Salah Timings

INTRODUCTION

In today’s fast paced life, it’s easy to lose track of time and fall behind schedule. We’re all caught up and working around a super tight schedule, with little or no time to waste. However, it’s essential to take some time out to pray and ground oneself, isn’t it? Salah Timings provides Islamic prayer timings (Salat), and ensures you don’t miss your daily prayers. To help you with the inconvenience of having to look up the timings on the web or your phone, we’ve taken things one step further – We’ve integrated Salah Timings with Alexa! This way, you could be running about with your daily errands, and just ask Alexa what you need to know, she’ll be happy to help you!

HOW IT WORKS/SESSION FLOW

Alexa will give you the 5 prayer timings for the day, based on the mentioned location. Just say, “Alexa, ask Salah Timings for prayer timings in Chicago”

In case you’re looking for a particular date, just be specific – it could be a future or a past date. Just say, “Alexa, ask Salah Timings for prayer timings in Paris, on 23rd December 2016”

Alternately, if you have a particular prayer for the day in mind, it’ll only be too easy for Alexa to let you know. Just say, “Alexa, ask Salah Timings Fajr timing in Berlin”

You can ask Alexa the precise time for any prayer, on any date you choose – feel free to be as precise as you want! Just say, “Alexa, ask Salah Timings Zuhr timing in Abu Dhabi, on 19th November 2016”

SAMPLE UTTERANCES

Alexa, ask Salah Timings for prayer timings in [city].

Alexa, ask Salah Timings for prayer timings in [city] for [date].

Alexa, ask Salah Timings for [prayer name] timings in [city].

Alexa, ask Salah Timings for [prayer name] timing in [city] on [date].

Alexa, what time according to Salah Timings is [prayer name]?

Alexa, ask Salah Timings what time do I offer [prayer name] in [city] tomorrow?

Alexa, ask Salah Timings when [prayer name] is to be offered on [date].

Alexa, when is [prayer name] to be offered according to Salah Timings?

Alexa, ask Salah Timings when do I offer [prayer name] on [date].

Salah Timings API Key Setup

The first is to setup API key from http://muslimsalat.com/ then deploy the example code in lambda and configure the Alexa skill to use Lambda

Signup at http://muslimsalat.com/panel/signup.php to get the api key

AWS Lambda Setup

2. Click on the Create a Lambda Function or Get Started Now button.

3. Name the Lambda Function "salahTimings"

4. Go to the the src directory, select all files and folders and then create a zip file, make sure the zip file does not contain the src directory itself, otherwise Lambda function will not work.

5. Upload the .zip file to the Lambda

6. Select the Runtime as Node.js 4.3

7. Keep the Handler as index.handler (this refers to the main js file in the zip)

8. Select role as alexa and keep other configuration as it is.

9. Select ‘Configure triggers’ and select ‘Alexa Skills Kit’.

10. Copy the ARN from the upper right to be used later in the Alexa Skill Setup

Alexa Skill Setup

1. Go to the Alexa Developer Console and click Add a New Skill.

2. Select Skill TypeCustom Interaction Model

3. Set "Salah Timings" as the skill name and "salah timings" as the invocation name, this is what is used to activate your skill. For example you would say: "Alexa, Ask salah timings for prayer timings in Dubai" Click Next.

4. Copy the Intent Schema from the included file speechAssets/IntentSchema.json.

5. Go to custom slot, add type LIST_LOCATION, LIST_OF_PRAYER, AMAZON.US_CITY and copy the type values from the included file speechAssets/ LIST_LOCATION.text file, LIST_OF_PRAYER.text file, AMAZON.US_CITY.text file.

6. Copy the Sample Utterances from the included file speechAssets/SampleUtterances.txt. Click Next.