Data-Driven Alexa Skills: Voice Access to Rich Data Sources for Enterprise Applications

Design and build innovative, custom, data-driven Alexa skills for home or business. Working through several projects, this book teaches you how to build Alexa skills and integrate them with online APIs. If you have basic Python skills, this book will show you how to build data-driven Alexa skills. You will learn to use data to give your Alexa skills dynamic intelligence, in-depth knowledge, and the ability to remember.

Data-Driven Alexa Skills takes a step-by-step approach to skill development. You will begin by configuring simple skills in the Alexa Skill Builder Console. Then you will develop advanced custom skills that use several Alexa Skill Development Kit features to integrate with lambda functions, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Internet data feeds. These advanced skills enable you to link user accounts, query and store data using a NoSQL database, and access real estate listings and stock prices via web APIs.

What You Will Learn

• Set up and configure your development environment properly the first time
• Build Alexa skills quickly and efficiently using Agile tools and techniques
• Create a variety of data-driven Alexa skills for home and business
• Access data from web applications and Internet data sources via their APIs
• Test with unit-testing frameworks throughout the development life cycle
• Manage and query your data using the DynamoDb NoSQL database engines

Who This Book Is For

Developers who wish to go beyond Hello World and build complex, data-driven applications on Amazon’s Alexa platform; developers who want to learn how to use Lambda functions, the Alexa Skills SDK, Alexa Presentation Language, and Alexa Conversations; developers interested in integrating with public APIs such as real estate listings and stock market prices. Readers will need to have basic Python skills.