question

Alen asked Dec 16, '15

Beginner needs help.

Hi all; I'm trying to create my first "Hello world" skill and I'm running into multiple issues. I tried to follow the instructions in the getting started section but I'm kinda lost. Is there something out there that can help me with starting my first test program? Is there a phone# to call if I'm stuck somewhere in the process? Thanks in advance, AK.

alexa skills kit debugging

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hichamt answered Dec 16, '15

Hi Alen, We have developed a solution that may help you. We also provide chat support. Check out the thread here: https://forums.developer.amazon.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=10036&tstart=0 Best, Hicham

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jjaquinta answered Dec 17, '15

Amazon do not provide any help, other than answering questions (infrequently) in the forums and copious amounts of doc. You can try to point-and-click tool referenced above, but it is not supplied or supported by Amazon and does not do the account setup stuff which can be rather confusing and complicated.

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hichamt answered Dec 17, '15

+1 Joseph Also, don't hesitate to ask specific questions, the community is always here to help :-)

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Michael E. Strupp answered Dec 17, '15

Unfortunately, the debugging information that Alexa generates when there is a problem with a program is not always helpful. If you've gotten to the point where you have your Hello World skill setup as a skill that you enable/disable through the Alexa Browser Application ( alexa.amazon.com), there may be an error description in the "Home" section of the application. Also, as mentioned above, feel free to post your questions here - there are a number of accomplished programmers on this board.

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mpassi answered Dec 20, '15

I have been using the Vocal Apps beta, and it has helped me to create my first Alexa app. No doubt, the whole backend of Lambda, skills kit, cutting and pasting ARNs and such makes this a difficult proposition at this point for anyone not used to programming and all the convoluted stuff. Vocal Apps does not do all that yet but is getting better.

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hichamt answered Dec 21, '15

Hi mpassi, Thanks for the feedback :) We have just released today an update to Alexa Designer that takes care of ALL the lambda function set-up. Basically, you can just forget what is a Lambda function => everything is managed in the back end. May the force be with your skills... Hicham

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jjaquinta answered Dec 22, '15

>Basically, you can just forget what is a Lambda function Unless you exceed the free tier! (Which, admittedly, should be hard.)

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hichamt answered Dec 24, '15

Yep, " Build for Free. ASK is free to use. AWS Lambda is also free for the first one million calls per month. " is a pretty good sandbox :)

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