with a single click.

Actually we can create and deploy javascript alexa skills, it would be great if we can do with typescript too.

I think it's not so hard to add typescript support (transpile before deploy)

Add the ability to download the code in one easy zip file, or provide some basic version control, so this https://forums.developer.amazon.com/questions/202617/alexa-hosted-skills-undo-commands.html doesn't happen

Enable the utterance profiler for speech. My experiences using the profiler is that it gets typed utterances correct. However the problems occur during speech. I would like to see the various intent considerations.

I want you to develop Alexa so that you can understand Chinese that is said to be more than 100 million native speakers.
I fully understand that Alexa can not sell in China. I think that it is not a good idea to remove Chinese speakers living in the world from business.

I don't know if the intention is for the Mode Controller to replace the Input Controller in due course but as it stands the input controller does not have the full set of useful inputs in the localised markets.

In the UK for example I would suggest that FM, DAB are certainly missing and arguably it would be useful to have the more branded Freesat, Freeview, Sky as likely components that are driving an input.

The SmartHome SDK RangeController accepts a unit of measure.

It would be helpful if the full SI unit catalogue could be handled (both Base and Derived: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InternationalSystemofUnits#Baseunits)

I can immediately see a need for Hertz for example

In node.js if a user disables your skill, the framework should delete the persistent info record from the DynamoDB stream for the alexa skill automatically. Why leave dead data in my persistence store? The user has decided to disable the skill. It even gives you a warning that it will remove information but it's not deleting it from my dynamo db stream.

I had posted this previously but it seems to have disappeared?

With the SmartHome SDK there is a need to prevent users accessing interfaces that are not in specific regions. For example, an Australian customer accessing the US endpoint may or may not have access to the SceneController capability or the TemperatureSensor capability.

This is controlled at a level below the specific Alexa Gateway as some gateways only support some interfaces in some languages. We need a mechanism to identify which interfaces are supported.

Currently the ASK SDK for Python supports data persistence using DynamoDB and it is recommended to use it, however, to expand some capabilities that only S3 can provide is a great alternative. the SDK for NodeJS already includes support for this officially. Not sure if this can be useful, I have implemented it and the information can be found here https://github.com/frivas/alexa-s3-persistence-python

I hope you find it useful.
Thank you very much.

JSON is great, but YAML is way easier. Especially the configs for models can be quite long and the ability to add comments in YAML would really make it easier to read.

I think it would be nice if i could trigger a call directly from my skill if the user need more information !