Application Properties

VoiceXML application properties allow you to set platform defaults for a session and alter platform behavior when the application executes. Unsupported properties are allowed but ignored at execution. Properties follow the standard VoiceXML scoping rules.

Usage

To use a property in a VoiceXML application, specify the value attribute for the <property> tag. For example, suppose you want to have an application that takes advantage of a fast caching policy, so that your application (VoiceXML documents, grammars, scripts, and so forth) load quickly. However, during development you need your application to use a safe caching policy so that you can develop and debug. During development, set the following properties in the application root:

<vxml version="2.1">
    <property name="documentmaxage" value="0"/>
    <property name="audiomaxage" value="0"/>
    <property name="grammarmaxage" value="0"/>
    <property name="scriptmaxage" value="0"/>
...

</vxml>

When you deploy the application, either change the property values from 0 to non-zero values, or remove the properties.

Note: A property is scoped to the level where it is specified. For example, a property specified at the application level provides the defaults for all loaded documents. A property at the form level overrides properties set previously at the application or document level.

Supported Properties

The VoiceXML Interpreter supports the following types of properties:

DTMF Properties

The following table describes the VoiceXML Interpreter's DTMF properties:

Property

Data Type

Default

Description

interdigittimeout

Number

3.0s

Timeout value between DTMF occurrences.

termchar

0-9
#
*
""

#

Terminating DTMF character for DTMF input recognition. Using the blank option ("") allows you to specify all DTMF characters as input items, including the pound key (#).

termtimeout

Number

0s

Termination timeout for DTMF occurrences.

Fetch Properties

The following table describes the VoiceXML Interpreter's fetch properties.

Property

Data Type

Default

Description

audiofetchhint

{safe | prefetch}

safe

Not currently supported.

audiomaxage

Number

NA

Maximum acceptable age of cached audio resources, in seconds.

audiomaxstale

Number

NA

Maximum acceptable staleness of expired, cached audio resources, in ms. Specifying an audiomaxstale value lets a VoiceXML document use audio resources contained in the cache for a given period after the resources have expired.

datafetchhint

{safe | prefetch}

safe

Not currently supported.

datamaxage

Number

NA

Maximum acceptable age of cached XML data, in seconds.

datamaxstale

Number

NA

Maximum acceptable staleness of expired cached XML documents, in seconds. Specifying a datamaxstale value lets a VoiceXML document use XML data contained in the cache for a given period after the data has expired.

documentfetchhint

{safe | prefetch}

safe

Not currently supported.

documentmaxage

Number

NA

Maximum acceptable age of cached documents, in seconds.

documentmaxstale

Number

NA

Maximum acceptable staleness of expired cached documents, in seconds. Specifying a documentmaxstale value lets a VoiceXML document use VoiceXML documents contained in the cache, for a given period after the documents have expired.

fetchaudio

Number

NA

URI of the audio to play while waiting for a document to be fetched.

fetchaudiodelay

Number

0s

Amount of time to wait at the start of a fetch delay before playing the fetchaudio source. This is useful if a fetch delay is short, when it may be preferable not to start playing fetchaudio that will be cut-off almost immediately.

fetchaudiominimum

Number

2s

Minimum time interval to play a fetchaudio source, once started, even if the fetch result arrives in the meantime. This is useful when you do not want the fetchaudio heard by a user to be stopped too quickly.

fetchtimeout

Number

10s

Amount of time to wait before a timeout event is raised on HTTP fetches.

grammarfetchhint

{safe | prefetch}

safe

Not currently supported.

grammarmaxage

Number

NA

Maximum acceptable age of cached grammars, in seconds.

grammarmaxstale

Number

NA

Maximum acceptable staleness of expired cached grammars, in seconds. Specifying a grammarmaxstale value lets a VoiceXML document use grammar resources contained in the cache, for a given period after the resources have expired.

objectfetchint

{safe | prefetch}

safe

Not currently supported.

objectmaxage

Number

NA

Maximum acceptable age of cached objects, in seconds.

objectmaxstale

Number

NA

Maximum acceptable staleness of expired cached objects, in seconds. Specifying an objectmaxstale value lets a VoiceXML document use objects contained in the cache for a given period after the objects have expired.

scriptfetchhint

{safe | prefetch}

safe

Currently not available.

scriptmaxage

Number

NA

Maximum acceptable age of cached scripts, in seconds.

scriptmaxstale

Number

NA

Maximum acceptable staleness of expired cached scripts, in seconds. Specifying a scriptmaxstale value lets a VoiceXML document use script resources contained in the cache for a given period after the resources have expired.

Prompt Properties

The following table lists the VoiceXML Interpreter's prompt properties:

Property

Data Type

Default

Description

bargein

boolean

yes

Allows or disallows prompt bargein.

bargeintype

{speech | hotword}

speech

Type of barge-in performed in response to voice input.

timeout

Number

3.4s

Elapsed silent time before a noinput event is raised.

Recognition Properties

The following table lists the VoiceXML Interpreter's recognition properties:

Property

Data Type

Default

Description

completetimeout

0.2s - 10s

0.25s

Length of silence after speech before a result is either accepted or rejected with a nomatch event. This value applies when the speech prior to silence is a complete match of an active grammar.

confidencelevel

0.0 - 1.0

0.5

Threshold of the speech recognition confidence level. The VoiceXML Interpreter rejects user inputs if the confidence level is below this threshold. Valid values range from 0.0 to 1.0.

incompletetimeout

0.2s - 10s

0.75s

Length of silence after speech before a result is finalized. This value applies when the speech prior to silence is either:

  • An incomplete match of all active grammars, or

  • A complete match of an active grammar, but the user can speak additional grammar items.

In the first case, when the timeout is triggered, the VoiceXML Interpreter rejects the partial result and raises a nomatch event. In the second case, the VoiceXML Interpreter accepts the speech.

inputmodes

{dtmf | dtmf voice | voice}

dtmf voice

Space separated list defining the type of inputs allowed. Valid values:

  • dtmf = Speech recognition is disabled.

  • voice = DTMF recognition is disabled.

maxspeechtimeout

0s - 600s

15s

Maximum duration of user speech. In VoiceXML 2.0, if this time elapses before the user stops speaking, a maxspeechtimeout event is raised. Use 0 for no limit.

maxnbest

1 - 500

1

Maximum number of results returned by the recognizer. Also represents the maximum size of the application.lastresult$[i] array.

recordutterance

boolean

no

Indicates whether to enable or disable utterance recording during recognition.

  • true: Enables utterance recording during recognition.

  • false: Disables utterance recording.

When utterance recording is enabled, the following variables contain recording values:

If a form item is filled, the corresponding form item shadow variables also are set to these values.

recordutterancetype

{audio/x-wav | video/3gpp}

audio/x-wav

Media type to use for utterances recorded during recognition.

sensitivity

0.0 - 1.0

0.5

Sensitivity level to input. Valid values range from 0.0 (least sensitive) to 1.0 (most sensitive).

speedvsaccuracy

0.0 - 1.0

0.5

Provides information to the recognizer of the desired balance between speed and accuracy. Values range from 0.0 (fastest recognition) to 1.0 (highest accuracy).

universals

{cancel | exit | help | none}

none

Space-separated list of the universal commands to activate; for example:

"help" "cancel" "exit"