Inspiration
I was surprised to find that there weren't any skills that simply allowed me to search the Billboard music charts by date or ask for "this day in history" questions, so I took it upon myself to do it.
What it does
This skill allows you to ask what was the #n song for any date on the Billboard Hot 100 charts
How I built it
I used an unofficial billboard API I found on github to collect the historical data into a DynamoDB table and I have a Lambda function that runs weekly to populate the latest data and keep it fresh. My Alexa skill calls a separate lambda function written in Python 3 that interprets the user request into a DynamoDB query and returns the response.
Challenges I ran into
I was learning as I went as I had never made an Alexa skill before.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
I recently tuned my queries to return a response in less than 1 second. I've also seen a number of users returning to the skill, so it's nice to see that it's actually being used.
What I learned
I learned the basics of Alexa skill creation and DynamoDB as both were new to me.
What's next for Billboard Charts
I would like to allow for queries beyond the hot 100 chart. I've also wanted to give users the option to listen to the song if they want, but I believe I'm still limited by Amazon in doing this. I am also already collecting additional data that could be used for more advanced queries or just providing users more information.
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