Getting Started

Table of Contents

• How it Works
• Add the Skill
• Examples
  • Hello World
  • Stock Price

How it Works

The Octoblu Flows skill works by linking you Octoblu account to your Amazon account. When linked and using the skill via voice commands to Alexa, you can interact with your flows that are configured with “Echo In” and “Echo Out” nodes. When triggering a flow, you can say Alexa, ask Octoblu to trigger <insert echo in name here> which will send the Alexa request to the matching “Echo In” node.

After Alexa is given the command, the matching flow should receive the request and will perform the actions specified in the flow. When done, the flow needs to respond to the request using the callback url in the request. You can add your own custom response text when responding to the request.

Add the Skill

Go to https://app.octoblu.com/login to sign in, or create a free Octoblu account. Once you’ve logged into your Octoblu account, add the Octoblu Flows skill to Amazon account, see the “Enable Alexa Skills” documentation. When prompted to link your account use your Octoblu credentials.

Examples

Here are a few examples to get started with.

Hello World

Once you have an Octoblu account and added the Octoblu Flows skill, it is time to create your first Alexa compatible flow.

1. Create an Octoblu flow by going to https://app.octoblu.com/my-flows. From there press the big “+” on left side of the screen.
2. Add an “Echo In” node to your flow. This can be found by selecting the “Tools” panel on the right hand side and then filtering for “Echo” using the search input on the far bottom right. Click the “Echo In” list item add it your flow.
3. Naming your “Echo In” node is important. The name of the “Echo In” node must closely match the command given to Alexa. For example, saying, “Alexa, ask Octoblu to trigger hello world” will trigger an “Echo In” node named “hello world”.
4. Next we need to add an “Echo Out” node to your flow. The “Echo Out” node will be used to reply to the Alexa request. This means you give Alexa a customer response to say. You can add the node using the instructions in step 2.
5. Draw a wire between the “Echo In” node and the “Echo Out” node. Drag from the port on the right of the “Echo In” node and connect it to the port on the left of the “Echo Out” node.
6. Configure the “Echo Out” node by selecting it and using the configuration panel on the right. Set the “Callback Url” field to `` and the “Response Text” field should be set to “Hello World”.
7. Deploy your flow by press the play button in the top right. The flow may ask for permissions, please click “Update & Deploy”. The play button on the top right should be solid green when it is successfully deployed.
8. Now say to Alexa, “Alexa, ask Octoblu to trigger hello world” you should get a response saying “hello world”

Stock Price

1. Using the steps from the Hello World, create a new flow that will fetch the stock price of a ticker.
2. Change the name of the “Echo In” node to “stock price”.
3. Add a “StockPrice” node to your flow. This can be found by selecting the “Things” panel on the right hand side and then filtering for “Stock” using the search input on the far bottom right. Click the “StockPrice” list item to add it your flow.
4. If there is a wire between the “Echo In” and “Echo Out” node, delete it by selecting it and pressing the DELETE key.
5. Add a “Compose” node to your flow. This can be found by selecting the “Tools” panel on the right hand side and then filtering for “Compose” using the search input on the far bottom right. Click the “Compose” list item to add it your flow.
6. Connect a wire from “Echo In” node to the “Stock Price” node and the “Compose” node. Then connect the “Compose” node to the “Echo Out” node.
7. Configure the “Compose” by selecting it and using the configuration panel on the right hand side. Click the “Add Key & Value Pair” button twice. Configure the first pair with -> `price` and the second pair to -> callbackUrl.
8. Configure the stock price node with the Ticker symbol of your choice. For example, Citrix’s ticker symbol is CTXS.
9. Configure the “Echo Out” node with the “Callback Url” field of `` and the “Response Text” should something like The stock price is .
10. Deploy your flow by press the play button in the top right. The flow may ask for permissions, please click “Update & Deploy”. The play button on the top right should be solid green when it is successfully deployed.
11. Now, say to Alexa, “Alexa, ask Octoblu to get the stock price.” Alexa should respond with “The stock price is 75.427”