Alexa Skill: Hello World (TypeScript)

The project is based on the HelloWorld skill template used when you execute ask new -n <skill-name> but it has been modified to work with TypeScript.

Maybe for the first time in a template, you get the benefits of:

• TypeScript
• ASK SDK v2
• ASK CLI

Set up your Computer

Install/register for the following:

• Node.js (v8.10.0)
• NPM
• Git
• Amazon Developer Account
• AWS Account
• TypeScript
• AWS CLI (including aws configure)
• ASK CLI (including ask init)

Get the Code

Clone the repo

    $ git clone https://github.com/ask-community/ask-nodejs-ts-hello world.git my-skill-name
    $ cd my-skill-name/lambda/custom
    $ npm install

Compile the TypeScript

The template is already configured for TypeScript. From the my-skill-name/lambda/custom folder, start the build.

folder: my-skill-name/lambda/custom

$ npm run build

The build command does the following:

• executes the TypeScript compiler (tsc)
• creates a dist folder
• copies all the JavaScript generate from the .ts files into dist
• copies the package.json file to dist
• runs npm install inside the dist folder

Now all the TypeScript is compiled into JavaScript and the node_modules folder contains the needed packages.

Deploy the Skill

From the root folder (where .ask folder is), execute the command to deploy the skill:

folder: root

ask deploy

This will:

• Deploy the skill info (skill.json)
• Deploy the skill model (models/en-US.json)
• Zip up the dist folder
• Deploy the zip to lambda
• Update the .ask/config file