What's the point of installing the Alexa SDK module in a local node environment?
I am very new to Node.js, so maybe my confusion stems from there. But as far as I can see it, there is no reason to install the Alexa Skills Kit SDK when there is no native debug / test way to run my codes without using an online simulator.
I was following the tutorial to do Facts and noticed that I am writing all my code into the developer portal. I found a couple of modules npm
that allow me to test my Alexa Skill locally, but I want to know if there is any built-in support inside the SDK for JSON request / response IO.
I think I am really confused because generally, when you install a module, you use it directly in your script (for example, you install the http module so you can make HTTP requests inside your code), but since there is no of the way to test Alexa Skill from an online simulator (which already has SDK support built in), it seems pretty pointless to install the SDK as a module in my local environment.
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You should install this module and whatever depends on your implementation of the skills in your local environment, because you can and should test your local environment.
You may be able to do without local testing for small skills, but you will need local testing IMO soon.
There are many different ways to test locally. I first did this by capturing some events that Alexa sent to my live skill and then manually feeding them to my local skill implementation. How exactly you do it depends on how you did it.
But now I'm using BSTAlexa, which is a local Alexa simulator - it generates events for you - and is great for setting up automated testing. You can read about how to use it here .
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