Serve More

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  Welcome Screen

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  Goodbye Screen

Inspiration

Many people want to help out their communities by volunteering, but don't know where to serve. JustServe has an API that will let you know about service in your area, but there is no Alexa skill. Alexa is a quick way to find out about service and to hear success stories.

What it does

Ask the Serve More skill to 'find a project' or 'share a success story'. If you have enabled permission to access the device's zip code, the search will first ask if you want to use that zip code. Otherwise say a different zip code. You can go through a list of 10 active projects and either get more information or text a project link to your mobile phone. If you have enabled permission to access your mobile phone, then it will use that phone number as the default or you can send it to another phone number. There is a different welcome message the first time versus other times you access the skill and time zone information is used to wish you a good morning, afternoon, or evening.

How I built it

The project uses the Jovo framework and the Node.js code runs in Lambda and uses various AWS services. Configuration values are stored in Lambda environment variables and some API configurations are stored in Secrets Manager. Images are stored in an S3 bucket and any persisted user information is stored in DynamoDB. This data currently includes information about the number of times the skill was accessed and when and allows a different welcome message on the first time versus subsequent times. In the future, DynamoDB will be used to store a friends list and favorite projects. CloudWatch is used for logging and X-Ray is used for tracing. Twilio is used to send the outbound text messages.

The skill consists of various states depending on whether the user is being asked for zip code, phone number, or navigating through the list of results.

Features that this project uses are: Display Interface, Device Address Permission & API (Postal Code), Customer Phone Number Permission & API (Mobile Phone), Alexa Settings API (Time Zone), State Management, Dialog Management, Fallback Intent.

Challenges I ran into

The main challenge that I faced was time. There are more features that I would have added if I could have started the project earlier.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I decided to enter this contest at the last minute and have accomplished creating this skill is just a few days time. This skill uses a lot of Alexa features and AWS services and it was the first time that I have used customer phone number and time zone APIs in a production skill.

What I learned

I learned how to use the JustServe API. Also, the conversation flow that first asks if you want to use a default zip or phone was fun to design.

What's next for Serve More

The future of Serve More includes allowing you to search for a project by date as well as save a project as a favorite. Share the project by sending texts to a saved friends list. Add additional screens for project detail and success story.

Built With

• dynamodb
• jovo
• node.js
• s3
• secretsmanager
• twilio