Mr Bartender

Inspiration

This was my first skill that I did for a client. The original version was released before any display-enabled devices were released, so in 2018 we updated with full APL support.

What it does

It uses an un-published API owned by Absolut Vodka to search their cocktail database. (www.absolutdrinks.com to see it in action). It uses custom query generation and results consolidation to run multiple requests based on ingredient searhces. That is, if you ask for a recipes containing A, B and C, the skill will search for (A+B+C) and (A+B) and (A+C) and (B+C) and union and de-duplicate those results.

How I built it

Coding involved quite a bit of reverse-engineering the Absolute API. And then they completely changed it so when building the second version we had to do it all again. It was also a deep dive into APL...

Challenges I ran into

Absolut didn't publish any details of their API, so we had to figure that out using Postman. LAter, after their revision, they did publish some basic guidelines. Also, my clients were very un-responsive and didn't have much of an opinion about how the skill should work or how it should look.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I think the APL turned out very nice. And i like the effect of using a male voice for the skill.

What I learned

I learned a lot about APL and Alexa directives.

What's next for Mr Bartender

I doubt if the client will pursue any more work on Mr. Bartender, but it does serve as a nice showcase for what I can do when pitching new skills to clients.

Built With

• lambda
• node.js