Wikipedia's API not working in Alexa skill using Request module

Question

const GetInfoIntentHandler = {
    canHandle(handlerInput) {
        const request = handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request;
        return (request.type === 'IntentRequest'
        && request.intent.name === 'GetInfoIntent');
    },
    handle(handlerInput) {
        let data;
        const request = require("request");

        let options = { method: 'GET',
            url :  "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?format=json&origin=*&action=query&prop=extracts&exlimit=max&explaintext&exintro&titles=manulife&redirects=",
            qs: 
            { action: 'query' } };

        request(options, function (error, response, body) {
            if (error) throw new Error(error);
            let json = body;
            let obj = JSON.parse(json);
            data = obj;

        });
        const x = "Hello";
        const speechOutput = data;
        return handlerInput.responseBuilder
        .speak(speechOutput)
        .getResponse();
    },
};

The response I am getting is Undefined . Other APIs don't work either. Do I need to use a HTTP API? I have tried everything but nothing seems to be working.

I have the request dependency installed.

I just want Alexa to return the first paragraph of the address.

Answer 1

You are getting Undefined as no value is assigned into the variable data . Because your function is returning before data is fetched from the url.

put the return statement in within the request block. Also extract the property that you want to return from obj object.

const request = require("request");
const getData = function() {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    let options = { 
        method: 'GET',
        url :  "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?format=json&origin=*&action=query&prop=extracts&exlimit=max&explaintext&exintro&titles=manulife&redirects=",
        qs: {
            action: 'query' 
        } 
    };
    request(options, function (error, response, body) {
        if (error) reject(error);
        resolve(JSON.parse(body)); // you may want to check parsing error.
    });
 });
}
const HelloWorldIntentHandler = {
  canHandle(handlerInput) {
    return Alexa.getRequestType(handlerInput.requestEnvelope) === 
       'IntentRequest'
        && Alexa.getIntentName(handlerInput.requestEnvelope) === 
       'HelloWorldIntent';
},
 async handle(handlerInput) {
    const response = await getData();
    console.log(response);
    return handlerInput.responseBuilder
    .speak(response.query.pages["1928349"].extract)
    .getResponse();
 }
};

using your provided url following is the response you should expect:

{
     "batchcomplete": "",
     "query": {
     "normalized": [
        {
            "from": "manulife",
            "to": "Manulife"
        }
      ],
      "pages": {
            "1928349": {
            "pageid": 1928349,
            "ns": 0,
            "title": "Manulife",
            "extract": "Manulife Financial Corporation (also known as Financière 
                        Manuvie in Quebec) is a Canadian multinational insurance 
                        company and financial services provider headquartered in 
                        Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company operates in Canada and 
                        Asia as \"Manulife\" and in the United States primarily 
                        through its John Hancock Financial division. As of December 
                        2015, the company employed approximately 34,000 people and had 
                        63,000 agents under contract, and has CA$935 billion in assets 
                        under management and administration. Manulife services over 26 
                        million customers worldwide.Manulife is the largest insurance 
                        company in Canada and the 28th largest fund manager in the 
                        world based on worldwide institutional assets under management 
                       (AUM).Manulife Bank of Canada is a wholly owned subsidiary of 
                        Manulife."
          }
        }
      },
   "limits": {
    "extracts": 20
  }
 }

Answer 2

const GetInfoIntentHandler = {
    canHandle(handlerInput) {
        const request = handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request;
        return (request.type === 'IntentRequest'
        && request.intent.name === 'GetInfoIntent');
    },
    handle(handlerInput) {
        let data;
        const request = require("request");

        let options = { method: 'GET',
            url :  "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?format=json&origin=*&action=query&prop=extracts&exlimit=max&explaintext&exintro&titles=manulife&redirects=",
            qs: 
            { action: 'query' } };

        request(options, function (error, response, body) {
            if (error) throw new Error(error);
            let json = body;
            let obj = JSON.parse(json);
            return handlerInput.responseBuilder
            .speak(obj.query.pages["1928349"].extract)
            .getResponse();

        });
        const x = "Hello";
        
    },
};

This is JSON Output { "body": { "version": "1.0", "response": {}, "userAgent": "ask-node/2.9.0 Node/v10.22.1 sample/wiki-app/v1.0", "sessionAttributes": {} } }

This is my error "There was a problem with the requested skill's response"

Answer 3

const GetInfoIntentHandler = {
    canHandle(handlerInput) {
        const request = handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request;
        return (request.type === 'IntentRequest'
        && request.intent.name === 'GetInfoIntent');
        
    },
    handle(handlerInput) {
        const speakOutput = 'reached intenthandler';

        return handlerInput.responseBuilder
            .speak(speakOutput)
            .reprompt(speakOutput)
            .getResponse();
    }
};

This code works which means my getinfointenthandler does work.

const GetInfoIntentHandler = {
    canHandle(handlerInput) {
        const request = handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request;
        return (request.type === 'IntentRequest'
        && request.intent.name === 'GetInfoIntent');
        
    },
    handle(handlerInput) {
        let data;
        const request = require("request");
        let options = { method: 'GET',
        url :  "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?format=json&origin=*&action=query&prop=extracts&exlimit=max&explaintext&exintro&titles=manulife&redirects=",
        qs: 
        { action: 'query' } };
        request(options, function (error, response, body) {
            if (error) throw new Error(error);
            let json = body;
            let obj = JSON.parse(json);
            return handlerInput.responseBuilder
            .speak(obj.query.pages["1928349"].extract)
            .getResponse();
        });
        
    },
    
};

This code does not work. It stops after the launchrequest.

This is my JSON input

"request": {
        "type": "SessionEndedRequest",
        "requestId": "amzn1.echo-api.request.f26816fa-672b-4e35-9de2-126780cfb1ef",
        "timestamp": "2020-10-05T20:52:16Z",
        "locale": "en-US",
        "reason": "ERROR",
        "error": {
            "type": "INVALID_RESPONSE",
            "message": "SpeechletResponse was null"
        }
    }
}