3.1.6 Setting up Amazon Alexa

Amazon Developer Account

You should have an active Amazon developer account that you want to link with Orbita.

Go to https://developer.amazon.com/ and click on Developer Console.
Log in to your developer account. (You can create a new account by clicking on the “Create your Amazon Developer Account“ button)
After the login is successful, click Alexa > Alexa Skills Kit.
You can view all the Alexa Skills here.

In the Experience Manager, select a project and navigate to the Side Navigation menu > Develop > Deployment.
In the Deployment screen > Alexa tab, click Authenticate to get the Amazon sign-in page.
Sign in with your Amazon Developer Account credentials.
After successful sign-in, the pop-up window will be closed, and the “Authenticated Successfully“ message is displayed on the Deployment screen.
Click Deploy > Publish to link your interaction model with Amazon Alexa.
After the skill is published, you will get the “Build Successful” message on the Deployment screen.

You can test your skill using Voice Assistant, your own Amazon developer account, or enable Beta testing for the skill and add beta testers.

You can test the skill in your voice assistant by enabling the skill and then using the utterance

“open/launch <invocation name>”

To enable your skill

Go to https://alexa.amazon.com/ and login when prompted.
Select Skills from the left side menu.
Select Your skills from the top right corner of the page
Find your skill and click on it.
Click on Enable.
If the skill is already in Enabled status, Disable and re-enable it.
Choose the permissions you would like to add to the skill and click on “Save Permissions”.
Refer How do I set reminders with the Reminders node? to know about Reminders.
Orbita Login page will open in a new tab. (for account linking)
Provide the email and password of your Orbita account and click Sign In to receive a confirmation message from Alexa.
You can now use your voice assistant to invoke and test the skill.

Choose the skill you wanted to test and select Test from the action dropdown.
Ensure you are in the Test tab and select Development from the dropdown on the top.
Choose the Alexa simulator tab and type Open/Launch <invocation name> in the input field. You can also use the mic to speak to the chatbot.

You can enable beta testing on your Alexa skill and assign other Alexa users as beta testers.

Go to https://developer.amazon.com/alexa/console/ask.
Select Distribute from the actions dropdown against your skill|
Fill in all the details on the Skill Preview and Privacy & Compliance pages and click Save.
In the Availability Page, click on the Beta Test to expand that section of the page.
Add your email as the Beta test administrator.
Add Beta testers' email and click Add.
Click on Enable Beta testing.
You can also copy the invite URL and give it to the beta testers.

Enter the URL in a browser and Login when prompted.
You will be greeted with a pop-up window as shown below. Click on “I Accept”.
The skill will be added to your account. You have to enable the skill to use it for testing. (See Voice Assistant section above)

Deploy to Amazon Alexa by first logging in to Amazon Developer Console and remember to enable testing
Learn how to set up beta testing with a real device where you can add other Alexa users, by having their Alexa email be part of the skill-testing
With Orbita, you can choose to publish the skill to the public or Alexa for business