keithpjolley / randomcountry

alexa node code to return the name of a random country (or really any item on a list)

Random Country

Based on Alexa Weather Forecaster, as demo to show how to create an Amazon Alexa (Echo) Skill.

what

This project is a node service that returns, through html/http/alexa, the name of a random country from a static list of countries originally from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallery_of_sovereign_state_flags. The first iteration did a pull from http://country.io/data/ but I liked having the flags and the simplicity of a static list. The downside is that pulling the data from the other site was cool and put the burden of keeping the data up to date on someone else. I don't assume that this list is authoritative or the best, but they do have a flag. :)

how

Install node.
Install npm.

% git clone
% cd randomcountry
% npm install
% npm start
% test/test2.sh
% echo "The following should all look 'reasonable'."
% for i in index.html index.json alexa help.html
do
  echo ">>> $i ----------------------------------------"
  curl "http://localhost:8889/${i}"
done

why

An interesting side note (to me). The genesis of this project is that I was noodling on how to migrate an existing project to javascript. I was screenscraping using python/beautifulsoup and wished that there was an API for the data I needed. I was also working on getting an object from an object of objects when my daughter walked in and said "Dad! What's the name of a random country?! Hurry!!".

I got the first version online, using express, when I saw that Amazon was giving away hoodies for new Alexa skills. We have an Alexa so this seemed like a perfect opportunity.

I originally made a generic node express web page with html and json output, then extended it to serve Alexa, however, no security meant it couldn't pass Amazon's certification process. When I added security the code became so ugly I rewrote from the Weather Forecaster base code. It seems verifying the POST is coming from Alexa could be optional - no state secrets in this particular skill.

keith

© 2017 -- Jamul Heavy Industries, LLC
Jamul, CA
MIT License