Issues connecting data stream to users responses in Google Voice App

Question

I am currently developing a voice agent to be used in a smart speaker where users will ask about some items that are being stored in a data stream. The ultimate goal is that users ask about items' names in the stream and google actions through voice will tell them the details about those items as presented in another column in the stream.

To do this, I linked a spreadsheet to Axios to stream the content of the spreadsheet as data to be read in a webhook in google actions. The link to the data stream is HERE.

Honestly, I am new to developing apps for google actions and new to javascript overall so I might be doing silly mistakes.

In the graphical interface for google actions, I am setting a type for the items I want the user to ask about.

Then, I set an intent to recognize the item as a data type and be able to send this to the webhook.

The cloud function in the webhook is as follows:

const { conversation } = require('@assistant/conversation');
const functions = require('firebase-functions');
require('firebase-functions/lib/logger/compat'); // console.log compact
const axios = require('axios');

const app = conversation({debug: true});

app.handle('getItem', async conv => {
  const data = await getItem();
  const itemParam = app.types.Item;
  
//   conv.add("This test to see if we are accessing the webhook for ${itemParam}");
  
  data.map(item  => {
      if (item.Name === itemParam)
      agent.add('These are the datails for ${itemParam}. It is located in zone 
${item.Zone}, at level ${item.Level}');
  });
});

async function getItem() {
    const res = await axios.get('https://sheetdb.io/api/v1/n3ol4hwmfsmqd');
  console.log(res.data);
  return res.data; // To use in your Action's response
}

exports.ActionsOnGoogleFulfillment = functions.https.onRequest(app);

What the webhook is doing is getting the stream with the getItem function and then mapping the data to find the Name in the stream to match the item parameter (ItemParam) as identified by the user.

However, one of the main problems I have is that when trying to access the item from the user, I am using app.types.Item, but this does not work as when testing I get an error saying: "error": "Cannot read property 'Item' of undefined". I think what is happening is that I am not using the correct way to call the Item in the conversation app.

Also, I am not sure exactly how the linking to the database will work. In other works, I am not sure if

data.map(item  => {
      if (item.Name === itemParam)
      agent.add('These are the datails for ${itemParam}. It is located in zone 
${item.Zone}, at level ${item.Level}');

will work.

I have tried multiple things to solve but I am really struggling so any help with this would be really appreciated. Also, I know that I rushed to explain things, so please let me know if you need me to explain better or clarify anything.

Thank you

Answer 1

There are three points I am seeing that won't work.

First, app.types.Item is not the way to get this parameter. You should instead use conv.intent.params['Item'].resolved to get the user's spoken name.

Second, you are trying to use agent.add to include text, but there is no agent in your environment. You should instead be using conv.add.

Third, the text you are sending is not properly escaped between backticks ``. It is the backtick that allows you to use template literals.

Altogether your code can be rewritten as:

const { conversation } = require('@assistant/conversation');
const functions = require('firebase-functions');
require('firebase-functions/lib/logger/compat'); // console.log compact
const axios = require('axios');

const app = conversation({debug: true});

app.handle('getItem', async conv => {
  const data = await getItem();
  const itemParam = conv.intent.params['Item'].resolved;
  
  data.map(item  => {
      if (item.Name === itemParam)
      conv.add(`These are the datails for ${itemParam}. It is located in zone 
${item.Zone}, at level ${item.Level}`);
  });
});

async function getItem() {
    const res = await axios.get('https://sheetdb.io/api/v1/n3ol4hwmfsmqd');
  console.log(res.data);
  return res.data; // To use in your Action's response
}

exports.ActionsOnGoogleFulfillment = functions.https.onRequest(app);