Echo Show: anyone writing skills?

Alexa skills kit

Learned something new again

Thank you

Don't have Alexa, don't plan on getting one
But ... Nice to keep learning

My show? writing skills?

apparently, "My Show" is an Alexa device, with a 7 inch LCD video display screen

he wants somebody to write/program the 'skill/app/instructions'
for it to show him the weather radar from the national weather site

MrWizard wrote:
Alexa skills kit

Learned something new again

Thank you

Don't have Alexa, don't plan on getting one
But ... Nice to keep learning

Hey,,, it's kind of nice to just ask for the weather forecast and set timers for the waffles. I've got mine hooked up to the TV so I can turn it off and on. A bunch of stuff in my house is Alexa controlled now. You just say "Alexa, it's bedtime" and everything gets turned off. I'd almost put one in the car.

MrWizard wrote:
that link doesn't work

try this and click a blue dot

https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/

Don't copy the period - https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/lite/NCR/GWX_loop.gif.<=======

TNGW1500SE wrote:

MrWizard wrote:
Alexa skills kit

Learned something new again

Thank you

Don't have Alexa, don't plan on getting one
But ... Nice to keep learning

Hey,,, it's kind of nice to just ask for the weather forecast and set timers for the waffles. I've got mine hooked up to the TV so I can turn it off and on. A bunch of stuff in my house is Alexa controlled now. You just say "Alexa, it's bedtime" and everything gets turned off. I'd almost put one in the car.

:-)) Alexa is fun, maybe intrusive, helplful - we use it a little more everyday.

I should have been more forthcoming with this posting, while the Echo is becoming a "big" thing with amazon, not everyone is enamored or necessarily aware of the AtoZ folks.
But if you are prime member, the echoes, now with a screen, echo show, are neat.
The apps for them are called skills, and yes you can write your own but so far I have not that successful.

i took a quick glance at the tutorial site

the writing AKA 'programing' uses Python

Python is a scripting language i dabbled in a little bit about 6 or 7 years ago
and nothing since then
you have to think in logical progressive steps (like almost all programing)
its not like writing a recipe or directions
i did not dig deep, into the 'skills' writing
but seems more oriented toward controlling home functions, lights etc, via echo controlled modules and fetching info stored for alexa, dates, appointments, music from amazon

than grabbing random webpage data you might want to see

like i said i did not dig deep, and might have the wrong perception

I've written a couple. It's definitely non-trivial - if you don't have a development/IT background it can be a challenge. It supports any web language and their are frameworks already created for many of them such as Python and Javascript.

However, Amazon recently announced a much easier way to create skills called "Blueprints". I have not looked into this yet, but it seems oriented to pretty basic ask/answer kind of skills.

You need to have a web endpoint to handle the requests, the things the user will ask for. That means running a public web server which is probably beyond casual skill creators. An alternative is to use AWS Lambda.

bwanshoom wrote:
I've written a couple. It's definitely non-trivial - if you don't have a development/IT background it can be a challenge. It supports any web language and their are frameworks already created for many of them such as Python and Javascript.

However, Amazon recently announced a much easier way to create skills called "Blueprints". I have not looked into this yet, but it seems oriented to pretty basic ask/answer kind of skills.

You need to have a web endpoint to handle the requests, the things the user will ask for. That means running a public web server which is probably beyond casual skill creators. An alternative is to use AWS Lambda.

Would you guess if a skill to show a webpage is possible? I have no background in programing, so I'm at the mercy of whatever gets posted by DIY types. Would appreciate a heads up should you see something that might work for me.