How to make Alexa run MySQL Querys through a skill - mysql

Question

I am trying to set up an alexa skill that calls MySQL Querys when a certain question gets asked. Nothing I tried seemed to work because I either get an error or nothing happens at all.
I am using/what I am working with:
Alexa Developer Console
Cloud9 as IDE(which uploads the code to AWS Lambda, where I defined the environmental variables used in my code)
AWS Lambda, NodeJS
Amazon RDS, which hosts my DB instance
MySQL Workbench (where I created a few tables to test the database, which works fine)
I tried several ways to solve my problem, like creating a connection or a pool, but I think it has to be handled differently, because Alexa has to wait for the response.
const GetOeffnungszeiten_Handler = {
canHandle(handlerInput) {
const request = handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request;
return request.type === 'IntentRequest' && request.intent.name === 'GetOeffnungszeiten' ;
},
handle(handlerInput) {
const request = handlerInput.requestEnvelope.request;
const responseBuilder = handlerInput.responseBuilder;
let sessionAttributes = handlerInput.attributesManager.getSessionAttributes();
let say = 'OUTPUT: ';
var mysql = require('mysql');
var connection = mysql.createPool({
host : process.env.MYSQL_HOSTNAME,
user : process.env.MYSQL_USERNAME,
password : process.env.MYSQL_PASSWORD,
database : process.env.MYSQL_DATABASE,
port : process.env.MYSQL_PORT
});
exports.handler = (event, context, callback) => {
context.callbackWaitsForEmptyEventLoop = false;
pool.getConnection(function(err, connection) {
connection.query('select name from persons where id=1', function (error, results, fields) {
connection.release();
if (error) {
callback(error);
say=say+'0';
} else {
callback(null,results[0].name);
say=say+' 1';
}
});
});
};
return responseBuilder
.speak(say)
.reprompt('try again, ' + say)
.getResponse();
},
};
I expect the output to either be "OUTPUT: 1" or "OUTPUT: 0" but it is "OUTPUT: "
With output I refer to the say variable.

Answer 1

Your function is returning responseBuilder...getResponse() before the SQL connection finishes and callback is called.
I would suggest to refactor your code using async and await to make it easier to read and to understand. (read https://stormacq.com/2019/06/22/async-js.html for help)
Be sure to return the Alexa response only when your call to MySQL returns, and not before. Remember that Alexa timeout is 8 secs, so your code need to return before that. Be sure that the AWS Lambda timeout is aligned to the Alexa timeout too (put it at 7 secs)
Finally, I would advise against using MySQL for Alexa skills. Because each Lambda invocation might be served by different containers, your code will create a connection pool for each interaction between customers and your skill, creating a significant delay to bring a response to customers. DynamoDB and Elastic Cache are much better suited to Alexa skills.