Repeat doesn't work with APLA

I’m submitting a…

• Bug report
• Feature request
• Documentation issue or request
• Other… Please describe:

Expected Behavior

At the end of the RepeatIntent handler, I return this.repeat() and the voice assistant should play the last output.

Current Behavior

It works on Google Assistant, but doesn’t work on Alexa. Probably this is related to the fact that I use APLA for outputSpeech on Alexa, so the field in the response is empty and Jovo doesn’t take into account the APLA directive.

Error log

{
    "errorType": "TypeError",
    "errorMessage": "Cannot read property 'replace' of null",
    "stack": [
        "TypeError: Cannot read property 'replace' of null",
        "    at Function.toSSML (/var/task/node_modules/jovo-core/dist/src/util/SpeechBuilder.js:24:21)",
        "    at AlexaCore.output (/var/task/node_modules/jovo-platform-alexa/dist/src/modules/AlexaCore.js:88:63)",
        "    at Middleware.run (/var/task/node_modules/jovo-core/dist/src/core/Middleware.js:76:30)",
        "    at Alexa.output (/var/task/node_modules/jovo-platform-alexa/dist/src/Alexa.js:121:42)",
        "    at Middleware.run (/var/task/node_modules/jovo-core/dist/src/core/Middleware.js:76:30)",
        "    at error (/var/task/node_modules/jovo-core/dist/src/plugins/Handler.js:205:67)",
        "    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:97:5)",
        "    at async Middleware.run (/var/task/node_modules/jovo-core/dist/src/core/Middleware.js:76:21)",
        "    at async App.handle (/var/task/node_modules/jovo-core/dist/src/core/BaseApp.js:233:13)",
        "    at async App.handle (/var/task/node_modules/jovo-framework/dist/src/App.js:265:9)"
    ]
}

Your Environment

• Jovo Framework version used: 3.2.2
• Operating System: Windows 10

[aswetlow]

Great!

You could also use $speech.addBreak('10ms');. Sometimes it looks cleaner than white space. Same same, but different 😂

[acerbisgianluca]

@aswetlow Thank you for your example, I think I’ve found the problem.

You return this.ask(' ', ' ') while I’m returning this.ask(this.$speech, this.$reprompt), but for the speech part I’m using APLA so this.$speech is empty and it’s stored in dynamo as null. When I call this.repeat() it throws the error (“Cannot read property ‘replace’ of null”).

"response": {
      "output": {
       "ask": {
        "speech": null,
        "reprompt": "<audio src=\"URL\"></audio> <audio src=\"https://URL\"></audio>"
       },
       "Alexa": {
        "Apl": [
         {
          "type": "Alexa.Presentation.APLA.RenderDocument",
          "token": "5",
          "document": {
           "type": "APLA",
           "mainTemplate": {
            "parameters": [
             "payload"
            ],
            "item": {
             "type": "Sequencer",
             "items": [
              {
               "type": "Audio",
               "source": "URL"
              },
              {
               "type": "Audio",
               "source": "URL"
              }
             ]
            }
           },
           "version": "0.8"
          }
         }
        ],
        "DisplayTemplate": {
         "type": "Display.RenderTemplate",
          "type": "BodyTemplate7",
          "token": "Launch",
          .........
         }
        }
       }
      },
      "speech": null,
      "reprompt": "<audio src=\"URL\"></audio> <audio src=\"URL\"></audio>"
     }

So I added this.$speech.addText(' ') only when the request is coming from Alexa and now it’s working!