Slot value from triggered intent is always 'undefined'. Need help, willing to pay.

I have one final obstacle in my app I’m developing with alexa-app. The value field for the singular slot I define for my tellme intent is always undefined. I’m simply trying to get Alexa to send me the raw text the user said.

I don’t think it’s a speech recognition problem, because this happens even when I enter plain text into simulator text edit box. I get the same result. The slot’s value is always undefined.

Here is the tellme intent I define in the alexa-app initialization phase. I entered the word “test” as input into the simulator edit box:

	alexa_app_lib.intent("tellme", {
			// Set up a slot for the received input.
			"slots": {
				"ANSWER": "LITERAL"
			},
			// Suggest sample input the user might say to Alexa.
			"utterances": [
				"user input"
			]
		},
		function(request, response) {
			// Just parrot the response back.
			response.say(request.slots["answer"].value);
		}
	);

Here is what the console log results show for the answer slot from inside the tellme intent handler:

 ‌‌       request.slots["answer"] =‌ alexa.slot
	‌‌request.slots["answer"].name = ‌answer
	‌‌typeof request.slots["answer"].value =‌ undefined

I’m willing to make a payment via PayPal to get this resolved quickly.

[kobim]

Hi @roschler,

I think you should use AMAZON.LITERAL instead of just LITERAL in your schema definition. If you are using the Alexa test simulator, you will also be able to see the exact request with the slot value (if any) when being sent to your app. Pay attention that custom types are better than literals, so you might want to migrate to your own type in the future.

Also, you might want to read a slot value using the slot method:

function (request, response) {
  response.say(request.slot('ANSWER'));
}

[kobim]

The slot/utterance (“schema”) passed to the intent function are used to generate the JSON for the interaction model and are optional.

Regarding the AMAZON.LITERAL deprecation comments, refer to the using custom types link I provided earlier, as its better to define EXACTLY what you attempt to receive.

I’m closing this issue as it doesn’t seem an issue with the library but with an understanding about interaction with an Alexa skill. Please refer to Understanding How Users Invoke Custom Skills in order to better understand how Alexa handles user input.