Alexa skill forgets session between intents - alexa-skills-kit

Question

I'm not sure if it's because I'm testing in the alexa developer console but it appears the session is restarted after every intent.
In the below code, if I invoke SetMyVarA it will write out the correct value to cloudwatch (or the terminal when using serverless), but if I then invoke SetMyVarB immediately after then I'll get "Hmm, I don't know that one" (running locally will just give me undefined for the value).
I've also tried following the advice in this question but it didn't seem to have an effect: adding alexa skill session attributes from nodejs
/*jslint es6 */
"use strict";
const Alexa = require(`alexa-sdk`);
module.exports.handler = (event, context, callback) => {
console.log(`handler: ${JSON.stringify(event.request)}`);
const alexa = Alexa.handler(event, context, callback);
alexa.appId = process.env.APP_ID;
alexa.registerHandlers(handlers);
alexa.execute();
};
const handlers = {
"LaunchRequest": function() {
console.log(`LaunchRequest`);
this.emit(`AMAZON.HelpIntent`);
},
"SetMyVarA": function() {
console.log(`Set MyVarA`);
var myVarA = this.event.session.attributes.myVarA = this.event.request.intent.slots.myVarA.value;
console.log(`MyVarA is ${myVarA}.`);
var speechOutput = `MyVarA has been set to ` + myVarA + `.`;
this.response.speak(speechOutput);
this.emit(`:responseReady`);
},
"SetMyVarB": function() {
console.log(`Set MyVarB`);
var myVarB = this.event.session.attributes.myVarB = this.event.request.intent.slots.myVarB.value;
console.log(`MyVarB is ${myVarB}.`);
var myVarA = this.event.session.attributes.myVarA
console.log(`MyVarA is ${myVarA}.`);
var speechOutput = {
"type": `SSML`,
"ssml": `<speak>MyVarB is ` + myVarB + `.</speak>`,
};
this.response.speak(speechOutput);
this.emit(`:responseReady`);
},
"AMAZON.HelpIntent": function() {
var speechOutput = `This is a skill.`;
var reprompt = `Help here.`;
speechOutput = speechOutput + reprompt;
this.response.speak(speechOutput)
.listen(reprompt);
this.emit(`:responseReady`);
},
"AMAZON.CancelIntent": function() {
},
"AMAZON.StopIntent": function() {
},
"AMAZON.RepeatIntent": function() {
console.log(`RepeatIntent`);
this.emit(`LaunchRequest`);
},
"Unhandled": function() {
// handle any intent in interaction model with no handler code
console.log(`Unhandled`);
this.emit(`LaunchRequest`);
},
"SessionEndedRequest": function() {
// "exit", timeout or error. Cannot send back a response
console.log(`Session ended: ${this.event.request.reason}`);
},
};

Answer 1

In SetMyVar if you use speak() and then emit a responseReady the session gets closed by default, so you're already out of it when you try to call your 2nd intent.
If you want to do exactly the same thing you're doing in SetMyVarA but not close the session immediately you need to set this.response.shouldEndSession to false. The Alexa Dev Console can handle skill sessions with no problems, so don't worry about that.
By the way, you're using ASK v1 which is outdated. Please switch to v2 code like this:
https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/decb3931-2c81-497d-85e4-8fbb5ffb1114/now-available-version-2-of-the-ask-software-development-kit-for-node-js
https://ask-sdk-for-nodejs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ASK-SDK-Migration-Guide.html