Starship Captain's Log 4.0

Starship Captain's Log 4.0 is now available with log emailing capability to retrieve text transcripts of your entire log or the results of a find entry(ies) search. Just say enable Starship Captain's Log 4 to begin (requires account linking for the email feature) or enable the skill from

link

Inspiration: Star Trek TV Show

What it does:

enables you to record, retrieve, and delete entries in your own personal captain's log.

How I built it:

I originally built it just using the Alexa Skills Kit. The latest version is built on top of the Jovo Framework using JavaScript, Node.js and DynamoDb.

Challenges I ran into:

the auto timeout of the Alexa platform while waiting for user response was a major issue. Also, capturing raw text was a bit of a puzzle because of a level of inconsistency in prioritization Alexa give to intents.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of:

figured out a way to capture the log entries in segments (that allow some degree of editing without deleting your entire message) that are compiled to the final entry for the session (that can also be deleted in its entirety). I also have search by date and word(s). My captain's log skill was the first of its type to allow users to provide a four digit code so that in homes with multiple users each can have their own log.

What I learned:

provide help, but don't make the user have to listen to it every time. Contextual help is the best way if you have lots of features. Users have very little patience for ANYTHING, even if it is simple a limitation of the platform and not your own code.

What's next for Starship Captain's Log:

SPECIAL NOTE: Version 4.0 of the Captain's Log has beencertified (under a different skill ID) and adds account linking so the log entries can be emailed to the user.

Built With

• dynamo-db
• javascript
• jovo-framework
• node.js