Learn how to use states in your Alexa Skills and Google Actions built with the Jovo Framework.
For simple voice apps, the structure to handle the logic is quite simple:
app.setHandler({
LAUNCH() {
// Do something
},
YesIntent() {
// Do something
},
NoIntent() {
// Do something
},
END() {
// Do something
}
});This means, no matter how deep into the conversation with your voice app the user is, they will always end up at a specific YesIntent or NoIntent. As a developer, you need to figure out yourself which question they just answered with "Yes."
This is where states can be helpful. For more complex voice apps that include multiple user flows, it is necessary to remember and route through some user states to understand at which position the conversation currently is. For example, especially "Yes" and "No" as answers might show up across your voice app for a various number of questions. For each question, a state would be very helpful to distinct between different Yes's and No's.
With Jovo, you can include states like this:
app.setHandler({
LAUNCH() {
this.$speech.addText('Do you want to order something?');
this.$reprompt.addText('Please answer with yes or no.');
this.followUpState('OrderState')
.ask(this.$speech, this.$reprompt);
},
// Example: Behave differently for a 'yes' or 'no' answer inside order state
OrderState: {
YesIntent() {
// Do something
},
NoIntent() {
// Do something
},
},
});By routing a user to a state (by using followUpState), this means you can react specifically to this certain situation in the process.
When a user is in a certain state and calls an intent, Jovo will first look if that intent is available in the given state. If not, a fallback option needs to be provided outside any state:
app.setHandler({
LAUNCH() {
// do something
},
// Example: Behave differently for a 'yes' or 'no' answer inside order state
OrderState: {
YesIntent() {
// Do something
},
NoIntent() {
// Do something
},
},
YesIntent() {
// Do something
},
NoIntent() {
// Do something
},
END() {
// Do something
}
});Alternatively, you can also use an Unhandled intent:
app.setHandler({
LAUNCH() {
// do something
},
// Example: Behave differently for a 'yes' or 'no' answer inside order state
OrderState: {
YesIntent() {
// Do something
},
NoIntent() {
// Do something
},
},
Unhandled() {
// Do something
},
END() {
// Do something
}
});If you want to route a user to a state after you asked a specific question, you can add a followUpState. It is important that you do this before your ask call. For example, you can prepend it like this:
this.followUpState(stateName)
.ask(speech, reprompt);This way, the voice app will first look if the response-intent is available in the given state. If not, it will go to the default called intent if it's available outside a state.
app.setHandler({
LAUNCH() {
// Ask for a yes-no-question and route to order state
this.$speech.addText('Do you want to order something?');
this.$reprompt.addText('Please answer with yes or no.');
this.followUpState('OrderState')
.ask(this.$speech, this.$reprompt);
},
// Example: Behave differently for a 'yes' or 'no' answer inside order state
OrderState: {
YesIntent() {
// Do something
},
NoIntent() {
// Do something
},
},
// Default intents without states below
Unhandled() {
// Do something
},
END() {
// do something
}
});You can also nest states for more complex multi-turn conversations:
app.setHandler({
// Other intents
State1: {
// Other intents
SomeIntent() {
this.followUpState('State1.State2')
.ask('Do you want to proceed?');
},
State2: {
SomeIntent() {
// Do something
}
},
},
});You can nest as many states as you want. As they are objects, you reach them with the . separator. You can also use this.getState() to access the current state:
this.followUpState(this.getState() + '.State2')If you are inside a state and want to move outside to a global (stateless) intent in the next request, you have two options:
this.removeState();
// Alternative: Use null as followUpState
this.followUpState(null);