[Announce] LMS-lite certified Smart Home skill for Alexa

[philchillbill]

I modified my local server URL and tried to link the skill again today. However, it does not work anymore. I don't even see any requests coming from Amazon in my logs anymore. The account linking page is stuck on "checking connectivity". Everything works fine when tried manually. Utterly strange. Are there any restricted words that aren't allowed to be used within the URL or something like that?

No, there are no restricted words. Have you looked at the console log in the browser? What browser are you using?

p.s. I just did a few trial account linkings with no errors so the process seems OK. Are you sure your nginx proxy is proxying properly? I have seen weird situations with Apache where a web interface shows (partially) if you visit the proxy in a web server but JSON requests fail. It has something to do with relative vs absolute paths in LMS. Maybe the uuid you added is messing this resolution up.

[ashceryth]

I have tested with curl like that (private information obfuscated):

curl --user username:password -X POST -d '{"id":1,"method":"slim.request","params":["aa:bb:cc:aa:bb:cc",["status","-",1,"tags:al"]]}' https://my.domain.tld/some-path/jsonrpc.js

It returns the status just fine.

EDIT: Thanks for the suggestions. According to the output of the curl command, I guess proxying is working properly.

[philchillbill]

My PHP script that verifies your server is also using curl and has a 4 second timeout. The .ajax call in the js on the account-linking page also has a 4 sec timeout. So just hanging is inexplicable as the console log should show an error message after 4 seconds.

The only errors in the server logs are a few (no idea if it's you) that mention "server certificate does NOT include an ID which matches the server name" but my script has CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false and CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false so that should not matter.

[ashceryth]

Thanks for your kind support!

Strange that I didn't even see any TCP SYNs coming to my firewall from your validation procedure. So, I did some further testing and copied the linking URL to test with Chrome on my desktop. When hitting the validate button "Checking connectivity..." is running indefinitely (not just 4 seconds). The console shows following error:

validate_multiple_o.js:1 Uncaught (in promise) ReferenceError: tunnels is not defined
    at HTMLFormElement.<anonymous> (validate_multiple_o.js:1)
    at HTMLFormElement.dispatch (jquery.min.js:3)
    at HTMLFormElement.q.handle (jquery.min.js:3)

Maybe that helps?

[philchillbill]

Maybe that helps?

It certainly does help - I made a small edit yesterday that would not affect ngrok users but would affect nginx/apache users. Apologies, but it should be OK now.

EDIT: Looks like you linked successfully now after first getting a 401 Authorization Required.

[ashceryth]

Thanks for the quick fix! Everything is working fine again

[philchillbill]

Thanks for the quick fix! Everything is working fine again

I can see in the logs that you are getting random "HTTP Error 400: Bad Request" errors. Because the skill cannot specify the text of error messages, it returns a standard EXPIRED_AUTHORIZATION_CREDENTIAL to Amazon which is likely the wrong text for your error but at least indicates the request was not processed.

Can you see in your nginx logs why the 400 was returned to the skill? Exactly the same request a few seconds earlier or later succeeds...

[philchillbill]

Some people with a roll-your-own nginx/apache proxy were receiving an error message about a firewall blocking access during account linking. This has been resolved and was due to an outbound firewall blocking the php curl the landing page uses to validate your LMS server before linking. So it was a firewall, it was just mine and not yours

[philchillbill]

Amazon has just announced an upcoming capability that will effectively have your Echo act as a proxy server for smart home skills to control devices in your local network. Info is scarce but I've applied to beta test it (no idea if I will be selected). If it works the way I think it will work then it would mean zero setup for controlling LMS by Alexa. Just install the skill, have it talk to your Echo(s) and have the Echo(s) perform the actual jsonrpc.js calls on your local network. My guess is 3-12 months before this is live.

See the section titled "Faster and Offline Device Control with Local Smart Home Skills" at https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/b...ome-with-Alexa.

[pacc]

Amazon has just announced an upcoming capability that will effectively have your Echo act as a proxy server for smart home skills to control devices in your local network. Info is scarce but I've applied to beta test it (no idea if I will be selected). If it works the way I think it will work then it would mean zero setup for controlling LMS by Alexa. Just install the skill, have it talk to your Echo(s) and have the Echo(s) perform the actual jsonrpc.js calls on your local network. My guess is 3-12 months before this is live.

See the section titled "Faster and Offline Device Control with Local Smart Home Skills" at https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/b...ome-with-Alexa.

It would be great if this were extended to support discontinued products (as squeezebox) and open-source projects like WLED,
the most valuable effect would being able to use 'smart' devices with alexa even after their manufacturer goes belly-up and takes their servers with them.
(like Best buy's insignia products)

I mostly use my squeezeboxes as radio's and only use mysqueezebox.com, wouldn't itbe possible to directly control the on/off, volume, channel from alexa with this, bypassing LMS?