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 !

I would like to be able to test new skills on a local server which is only accessible via a public ipv6 address. The domain/subdomain has an appropriate dns entry (AAAA record) and ssl certificate.
As of now, neither the developer console nor a live test with an Echo is able to resolve the domain name.

I originally asked this as a question to the developer support and they suggested to raise the topic here.

CanFulfillIntentRequest should provide some basic context for the user such as (general) location information. My skill is only useful to people in a particular geographic region (the 5 boroughs of New York City). It'd make sense to allow it to fulfill intent requests originating from New York, but not from Chicago. I don't think think there's any way to distinguish at this time.

There are few error types available when replying to an alexa event: https://developer.amazon.com/docs/device-apis/alexa-errorresponse.html#error-type-values

Seems that the error type does not influence the response of alexa to the user..
See: https://forums.developer.amazon.com/questions/176777/smart-home-skill-error-response.html

Please document how alexa will react to each error.

hello when the support of Amazon.Litteral will be done for French Skills ?

The documentation the the customer contact API says to use the following end points "/v2/accounts/~current/settings/Profile.name". A follow up note says: "~current" represents the userId of the current user (account that invoked your skill).

I read that and assume I need to replace "~current" with the userID... which isn't the case (after 2 days of off/on testing).

Additional detail here: https://forums.developer.amazon.com/questions/179334/how-do-you-request-user-contact-information.html?childToView=180317#answer-180317

Lots of us are developing skills behind a corporate firewall. The ask-cli is a great tool that we can't use since most corporate firewall's require the use of a proxy server which is not supported in the cli

I believe there needs to be an equivalent serviceClientFactory call for the customer profile (e.g. - 'serviceClientFactory.getDeviceAddressServiceClient()' is used for device address; I assume 'serviceClientFactory.getCustomerProfileServiceClient()' would be the equivalent for Customer Profile info)

incorporate voice info (ID) into alexa request context.

Currently I wasn't able to find an option to create a smart home device in NodeJS ASK SDK. It only allows to create event handlers. For instance Insteon skill for Alexa allows to create devices that alexa can communicate directly with (i.e. you can ask alexa to turn on light switch derectly without saying: "tell skillname to turn on the lights").

Allow access to Alexa contacts from the skill development environment. so that one can develope a skill around contact search

In order for Echo Show to play videos the Skill needs both the Video Interface and the Display Interface enabled.

It is not explained in the documentation that the Display Interface needs to be enabled for a skill to play a video.

This issue caused a large amount of wasted development time. Please consider changing the Interface descriptions and/or documentation to reflect this.

Thank you,

https://developer.amazon.com/docs/smapi/skill-manifest.html#customInterface-enumeration

This API says "AUDIO" as an option, when it is actually "AUDIO_PLAYER"