Contents tagged with VXML

  • VoiceXML on Speech Server

    1 Comment

    Yesterday I posted about an issue with Speech Server and Vista. One reader named Bill asked a question in the comments. My response was a bit long for a comment so I decided to turn it into a separate post instead.

    Hey Marc, are you using Microsoft Speech Server with VXML?  If so, what hardware are you using on it?  Also, does MSS support CCXML?
    -Bill

    Yes, I'm using quite a bit of VoiceXML. Most of the applications I work on are written to run against the Nuance Voice Platform. I've been using VXML so that I could run them against either platform (or any other platform for that matter).

    There are some issues that I ran into where I was using Nuance specific properties (example) that Microsoft doesn't have VXML equivalents for. In those cases I needed to write them using the Speech Server managed model.

    The key thing to keep in mind is that Microsoft has implemented the VXML spec pretty much verbatim. So as long as your application is pure VXML you should be fine.

    I haven't put Speech Server through any sizing tests so I'm not sure what the hardware requirements will be in the end. That said, my development machine is a DELL D830 with 4GB of RAM running Vista Ultimate. In the lab I'm using a DELL 1950 with 4GB of RAM running Windows Server 2003. In both cases I'm using a Dialogic DMG2000 gateway.

    As for CCXML, they don't support it and I don't see that changing. I actually think CCXML is going to go the way of SALT. With only Voxeo supporting a real CCXML implementation I don't think there is going to be a lot of call for it. Also, everything you would want to do with CCXML can be done using Speech Server's Managed API. This is just a guess on my part, I don't have any inside knowledge as to what Microsoft's roadmap looks like.

  • Notiva

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    Around 18 months ago I started a new position with Parlance Corporation. I’m proud to say I've delivered my first product - Notiva.

    Essentially Notiva is an outbound messaging service which gives developers the ability to add voice, email, and SMS messaging to any application, infrastructure, or architecture with just a few lines of code.

    It has been a while since I've last rolled out a completely new product. This has been, without question, one of the most rewarding products I've every worked on. Frankly it has been an absolute blast to work on this.

    I'm really excited about Notiva and where it is headed. We're working on the final touches of a full application build on Notiva now. We've already had one partner integrate it into an existing product already.

    If you would like to give it a try you can drop me an email or check out www.notiva.com.

  • Straight VoiceXML vs. Windows Workflow

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    There is an interesting post over on GotSpeech.NET (VXML vs. Workflow for Speech Server 2007) that compares speech devolvement using VoiceXML vs. the Windows Workflow model available in Speech Server 2007. 

    Given that most of my work building applications in C# and ASP.NET for the Nuance Voice Platform (NVP) I've got quite a lot more experience with VXML than Workflow (or SALT). I partially disagree with him when he sites a "longer development cycle" with VXML. It is all about familiarity with the language and platform. But for the most part I think he makes good points.

    I think the Workflow model is interesting but I'm wary of tying myself to a single voice platform. I much prefer the flexibility of moving between Nuance, Microsoft, Voxeo, etc. as needed. Each platform brings a different strength to the table and it seems like a bad idea to limit my options at this point.

  • VoiceXML with Visual Studio

    7 Comments

    Every so often I'm surprised by the incredible flexibility built into Visual Studio 2005.

    I've been writing a lot of VoiceXML lately and I was really missing the intellisense that I've become so used to. On a whim I tried opening a VoiceXML document in Visual Studio and much to my surprise it worked!

    It turns out that Visual Studio is capable of understanding the syntax of a document based on it's DOCTYPE. In my case it saw <!DOCTYPE vxml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD VOICEXML 2.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml21/vxml.dtd"> and was able to automatically give me basic intellisense and syntax checking for VoiceXML version 2.1.

    As an example, create a new XML document and insert the following:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

    <!DOCTYPE vxml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD VOICEXML 2.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml21/vxml.dtd">

    <vxml version="2.1">
    </vxml>

    You'll notice that the last element (</vxml>) gives you a warning. Hovering over it tells you not only that your missing an element but what the valid elements might be!

    This is all very cool if you ask me...