I just ran a few simple tests in Azure SQL DB to see how each would perform. I have a target table with an identity column that is the clustered primary key, and two other indexes that are the same except for the field order. (Whether having both is useful is a question for another … Continue reading When Loading Data, Should I Drop Indexes or Not?
Azure Data Factory Publishing Error
I am using Azure Data Factory v2. It is bound to an Azure DevOps GIT repository. I made some changes in my branch, including deleting some obsolete items. Then I merged my changes back to the 'master' branch. Now, I'm trying to publish my changes from the 'master' branch to the Azure Data Factory. When … Continue reading Azure Data Factory Publishing Error
Publishing An Alexa Skill
An Alexa Skill in Javascript - Part 6 We've done it! We've built an Alexa skill! Woohoo! Now we need to publish our skill to the Alexa Skills Catalog and make it official. Publishing your Alexa skill is the last step in the process of developing and deploying an Alexa Skill. NOTE: Pay attention to … Continue reading Publishing An Alexa Skill
An Alexa Skill in Javascript – Part 5
Finally, the last post in the series. Here, we will show Alexa how to Roll Some Dice with a modifier so that we can get our skill working properly. We're going to do this in two steps: Create a function that will take the diceCount, plusMinus and modifier parameters and return the results as speech … Continue reading An Alexa Skill in Javascript – Part 5
An Alexa Skill in Javascript – Part 4
So far we've defined, gathered and installed the requisite tools in Part 1. We've defined the Skill we're creating in Part 2. And, we've created the Intents for our skill in Part 3. Now, we will code the Lambda function that is the brains of our skill in this entry, Part 4. What is a … Continue reading An Alexa Skill in Javascript – Part 4
An Alexa Skill in Javascript – Part 3
The Skill Model (en-US.json) Open the en-US.json file in the models folder. Notice the areas I’ve highlighted in bold, red text. These are things we will change. { "interactionModel": { "languageModel": { "invocationName": "greeter", "types": [ ], "intents": [ { "name": "AMAZON.CancelIntent", "samples": [ ] }, { "name": "AMAZON.HelpIntent", "samples": [ ] }, { "name": "AMAZON.StopIntent", "samples": … Continue reading An Alexa Skill in Javascript – Part 3
An Alexa Skill in JavaScript – Part 2
Now that we have the tools and a basic project, let's see what the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) has created for us. What's in the Basic Project? The ASK Config file contains the info the ASK needs to publish your skill. The lambda folder contains your JavaScript files that are the code behind your skill. … Continue reading An Alexa Skill in JavaScript – Part 2
An Alexa Skill in JavaScript – Part 1
So I finally decided to stop fighting it... Building Alexa Skills in C# is just difficult. With the newly released Visual Studio Code plugin for Alexa ( ) the language of choice is JavaScript. Ugh. But, it turns out that Google is still my friend (even though the Google Home is a horrible platform for … Continue reading An Alexa Skill in JavaScript – Part 1
Unit Testing an Alexa Skill in C# – Step 3a
In Step 3, we created the Lambda function that will provide the functionality of the Alexa Skill we defined in Step 1, we wired everything up and then we tested our Skill. So far so good. However, that's an awful long way round to test the Skill Request and Response. It would be nice if … Continue reading Unit Testing an Alexa Skill in C# – Step 3a
Creating an Alexa Skill in C# – Step 3
Now that you've defined your Alexa Skill in Step 1, and you've configured the security and downloaded the sample in Step 2, we're ready to take a look at the sample and see how to wire it up to the skill definition. Open your copy of the sample solution in Visual Studio 2017. I left … Continue reading Creating an Alexa Skill in C# – Step 3
One Man went to Mow... 