Skill Flow Builder Content Framework
Warning DEPRECATED The Alexa Games team will no longer support or maintain this official distribution of Skill Flow Builder. Thank you to all the folks who have used SFB to make great Alexa skills over the years!
The Skill Flow Builder Content Framework contains the core collection of utility and driver functionalities that powers the Editor and the CLI. It handles the interpretation of SFB’s domain-specific language into a narrative structure, i.e., importing, validating, and creating interactive story skills for Alexa.
Visit Skill Flow Builder on Github for more information.
Getting Started
Prerequisites
The following needs to be installed and configured:
Node.js (with npm) # Note: Requires Node.js version >= 10.15.
Yarn
Compiling
yarn install && yarn compile
The compiled code is built into the dist/
directory. The Skill Flow Builder
Framework requires other core modules to be built. To build all the modules in
the packages/
directory at once, run yarn build-modules
.
Testing
yarn test
This will run all unit tests in the test/
directory.
Package Structure
The SFB Framework package structure looks like this.
packages/sfb-f/
└── bakeUtilities/ # Schemas for Intents & Interaction Models
└── driver/ # Drvers for Audio and Scene responses
└── exportHandlers/ # Exporters of SFB project files
└── extensions/ # Extensions to modify the incoming/outgoing content
└── importer/ # Importers for SFB project files
└── importPlugins/ # Plugins that help with importing
└── story/ # SFB story methods
└── test/ # Tests
└── transformers/ # Transforms segments for use in SFB
└── verificationHandlers/ # Verifies integrity of SFB project files
└─── ...
Build Life Cycle
The following is a lifecycle for Skill Flow Builder project when the build
process is executed by running alexa-sfb build
, and is executed as part of the
deploy process when using alexa-sfb deploy
.
-
Code Build: Install dependencies and run compile script for
code/
directory. -
Pre-Import: Run
extendSourceContent()
on content source (included*.abc
files) for the attachedImporterExtensions
. -
Post-Import: Run
extendImportedContent()
on the resultingStoryMetadata
for all attached ImporterExtensions, and write the result tobaked/{locale}/baked_story.json
. -
Staging: Generate a deployment payload in
.deploy/
with theask new command
, then copy the built code, the imported story, and assets fromcontent/{locale}/resources
to the resulting deployment payload directory. If metadata exists copyskill.json
andask_config
from the metadata directory for appropriate stages. -
Deploy (if you are running
alexa-sfb deploy
): Runask deploy
on the deployment payload.
Skill Runtime Life Cycle
The following steps show the runtime life cycle when requests come in to your Skill Flow Builder deployed skill's lambda.
- ASK SDK pre-request handler: The request and event object are enveloped by ASK SDK, and persistent skill state is retrieved with attached PersistenceAdapter.
-
Skill Flow Builder Request Handler: ASK SDK's HandlerInput
is passed to
SFBRequestHandler
for processing, then the handler callsSFBDriver
with current skill state and incoming request. -
Skill Flow Builder Driver Pre Run: Run
pre()
for all attached instances ofDriverExtension
. DefaultDriverExtension
likeAlexaExtension
would parse the request in toUserInput
object at this step. -
Skill Flow Builder Driver Run: The core logic for taking the incoming
user input,
StoryMetadata
, and current skill state, is executed at this step along with running custom instructions defined in attachedInstructionExtension
. -
Skill Flow Builder Driver Post Run: Run
post()
for all attached instances ofDriverExtension
. DefaultDriverExtension
likeAlexaExtension
would generate an Alexa skill response given the post run state at this step.
Contributing
The SFB Framework module contains the core logic for Skill Flow Builder’s
engine, which is utilized by both the Alexa Skill runtime and the Skill Flow
Builder editor. You can locally recompile the source code with yarn compile
,
but you will have to run yarn build-modules
, in order for your changes to show
appropriately in other modules.