Alexa's "this" is undefined

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CodeKat asked Mar 12, '17

Alexa's "this" is undefined

I'm currently developing some code using node.js. I'm looking to save the state of something in the attributes of the "this" item or "session" within the index.js. Here's how the code looks:

function getAlexaState(){
 if(typeof this.attributes == 'undefined'){
        
        // Completely new instance
        this.attributes = { AlexaState : '' };
        this.attributes.AlexaState = <somestring>; 
        return this.attributes.AlexaState;
    }
    else{
        return  this.attributes.AlexaState;
    }
};

Whenever I call to "this" or use "this.session" it tells me that it is undefined (specifically "this" is undefined, not it's properties), as I'm trying to follow the example code's use of this here (https://github.com/alexa/skill-sample-nodejs-highlowgame/blob/master/src/index.js). I'm tempted to just save these values to DynamoDb and retrieve it constantly whenever I have an intent triggered. This happened both locally and on my Lambda instance (Using the "Alexa Start Session" as the testing config).

What could be the issue?

intents node_js

10 |5000

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Answer 1 · 2017-03-12T18:18:53Z

GadgetChannel answered Mar 12, '17

If your function is declared outside of the session or intent handler classes it will likely not have access to "this". If you are calling this from one of your handlers, the easiest way around this is to call change the function so it looks like this:

function getAlexaState(alexa) {
	if(typeof alexa.attributes =='undefined') {
		// Completely new instance
		alexa.attributes = {AlexaState : ''};
		alexa.attributes.AlexaState = <somestring>;
		return alexa.attributes.AlexaState;
	}
	else {
		return alexa.attributes.AlexaState;
	}
};

and then call it from the handler like follows:

getAlexaState(this);

That will pass the relevant object to the function and allow it to access it.

1

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CodeKat commented · Mar 13, 2017 at 12:39 AM

This was the issue! Seems that "this" is not global. Updated the code and it's working great. Thanks!

0 ·

Answer 2 · 2017-03-12T18:21:15Z

ppollmanns answered Mar 12, '17

this is tricky (pun intended). i think it is absolutely impossible to decide from your code snippet what went wrong and where. are you using the 'getAlexaState' function inside of some of the statehandlers?

like:

var startGameHandlers = Alexa.CreateStateHandler(states.STARTMODE, {
                'NewSession': getAlexaState,
		'Unhandled': function() {
 	                       console.log("UNHANDLED");
       	   	               var message = 'Say yes or no.'; 
                               this.emit(':ask', message, message);
                             }
});

(note that your method comes without parentheses after the methodname because it not yet the method invocation)

if so, the "this" should be accessible.

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CodeKat commented · Mar 13, 2017 at 12:36 AM

Oh, sorry about that! Yes the function is behind called from an intent. For example:

var handlers= {
    
    'AMAZON.HelpIntent' : function(){
        getAlexaState();
        }
    },

0 ·

ppollmanns CodeKat commented · Mar 13, 2017 at 08:49 AM

i see you've solved the issue already but another take on this issue would be to change your handlers declaration to:

var handlers= {
       'AMAZON.HelpIntent' :  getAlexaState
     };

0 ·

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