JSPM

Alexa Speechlet

Speech Synthesis Markup generator that makes it easy to do all the things

To install: npm install alexa-speechlet --save

example usage

const Speechlet = require("alexa-speechlet");
let speech = new Speechlet("Hi my name is Alexa.");
let ssml = speech.sentence("I have a secret to tell you")
                  .whisper("I'm not a real human")
                  .output();
// output:
// Hi my name is Alexa.I have a secret to tell you.<amazon:effect name="whispered">I'm not a real human</amazon:effect>

Remember to call output()

You must execute the output() method on the speechlet instance in order to get the markup string. output() will not wrap the output in <speak></speak> nodes. If you are working with alexa-sdk the sdk will do that for you in the final output. If you, however, do want the output markup to be wrapped with the 'speak' nodes then you can use outputWithRootNode(),

Methods

say(text)

• text | {String} - What Alexa says

Adds text to the markup without adding any additional markup. It will spit out exactly what you enter as is.

sentence(text)

• text | {String} - What Alexa says

Wraps your text with <s></s> tags.

let speechlet = new Speechlet().sentence("Hi, my name is Alexa");
// outputs:
// Hi, my name is Alexa.

sayAs(text, options)

• text | {String} - What Alexa says
• options | {Object}
  • options.interpretAs adds 'interpret-as' attr to the markup. Such as <say-as interpret-as="spell-out">

Wraps your text with <say-as> tags

let ssml = new Speechlet("I can count.").pause().sayAs("12345", {interpretAs: "digits"}).output();`
// outputs:
// I can count.<break strength="strong" /><say-as interpret-as="digits">12345</say-as>

We also expose convenience methods for the sayAs method for each interpretation. For instance instead of calling speechlet.sayAs("12345", {interpretAs: "digits"}); you can do speechlet.sayAsDigits("12345");.

We do this for the following interpretations:

• characters
• spell-out
• cardinal
• ordinal
• digits
• fraction
• unit
• date
• time
• telephone
• address
• interjection

Note: The convenience fn are named sayAs + the capitalized version of the interpretation with dashes removed. So the convenience fn for "spell-out" would be sayAsSpellout(text)

See here for the Alexa documentation for say-as. If I am missing anything feel free to make a PR.

sayAsDate(text, format)

• text | {String} - What Alexa says
• format | {String} - The format of the date Alexa will read it as. For example "mdy". Read the Alexa docs for explanation

Convenience for sayAs(text, {interpretAs: "date", format: "mdy"}). sayAsDate accepts an extra "format" param.

let ssml = new Speechlet().sayAsDate("September 22, 2015", "mdy").output();`
// outputs:
// <say-as interpret-as="date" format="mdy">September 22, 2015</say-as>

pause(time)

• time | {String} - The time value you want to pause

Adds <break> markup to your text