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Re: Amazon Echo - Project

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2016 8:29 pm
by thattolleyguy
steckdev wrote:The architecture that needs to be designed is an open source Rest API that would enable any developer to request scriptures, conference talks, or other pieces of information. With this designed as a defined Rest API then any other device that will/can come along can use this architecture without them having to evaluate and encourage the open-source community that thrives in this type of project. I want to contribute and make a difference but we just don't have an ability to access the information.
Sure. I guess I meant we need to come up with a project organization. I intend on starting the project in nodejs for the time being until the project becomes too complex or there's a demand to switch languages. Does the lds tech community have any language preferences? So far my alexa skills have been fairly small, so I'm not sure the best way to organize the project and I'm open to suggestions. Also, it would be good to have some documentation on what the vocal interactions are like so we don't have to redesign them later to support new features. I'd love to design something that could be used by other similar services. Perhaps there is a resource for each service that calls into a common library for finding the file. Just my 2 cents

Re: Amazon Echo - Project

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 8:46 am
by thattolleyguy
I've uploaded my (very very alpha) code to github if anyone else wants to take a look at it. Just remember that this was put together as a prototype. The project will need a lot more organization before it goes live. Also, I'm hosting all the content myself on S3 and dynamo (metadata), so if you want to try and get it running yourself, you'll have to do the same.

https://github.com/thattolleyguy/GospelLibraryAlexa

Re: Amazon Echo - Project

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2016 9:00 am
by akrogers
So glad you are working on this! I was just listening to the news on Alexa and thought it would sure be nice if I could play a conference talk instead. I've done some app development as well as Rest API development and started doing some research as to what it would take to create this as a Skill and ran into this thread. It would be nice if it could connect to your bookmarks in the gospel library so you could say, "Alexa, start at my bookmark Personal Reading". Happy to help if needed.

Re: Amazon Echo - Project

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2016 10:33 am
by steckdev
thattolleyguy wrote:I've uploaded my (very very alpha) code to github if anyone else wants to take a look at it. Just remember that this was put together as a prototype. The project will need a lot more organization before it goes live. Also, I'm hosting all the content myself on S3 and dynamo (metadata), so if you want to try and get it running yourself, you'll have to do the same.

https://github.com/thattolleyguy/GospelLibraryAlexa

Please let us know how we can jump in an help with this project. I feel like we are just sitting on the dock waiting or the LDS Church boat to come along and either drop the supplies or take the project and take it to their development teams.

Re: Amazon Echo - Project

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2016 10:44 am
by thattolleyguy
steckdev wrote: Please let us know how we can jump in an help with this project. I feel like we are just sitting on the dock waiting or the LDS Church boat to come along and either drop the supplies or take the project and take it to their development teams.
That's pretty much where I'm at too. If you want to jump in, I would recommend getting familiar with Alexa skills and capabilities if you aren't already. Also, I've made the mp3 content public so if you want to test the code out, you only need to host the dynamo metadata. The instructions in the repository have been updated but I could use a couple more people to try it out so we can iron out any remaining kinks.

I checked in with church reps but they said it would probably be another couple of weeks. I'm trying to come up with somethings that need to be done but at this point, I don't think there is a lot of work. If you get the skill running and see something you want done, feel free to put an issue in github or make a pull request and I'll pull it in.

Re: Amazon Echo - Project

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2016 10:40 am
by thattolleyguy
Good news and bad news: Good news - I just got an email saying we're continuing down the path of making this a community driven internal project. It's still in an investigation phase, so I'm not sure that's a guarantee it will happen, just that we're still proceeding down the path. Bad news - with the holidays and a new release of Gospel Library apps, we're not meeting to figure out next steps until January. I appreciate everyone's excitement and drive to make this happen. I'll keep sharing information as I receive it. Merry Christmas!

Re: Amazon Echo - Project

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2016 11:15 pm
by deanwilliampayne
Just set up Alexa for my Mother who has macular degeneration.

She would love to have the Conference talks, scriptures, Gospel Doctrine manuals, etc available through the Echo.

In FamilySearch we have an early Prototype using some APIs for family history on Echo. Just looking at the possibilities now.

Your work is encouraging. Thank you.

Re: Amazon Echo - Project

Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2016 10:26 pm
by mtucker
Would love to be involved in any Amazon Echo projects: LDS Hymns, Scriptures, Conference talks, Mormon Channel. How can I get involved?

Any interested in Amazon Alexa development in the Phoenix, AZ area, join out meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Alexa-Developers ... st-Valley/

Re: Amazon Echo - Project

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2016 1:56 pm
by peden
I'm also interested in helping as a developer.

I developed the following certified Alexa skills.
- "Word of the Day" https://byu-oit-appdev.github.io/word-o ... ing-skill/
- "S Watch" https://github.com/byu-oit-appdev/s-watch-alexa-skill

Re: Amazon Echo - Project

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 7:23 am
by thattolleyguy
Thanks everyone for your interest in the project. Now that the holidays are over, I anticipate this project to start getting steam. I'm meeting with some devs from the gospel library team this week to discuss the next steps. Once we can figure out were the service will be hosted and how we're going to access the audio files, we can get started implementing it. Any help is welcome. Thanks!