Recap

• XML terminology
• The XML family
• vxml, form, block, prompt

The Homework

• The BeVocal Cafe
• Check, Activate, Save
• Hello World
• Problems or questions?

The BeVocal Cafe Documentation

Web Forms!

Forms and Fields

• Form
• Field
• Choices
• The trick is to learn
  to recognize these
  in VXML

Dissecting a web form

• Predefined-option fields
• Where do you go to school?
  MIT Harvard Tufts
• Closed set
• Do you like cheeseburgers?
  yes    no
• Only some valid answers
• What is today's date?
  
• All of these are types of grammars

Grammars

• Today we'll talk about GSL Grammars
• GSL = Grammar Specification Language

Schools [mit harvard tufts]

LikeBurgers [yes no]

Dates [...]

Grammars

• Some grammars are too complex for us to write out by hand
• VXML provides us with some built-in grammars

boolean, currency, date, digits, number, phone, time

• BeVocal provides us with some additional built-in grammars

airport, airline, citystate, datetime, equity, stockindex, street, streetaddress

Specifying a grammar

• the <grammar> tag

<grammar type="application/x-nuance-gsl">

• When using GSL grammars, we have to use the CDATA directive

<grammar type="application/x-nuance-gsl">
<![CDATA[
	Schools [mit harvard tufts]
]]>
</grammar>

• But sometimes we'll want to use those built-in grammars

<grammar src="builtin:grammar/boolean"/>

Translating this to VXML

• Each field has a variable assigned to it (its name)
• Recall..
• Do you like cheeseburgers?
  yes    no
• What would that look like in VXML?

<fieid name="likecheeseburgers">
	<prompt>Do you like cheeseburgers?</prompt>
	<grammar src="builtin:grammar/boolean"/>
</field>

Another example

• Where do you go to school?
  MIT Harvard Tufts

<fieid name="school">
	<prompt>Where do you go to school?</prompt>		
	<grammar type="application/x-nuance-gsl">
	<![CDATA[
		Schools [mit harvard tufts]
	]]>
	<grammar>		
</field>

Using user input

• To access what the user just said to us, we're going to have to learn some new tags
• <filled>
• <value>

<filled>

• When a user says something - we'll call an 'utterance' - the field is considered filled
• <filled> is a child of field

<fieid name="school">
	<prompt>Where do you go to school?</prompt>		
	<grammar type="application/x-nuance-gsl">
	<![CDATA[
		Schools [mit harvard tufts]
	]]>
	<grammar>	
	<filled>
	...
	</filled>
</field>

<value>

• Used to play back a variable
• Recall, every field has an associated variable with it, its name
• In many cases, we'll want to use this variable
• We can make decisions based on it or simply play it back
• <value> is used to play it back

<value expr="school"/>

How we'd use value

• <value> is a child of <prompt>, which is a valid child of <filled>
• Once a user says something, we may want to repeat it back to them

<fieid name="school">
	<prompt>Where do you go to school?</prompt>		
	<grammar type="application/x-nuance-gsl">
	<![CDATA[
		Schools [mit harvard tufts]
	]]>
	<grammar>	
	<filled>
		<prompt>You said you go to <value expr="school"/></prompt>
	</filled>
</field>

A primer on flow

• Multiple field can exist in a form
• You can access their variables in side of any other field
• Once one field is done executing (it is filled), we automatically move to the next field

Debugging in the Cafe

• Log Browser
• Vocal Scripter

In-class exercise 1

• Create a VXML file that contains 1 grammar
• You can ask any question that has a set number of responses (that isn't yes/no)
• You must write your own grammar, don't use a built-in grammar
• Have the system repeat back the answer

In-class exercise 2

• Create a VXML application that gathers which class the caller is in (freshmen, senior, etc), which dorm they live in (or 'off campus'), and if they're enrolled in ESD.951
• You'll need to use 3 fields
• Don't worry about the completeness of the dorm grammar
• Use 1 built-in grammar
• Use 1 block at the end instead of a field to repeat back all of the answers in a sentence

Homework

• Create a VXML application that has at least 5 fields
• Use at least 1 built-in grammar
• Repeat back everything the user said at some point, doesn't have to be all in one state
• Be creative and have fun with it!