Alexa-skills-kit-sdk-for-nodejs: Can we use the sdk without lambda?

[ancashoria]

Hi,
I'm trying to use the sdk outside lambda but I get this error:
Cannot read property 'locale' of undefined

Here's my code:

router.post('/alexa_webhook', (req, res) => {
  const { context, request, session } = req.body
  const alexa = Alexa.handler(request, context)
  alexa.appId = APP_ID
  alexa.registerHandlers(handlers)
  alexa.execute()
})

The code that works on lambda is almost the same except for the objects passed to Alexa.handler()

Here it is:

exports.handler = function (event, context) {
    const alexa = Alexa.handler(event, context);
    alexa.APP_ID = APP_ID;
    alexa.registerHandlers(handlers);
    alexa.execute();
}

Am I doing something wrong, or it's not possible to use this sdk outside of lambda?

[dman777]

I am having this issue with "locale": "en-US" in my request. I checked my linux server and that locale is selected and available. Any ideas?

[dman777]

Same question here....looking at the source code. It looks like it only deals with lamba in which the request is mutated and not one to one of a request of a normal node server(ie: it doesn't not look for locale on body.request.locale for value).

Anyone know????

[ghost]

Hi Ancashoria,
A normal lambda event will have a json body similar to the following:
{ "version": "1.0", "session": { "new": true, "sessionId": "amzn1.echo-api.session.[unique-value-here]", "application": { "applicationId": "amzn1.ask.skill.[unique-value-here]" }, "attributes": { "key": "string value" }, "user": { "userId": "amzn1.ask.account.[unique-value-here]", "accessToken": "Atza|AAAAAAAA...", "permissions": { "consentToken": "ZZZZZZZ..." } } }, "context": { "System": { "device": { "supportedInterfaces": { "AudioPlayer": {} } }, "application": { "applicationId": "amzn1.ask.skill.[unique-value-here]" }, "user": { "userId": "amzn1.ask.account.[unique-value-here]", "accessToken": "Atza|AAAAAAAA...", "permissions": { "consentToken": "ZZZZZZZ..." } }, "apiEndpoint": "https://api.amazonalexa.com" }, "AudioPlayer": { "playerActivity": "PLAYING", "token": "audioplayer-token", "offsetInMilliseconds": 0 } }, "request": {} }
Inside the sdk, there's a HandleLambdaEvent() method in which the sdk is trying to retrieve locale using this.locale = this._event.request.locale;. SDK is written under assumption that event object will have a similar structure as above.

It seems that in your code, only request is passed into Alexa.handler(). which will cause this.locale = this._event.request.locale; to fail.

Hope this helps!

[feedm3]

The question was already answered in another issue: https://github.com/alexa/alexa-skills-kit-sdk-for-nodejs/issues/72

[carterw]

I disagree, it was not actually answered.

[ciberado]

Maybe this is what you are looking for? https://github.com/alexa/alexa-skills-kit-sdk-for-nodejs/issues/263#issuecomment-355988626

It works very nicely in conjuction with the is-lambda package (https://www.npmjs.com/package/is-lambda).