Alexa skill, custom slot - date and time - amazon-dynamodb

Question

I've created a skill and i want to be able to call upon a machine state at a certain date and time from my dynamo db table.
my first column is date and my sort key is time.
Would i need to create a custom slot for date with all 365 daysof the year or is there a quicker way to do this? Also would i need to create a custom slot for every minute of the day.
Code:
var AWSregion = 'us-east-1'; // us-east-1
var AWS = require('aws-sdk');
var dbClient = new AWS.DynamoDB.DocumentClient();
AWS.config.update({
region: "'us-east-1'"
});
let GetMachineStateIntent = (context, callback) => {
var params = {
TableName: "updatedincident",
Key: {
date: "2018-03-28",
time: "04:23",
}
};
dbClient.get(params, function (err, data) {
if (err) {
// failed to read from table for some reason..
console.log('failed to load data item:\n' + JSON.stringify(err, null, 2));
// let skill tell the user that it couldn't find the data
sendResponse(context, callback, {
output: "the data could not be loaded from your database",
endSession: false
});
} else {
console.log('loaded data item:\n' + JSON.stringify(data.Item, null, 2));
// assuming the item has an attribute called "incident"..
sendResponse(context, callback, {
output: data.Item.incident,
endSession: false
});
}
});
};
function sendResponse(context, callback, responseOptions) {
if(typeof callback === 'undefined') {
context.succeed(buildResponse(responseOptions));
} else {
callback(null, buildResponse(responseOptions));
}
}
function buildResponse(options) {
var alexaResponse = {
version: "1.0",
response: {
outputSpeech: {
"type": "SSML",
"ssml": `<speak><prosody rate="slow">${options.output}</prosody></speak>`
},
shouldEndSession: options.endSession
}
};
if (options.repromptText) {
alexaResponse.response.reprompt = {
outputSpeech: {
"type": "SSML",
"ssml": `<speak><prosody rate="slow">${options.reprompt}</prosody></speak>`
}
};
}
return alexaResponse;
}
exports.handler = (event, context, callback) => {
try {
var request = event.request;
if (request.type === "LaunchRequest") {
sendResponse(context, callback, {
output: "welcome to my skill. what data are you looking for?",
endSession: false
});
}
else if (request.type === "IntentRequest") {
let options = {};
if (request.intent.name === "GetMachineStateIntent") {
GetMachineStateIntent(context, callback);
} else if (request.intent.name === "AMAZON.StopIntent" || request.intent.name === "AMAZON.CancelIntent") {
sendResponse(context, callback, {
output: "ok. good bye!",
endSession: true
});
}
else if (request.intent.name === "AMAZON.HelpIntent") {
sendResponse(context, callback, {
output: "you can ask me about incidents that have happened",
reprompt: "what can I help you with?",
endSession: false
});
}
else {
sendResponse(context, callback, {
output: "I don't know that one! please try again!",
endSession: false
});
}
}
else if (request.type === "SessionEndedRequest") {
sendResponse(context, callback, ""); // no response needed
}
else {
// an unexpected request type received.. just say I don't know..
sendResponse(context, callback, {
output: "I don't know that one! please try again!",
endSession: false
});
}
} catch (e) {
// handle the error by logging it and sending back an failure
console.log('Unexpected error occurred in the skill handler!', e);
if(typeof callback === 'undefined') {
context.fail("Unexpected error");
} else {
callback("Unexpected error");
}
}
};

Answer 1

The short answer is no
In your interaction model you can supply the following built in slot types for your date and time slots:
built-in Date slot: https://developer.amazon.com/docs/custom-skills/slot-type-reference.html#date
built-in Time slot: https://developer.amazon.com/docs/custom-skills/slot-type-reference.html#time
The docs explain what type of utterances map to each.
For instance, you could create an interaction model where you set up an intent, let's call it GetMachineStateIntent and then map the following utterances to this model:
what was the machine state at {Time} on {Date}
what was the state of the machine at {Time} on {Date}
what was the machine state at {Time} {Date}
what was the state of the machine at {Time} {Date}
what was the machine state on {Date} at {Time}
what was the state of the machine on {Date} {Time}
what was the machine state {Date} at {Time}
what was the state of the machine {Date} {Time}
In your skill, you would handle the GetMachineStateIntent and in the request you will receive the filled in values for each of the two slots.
As a first step, while building the interaction model, it would be good to have Alexa simply respond back with speech confirming that it received the date and time slot values from your request.
For example, you might include something like:
if (request.type === "IntentRequest" && request.intent.name == "GetMachineStateIntent") {
var dateSlot = request.intent.slots.Date != null ?
request.intent.slots.Date.value : "unknown date";
var timeSlot = request.intent.slots.Time != null ?
request.intent.slots.Time.value : "unknown time";
// respond with speech saying back what the skill thinks the user requested
sendResponse(context, callback, {
output: "You wanted the machine state at "
+ timeSlot + " on " + dateSlot,
endSession: true
});
}