Alexa-speech-utils NPM

alexa-speech-utils

Nodejs module that provides helper functions for generating text or SSML responses in the English language Designed for use with Alexa or other speech output devices. Contributions are welcome - if you don't find a utility function that you want - add it!

Loading module

When loading the module, you can pass in an options structure (optional) that specifies how the module should run. Currently the only supported parameter is "speakTag" which will include SSML tags around the response.

const alexautils = require('alexa-speech-utils');
const utils = alexautils({speakTag: true});

This will cause output to be returned wrapped with tags

Available functions

and

or

and takes a list of items and combines them with "and" or takes a list of items and combines them with "or"

and(items, options)
or(items, options)

The arguments to and or or are:

items - an array of items to combine together into a string
options - an optional object providing additional details to and

The options structure is composed of the following fields:

{
  pause - Amount of time to pause between each item - if specified, the returned string will be in SSML format
  preseparator - A separator which will be used between items - this separator will come before the 'and' or 'or'
  postseparator - A separator which will be used between items - this separator will come after the 'and' or 'or'
  locale - locale to use - supports en-US, en-GB, and de-DE
}

Example:

and(['milk', 'cream', 'honey'], {pause:'1s'});

will return the string

milk <break time='1s'/> cream <break time='1s'/> and honey

or(['milk', 'cream', 'honey']);

will return the string

milk, cream, or honey

numberOfItems

numberOfItems takes a list of number along with singular and plural nouns to return a string

numberOfItems(number, singular, plural)

Example:

numberOfItems(0, 'dog', 'dogs');

will return the string

no dogs

relativeDate

relativeDate takes a date and formats it relative to the current date, using today, yesterday, tomorrow, and only mentioning the year if it differs from the current year. You can optionally include the time as well.

relativeDate(date, options)

The options structure is composed of the following fields:

{
  includeTime - If set, hours and minutes will be included in the response
}

Example:

const now = Date.now();
const date = new Date(now);
date.setDate(date.getDate() - 1);

relativeDate(date);

will return the string

yesterday

formatCurrency

amount numerical amount to turn into a currency locale locale to determine the appropriate currency symbol - currently supports en-US, en-GB, and de-DE. Default is en-US