I am not seeing dialogState in Alexa's event in AWS lambda logs, for a multiturn dialog? - alexa-skills-kit

Question

I created an intent with slots in Alexa. This triggers an AWS lambda written in Python. I am logging the 'event'. I expect event['request']['dialogState'] to be present but it is not. Am I missing something?
Event:
{u'session': {u'application': {u'applicationId': u'amzn1.ask.skill.b2a191bb-7ee2-4fa7-aa7b-456d4bd2ee35'}, u'sessionId': u'Sessi onId.afb747ea-01ae-4094-ba10-ac49405a99df', u'user': {u'userId': u'amzn1.ask.account.BFHTSNCIVD2HA563BEPLRW5TSCESQEZXCIULPPB2ULOZBIJRCPM 5Z5NWOWH3HWNOZRTY4WT3FZFVGWWPKRSKC4ZNDSB2EYB45TYQ3RNY67CZPGF4GBMV6CL57C5MJVPIQPH25DQWGXGALDBCBRHMG5IA3Y26UHI7MHPIV3665ZU5OESS3UBADD7MDYQ BWJZFB3XHJS6IM2Y5UTQ', u'accessToken': None}, u'new': False, u'attributes': {}}, u'request': {u'locale': u'en-US', u'type': u'IntentRequ est', u'intent': {u'slots': {u'ncpu': {u'name': u'ncpu'}, u'nmem': {u'name': u'nmem'}}, u'name': u'CreateVM'}, u'requestId': u'EdwReques tId.c9de162a-d606-43a1-9257-b7367c9da5de', u'timestamp': u'2017-10-24T09:43:17Z'}, u'version': u'1.0', u'context': {u'AudioPlayer': {u'p layerActivity': u'IDLE'}, u'System': {u'device': {u'supportedInterfaces': {}}, u'application': {u'applicationId': u'amzn1.ask.skill.b2a1 91bb-7ee2-4fa7-aa7b-456d4bd2ee35'}, u'user': {u'userId': u'amzn1.ask.account.BFHTSNCIVD2HA563BEPLRW5TSCESQEZXCIULPPB2ULOZBIJRCPM5Z5NWOWH 3HWNOZRTY4WT3FZFVGWWPKRSKC4ZNDSB2EYB45TYQ3RNY67CZPGF4GBMV6CL57C5MJVPIQPH25DQWGXGALDBCBRHMG5IA3Y26UHI7MHPIV3665ZU5OESS3UBADD7MDYQBWJZFB3X HJS6IM2Y5UTQ'}}}}

Answer 1

You can not test you skills inside of the Amazon developer portal because these will not return a Dialogstate for your dialog. If you want to test your skill i suggest you go to echosim.io or get an echo dot to experiment with.
If you don't want to test with echosim.io or a real echo device and you have your skill code inside of AWS Lambda you can always test your code there with the test command.
Example:
{
"session": {
"new": true,
"sessionId": "SessionId.******************0ed735901",
"application": {
"applicationId": "amzn1.ask.skill.e96d9***********3ee1b958e6ca"
},
"attributes": {},
"user": {
"userId": "amzn1.ask.account.AGMQGVEZFE355BBMXYBQGFN7TRN5E5CSGUU5Y3AUNEBT3DOZ7IOQ3K7G3RGIOI7BEJVLVR4CWSARSTMAF5RNA4QW************DURTSESLYMYDVIQLWA2LF6PHG3KB3UEOLZWYBBWLRKCFFMG7JFP7TNKCS2RQ4KOGPIMOT2PGQT3S2HAOBNJSAA
}
},
"request": {
"type": "IntentRequest",
"dialogState": "IN_PROGRESS",
"requestId": "EdwRequestId.5b2a45f7-e4bb-44cd-ba9f-1cfe138d577f",
"intent": {
"name": "SearchIntent",
"slots": {
"AnswerTime": {
"name": "AnswerTime",
"value": "Nope"
},
"FirstTime": {
"name": "FirstTime",
"value": "02:00"
},
"SecondTime": {
"name": "SecondTime"
},
"Date": {
"name": "Date",
"value": "2017-10-20"
},
"Name": {
"name": "Name",
"value": "Liam De Lee"
}
}
},
"locale": "en-US",
"timestamp": "2017-10-19T13:29:17Z"
},
"context": {
"AudioPlayer": {
"playerActivity": "IDLE"
},
"System": {
"application": {
"applicationId": "amzn1.ask.skill.e96d95e0-8cbd-41d2-a280-3ee1b958e6ca"
},
"user": {
"userId": "amzn1.ask.account.AGMQGVEZFE355BBMXYBQGFN7TRN5E5CSGUU5Y3AUNEBT3DOZ7IOQ3K7G3RGIOI7BEJVLVR4CWSARSTMAF5RNA4QW************DURTSESLYMYDVIQLWA2LF6PHG3KB3UEOLZWYBBWLRKCFFMG7JFP7TNKCS2RQ4KOGPIMOT2PGQT3S2HAOBNJSAA"
},
"device": {
"supportedInterfaces": {}
}
}
},
"version": "1.0"
}
Note: Service Simulator does not currently support testing audio
player directives, dialog model, customer permissions and customer
account linking.
Amazon developer portal.