Alan Android SDK

Alan can be integrated with Android apps developed in Java and Kotlin.

Integrating with Alan

To add Alan voice to an Android app, you need to do the following:

1. Add the Alan SDK dependency

2. Add the Alan button to the app layout

3. Add the AlanConfig object

4. Connect to the Alan Studio project

Step 1. Add the Alan SDK dependency

You need to add the Alan SDK dependency to the Android app. You can do it in two ways:

• Add a reference as a Maven dependency

• Download the aar package and include it manually

Maven dependency

Do the following:

1. Open the build.gradle file at the module level.

2. In the dependencies block, add the dependency configuration for the Alan Android SDK: implementation 'app.alan:sdk:<latest-version>'. To get the latest version, check out the Releases page for the Alan Android SDK GitHub repository.

build.gradle (module level)

...
dependencies {
  ...
  /// Add Alan SDK dependency
  implementation "app.alan:sdk:4.12.0"
}

aar package

Do the following:

1. Download the Alan SDK from the releases section in the Alan Git repository.

2. Put it in your <project>/app/libs folder. Create the libs folder if needed.

3. Open the build.gradle file at the module level.

4. In the repositories block, add the name of the folder in which the aar package resides.

5. In the dependencies block, add the dependency configuration for the Alan Android SDK. To get the latest version, check out the Releases page for the Alan Android SDK GitHub repository.

build.gradle (module level)

repositories {
  ...
  /// Add the following line to the repositories section
  flatDir {
    dirs 'libs'
  }
}
...
dependencies {
  ...
  /// Add the Alan SDK dependency
  implementation (name: 'AlanSdk-4.12.0', ext: 'aar')
}

Step 2. Add the Alan button to the app layout

To add the Alan button to the layout of your app, use the AlanButton class. The AlanButton class provides a view with the voice button and instance methods to communicate with Alan Studio.

In activity_main.xml, create a new AlanButton instance using the following XML layout:

activity_main.xml

<com.alan.alansdk.button.AlanButton
    android:id="@+id/alan_button"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_gravity="bottom"
    android:visibility="visible"
    app:button_horizontal_align="right"
    app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
    app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"/>

Note

The layout_width param should be set to match_parent.

Step 3. Add the AlanConfig object

You need to add the AlanConfig object to your app. This object describes the parameters that are provided for AlanButton. In the MainActivity.java file (for Android Java apps) or the MainActivity.kt file (for Android Kotlin apps), use AlanConfig.Builder to create a config with the necessary parameters:

Name	Type	Description
projectId	String	The Alan SDK key for a project in Alan Studio.
dialogId	String	(Optional) The dialog ID to connect to the necessary dialog.
dataObject	String or JSONObject	(Optional) A valid JSON string or JSON object with authentication or configuration data to be sent to the voice script. For details, see authData.

Java

MainActivity.java

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

  /// Add the alanButton variable
  private AlanButton alanButton;

  @Override
  protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    /// Set up the Alan button
    AlanConfig config = AlanConfig.builder().setProjectId("").build();
    alanButton = findViewById(R.id.alan_button);
    alanButton.initWithConfig(config);
  }
}

Kotlin

MainActivity.kt

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

  /// Add the alanButton variable
  private var alanButton: AlanButton? = null

  override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

    /// Set up the Alan button
    val config = AlanConfig.builder().setProjectId("").build()
    alanButton = findViewById(R.id.alan_button)
    alanButton?.initWithConfig(config)
  }
}

Step 4. Connect to the Alan Studio project

As the last step, you need to connect the Android app to the Alan Studio project in which you create voice scripts for the app. In setProjectId of MainActivity, provide the Alan SDK Key for your project in Alan Studio. To get the key, in Alan Studio, at the top of the code editor click Integrations and copy the key value from the Alan SDK Key field.

Java

MainActivity.java

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

  private AlanButton alanButton;

  @Override
  protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    /// Define the project key
    AlanConfig config = AlanConfig.builder().setProjectId("e40fc04e9aff7b4b7d43485dbc3cb44a2e956eca572e1d8b807a3e2338fdd0dc/stage").build();
    alanButton = findViewById(R.id.alan_button);
    alanButton.initWithConfig(config);
  }
}

Kotlin

MainActivity.kt

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

  private var alanButton: AlanButton? = null

  override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

    /// Define the project key
    val config = AlanConfig.builder().setProjectId("e40fc04e9aff7b4b7d43485dbc3cb44a2e956eca572e1d8b807a3e2338fdd0dc/stage").build()
    alanButton = findViewById(R.id.alan_button)
    alanButton?.initWithConfig(config)
  }
}

Your app is now integrated with Alan. You can now add voice commands to the script in Alan Studio, run the app, tap the Alan button and interact with the app with voice.

Using the Alan button methods

For details on methods exposed by the Alan Android SDK, see Client API methods.

Handling events

When you run an app with Alan voice, multiple events come from the Alan backend. To handle them, you should extend the AlanCallback class and register a listener to the AlanButton object.

You can handle the following events:

• onCommand: this callback is invoked when the app receives a command from the voice script. For details, see onCommand handler.

• onButtonState: this callback is invoked when the Alan button state changes. For details, see onButtonState handler.

• onEvent: this callback is invoked on Alan events. For details, see onEvent handler.

Switching between logging levels

You can switch to the extended logging level with a static enableLogging method of the Alan object:

Alan.enableLogging(true);

Troubleshooting

To troubleshoot problems you may have with your Android app, check the solutions below:

• The minimum possible Android SDK version required by the Alan SDK is 21. If the version in your project is lower, you may encounter the following error: AndroidManifest.xml Error: uses-sdk:minSdkVersion 16 cannot be smaller than version 21 declared in library [:alan_voice]. Open the app/build.gradle file, under defaultConfig, locate minSdkVersion and change the version to 21.

• If gradle fails to get all dependencies required by the Alan SDK, you will encounter the following error: Could not find <dependency-name> required by project :app > alan.app:sdk:x.xx.x.

  Make sure jcenter() is added to your project:

  1. In your project, open the settings.gradle file.

  2. Check the repositories list. If jcenter() is not in the list, add it:

     settings.gradle

     dependencyResolutionManagement {
       ...
       repositories {
         mavenCentral()
         jcenter()
       }
     }
     

  3. Sync and run your project.