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question

bxio asked Sep 27, '15

Session Attributes trouble

I'm struggling with understanding how session and session attributes work. Say I have the following code: ====== function handleFirstIntent(intent, session, callback){ sessionAttributes = { questionsAsked: 0, questionsWanted: 0, questionBank: [], } sessionAttributes.questionsWanted = intent.slots.NumToAsk.value; var cardTitle = "Welcome"; var speechOutput = "Asking "+sessionAttributes.questionsWanted+" questions."; // If the user either does not reply to the welcome message or says something that is not // understood, they will be prompted again with this text. var repromptText = null; var shouldEndSession = false; callback(sessionAttributes, buildSpeechletResponse(cardTitle, speechOutput, repromptText, shouldEndSession)); } function handleSecondIntent(intent, session, callback){ var sessionAttributes = session.attributes; var cardTitle = "Welcome"; var speechOutput = "Answering "+sessionAttributes.questionsWanted+" questions."; // If the user either does not reply to the welcome message or says something that is not // understood, they will be prompted again with this text. var repromptText = null; var shouldEndSession = false; callback(sessionAttributes, buildSpeechletResponse(cardTitle, speechOutput, repromptText, shouldEndSession)); } I invoke handleFirstIntent, which should set session attributes to whatever the intent's NumToAsk slot's value is. Immediately after, I invoke handleSecondIntent, yet sessionAttributes.questionsWanted is undefined. What am I doing wrong?

alexa skills kit submission testing certification

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Jon answered Sep 27, '15

Hi. You are not updating session.attributes. session.attributes.questionsWanted = intent.slots.NumToAsk.value; should work better. Don't forgot to check NumToAsk if it exists and is what you expect as well.

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bxio answered Sep 27, '15

Thanks for the reply. Even after hard coding in a value like this: session.attributes.questionsWanted = 4; in handleFirstIntent, trying to access the value in handleSecondIntent still returns invalid because session.attributes.questionsWanted is undefined. Am I missing something?

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Jon answered Sep 27, '15

When I was first learning, I put this code at the top of all my functions and intent handlers: console.log("session attributes stored: " + JSON.stringify(session.attributes)); Are you changing you callback back to "session" from sessionAttrinutes? Also, how come you are calling buildSpeechletRespone directly rather than using the response object that is in all the examples? Message was edited by: Jonathan P.

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bxio answered Sep 27, '15

I started with the alexa favourite colour example provided on lambda. I realized now it's very different from the examples provided. Still, even when I load the wise_guy skill verbatim, it fails to handle the WhosThere intent, because session.attributes.stage is undefined. I'm beginning to suspect I misconfigured lambda somehow. Any idea what's going on?

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memo@amazon answered Oct 1, '15

Hi bxio, Are you doing your testing using the Service Simulator or an Echo? Thanks,

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April L. Hamilton answered Oct 6, '15

bixio - See my Session Attributes in Javascript Guide. http://lovemyecho.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/SessionAttributesInJavascript.pdf

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