States Not Working Properly

[rsokz]

After entering the State for "PLAY_MODE", it seems to be impossible to leave it. If I take care of an intent inside "PLAY_MODE" and change the state the following way:

this.handler.state = constants.states.START_MODE;

The follow up intent will still not recognize that is it in "START_MODE" and will still be in "PLAY_MODE". Anybody else experiencing this?

[waiwong614]

Hi, Were you able to solve this problem? I'm having the same issues.

Thanks

[uscitp-rsokolov]

@waiwong614 One way to accomplish this is by doing something like this:

stateHandlers.startModeIntentHandlers.InitialIntent.call(this);

You can replace the 'InitialIntent' with any other intent you'd like to call.

[TribalTony]

Having the same issue. Seem to be able to set other states but cannot set state to an empty string.

[Ole73]

Got the same problem and after a deeper look, i focused that START_MODE is unnamed in constants.js what causes dynamoDb not being able to save the state. When I named START_MODE like '_START_MODE', to get a hook to return back on it, i got no more entry point into the whole skill. So I let START_MODE unnamed and added a new, named state like STARTOVER_MODE, where I could return back into. But I also didn't understand the whole logic behind this behaviour at all. Some more doc about diffs between named and unnamed states and entry points would be very welcome!

I also don't understand the logic behind calling this.handler.state = constants.states.START_MODE; in stateHandlers.js -> line 21, when we are already in this state..

[sebsto]

ASK NodeJS SDK has been updated with improved documentation.
https://github.com/alexa/alexa-skills-kit-sdk-for-nodejs#skill-state-management

I am closing this thread as it does not appear to be a problem with the code sample, but general programming questions.