Lab 1: Setting-up the ASK CLI for ACDL

Time required: 10 - 15 minutes

Welcome to Lab 1 of the beginner ACDL workshop about how to build Alexa Conversations by using developer tools. In this lab, you'll learn how to set-up the Alexa Skills Kit Command Line Interface (ASK CLI) for ACDL.

What you'll learn

How to install ASK CLI for ACDL

To install and configure the Alexa Skills Kit Command-Line Interface (ASK CLI), complete the following steps. If you have already tried ACDL, you can skip this section and move to the next section.

Prerequisites

You need to have:

An Amazon developer account. If you don't already have one, go to the ASK Developer Console to create an account.
An AWS account to host your skill on AWS Lambda. If you don't already have one, go to AWS to create an IAM user account.

You also need to update your existing software:

The latest version of Node.js (version 17.4 or higher)
Git version control system (version 2.35 or higher)
Java development environment (version 1.8 or higher)
The Amazon Web Services Command-Line Interface (AWS CLI)

Note: If you haven't used AWS CLI before, you need to configure AWS.

Install and configure the ASK CLI

Step 1: Install the ASK CLI

From the command line, run the following command:

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npm install -g ask-cli-x

nmp install -g ask-cli-x — installation of ask-cli-x

Note: Uninstall the public version of the ASK CLI (if necessary). From the command line, run the following command:


npm uninstall -g ask-cli

Step 2: Configure the ASK CLI

To link the ASK CLI with your Amazon developer account and your AWS account, run the following command:

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askx configure

Note: The command you use to run the beta version of the ASK CLI is askx instead of ask. However, command-line messages might refer to ask. For ACDL, always use askx.

Configure the ASK CLI

Choose the default profile or enter a name to create a new profile

Note: This tutorial follows the steps for "default" profile. If you choose to create a new profile, you need to explicitly set this profile when you run askx commands. When you initialize your account, you need to run askx init -p tutorial or when you deploy your skill, you need to run askx deploy -p tutorial ("tutorial" is an example profile, replace it with your profile name).

Grant permission to link your AWS profile to your ASK CLI skill
- Sign in to the AWS Key Management Service (KMS) as an IAM user
- Choose a symmetric access key. This is a single 256-bit secret encryption key

askx configure — configuring ask cli for ACDL

To troubleshoot configuration issues, see the ASK CLI quick-start page.

(Optional) Step 3 Install the ACDL syntax highlighter for VS Code

If you use Visual Studio (VS) Code and want to use the ACDL syntax highlighter, follow the instructions here. ACDL syntax highlighting is currently available only for VS Code.

Install the ACDL syntax highlighter for VS Code

Make sure you have the latest version of VS Code:
- Open VS Code and click Help.
- Click the update-related option, which might be Check for Updates or Restart to Update.
Install the ASK Toolkit VS Code extension (version 2.10 or higher).
If you've already the extension installed, update it to the latest version.
- Open VS Code and click Code > Preferences > Extensions.
- Search for the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) toolkit extension.
- Click the gear icon, and then click Install another version > 2.10.

You can test syntax highlighting by creating a new ACDL file or by opening an ACDL project file.

Note: You still must use the ASK CLI to compile and deploy your skill. The current version of the VS Code toolkit doesn't support ACDL deployment.

To appreciate the benefits of Alexa Conversations, it is helpful to understand the complexity of designing a conversational user interface that works. If you want to learn more about Alexa Conversations have a look at How Alexa Conversations Works.

Continue to Lab 2 to learn about how to set up the development environment.

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