Abstract

This document specifies VoiceXML, the Voice Extensible Markup Language. VoiceXML is designed for creating audio dialogs that feature synthesized speech, digitized audio, recognition of spoken and DTMF key input, recording of spoken input, telephony, and mixed initiative conversations. Its major goal is to bring the advantages of Web-based development and content delivery to interactive voice response applications.

Status of this Document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.

This document has been reviewed by W3C Members and other interested parties, and it has been endorsed by the Director as a W3C Recommendation. W3C's role in making the Recommendation is to draw attention to the specification and to promote its widespread deployment. This enhances the functionaility and interoperability of the Web.

This specification is part of the W3C Speech Interface Framework and has been developed within the W3C Voice Browser Activity by participants in the Voice Browser Working Group (W3C Members only).

The design of VoiceXML 2.0 has been widely reviewed (see the disposition of comments) and satisfies the Working Group's technical requirements. A list of implementations is included in the VoiceXML 2.0 implementation report, along with the associated test suite.

Comments are welcome on www-voice@w3.org (archive). See W3C mailing list and archive usage guidelines.

The W3C maintains a list of any patent disclosures related to this work.

Conventions of this Document

In this document, the key words "must", "must not", "required", "shall", "shall not", "should", "should not", "recommended", "may", and "optional" are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119] and indicate requirement levels for compliant VoiceXML implementations.

Table of Contents

Abbreviated Contents

• 1. Overview
• 2. Dialog Constructs
• 3. User Input
• 4. System Output
• 5. Control flow and scripting
• 6. Environment and Resources
• Appendices

Full Contents

• 1. Overview
  • 1.1 Introduction
  • 1.2 Background
    • 1.2.1 Architectural Model
    • 1.2.2 Goals of VoiceXML
    • 1.2.3 Scope of VoiceXML
    • 1.2.4 Principles of Design
    • 1.2.5 Implementation Platform Requirements
  • 1.3 Concepts
    • 1.3.1 Dialogs and Subdialogs
    • 1.3.2 Sessions
    • 1.3.3 Applications
    • 1.3.4 Grammars
    • 1.3.5 Events
    • 1.3.6 Links
  • 1.4 VoiceXML Elements
  • 1.5 Document Structure and Execution
    • 1.5.1 Execution within one Document
    • 1.5.2 Executing a Multi-Document Application
    • 1.5.3 Subdialogs
    • 1.5.4 Final Processing
• 2. Dialog Constructs
  • 2.1 Forms
    • 2.1.1 Form Interpretation
    • 2.1.2 Form Items
    • 2.1.3 Form Item Variables and Conditions
    • 2.1.4 Directed Forms
    • 2.1.5 Mixed Initiative Forms
    • 2.1.6 Form Interpretation Algorithm
  • 2.2 Menus
    • 2.2.1 menu element
    • 2.2.2 choice element
    • 2.2.3 DTMF in Menus
    • 2.2.4 enumerate element
    • 2.2.5 Grammar Generation
    • 2.2.6 Interpretation Model
  • 2.3 Form Items
    • 2.3.1 field element
    • 2.3.2 block element
    • 2.3.3 initial element
    • 2.3.4 subdialog element
    • 2.3.5 object element
    • 2.3.6 record element
    • 2.3.7 transfer element
  • 2.4 Filled
  • 2.5 Links
• 3. User Input
  • 3.1 Grammars
    • 3.1.1 Speech Grammars
    • 3.1.2 DTMF Grammars
    • 3.1.3 Scope of Grammars
    • 3.1.4 Activation of Grammars
    • 3.1.5 Semantic Interpretation of Input
    • 3.1.6 Mapping Semantic Interpretation Results to VoiceXML forms
• 4. System Output
  • 4.1 Prompt
    • 4.1.1 Speech Markup
    • 4.1.2 Basic Prompts
    • 4.1.3 Audio Prompting
    • 4.1.4 <value> Element
    • 4.1.5 Bargein
    • 4.1.6 Prompt Selection
    • 4.1.7 Timeout
    • 4.1.8 Prompt Queueing and Input Collection
• 5. Control flow and scripting
  • 5.1 Variables and Expressions
    • 5.1.1 Declaring Variables
    • 5.1.2 Variable Scopes
    • 5.1.3 Referencing Variables
    • 5.1.4 Standard Session Variables
    • 5.1.5 Standard Application Variables
  • 5.2 Event Handling
    • 5.2.1 throw element
    • 5.2.2 catch element
    • 5.2.3 Shorthand Notation
    • 5.2.4 catch Element Selection
    • 5.2.5 Default catch elements
    • 5.2.6 Event Types
  • 5.3 Executable Content
    • 5.3.1 var element
    • 5.3.2 assign element
    • 5.3.3 clear element
    • 5.3.4 if, elseif, else elements
    • 5.3.5 prompts
    • 5.3.6 reprompt element
    • 5.3.7 goto element
    • 5.3.8 submit element
    • 5.3.9 exit element
    • 5.3.10 return element
    • 5.3.11 disconnect element
    • 5.3.12 script element
    • 5.3.13 log element
• 6. Environment and Resources
  • 6.1 Resource Fetching
    • 6.1.1 Fetching
    • 6.1.2 Caching
    • 6.1.3 Prefetching
    • 6.1.4 Protocols
  • 6.2 Metadata Information
    • 6.2.1 meta element
    • 6.2.2 metadata element
  • 6.3 property element
    • 6.3.1 Platform-Specific Properties
    • 6.3.2 Generic Speech Recognizer Properties
    • 6.3.3 Generic DTMF Recognizer Properties
    • 6.3.4 Prompt and Collect Properties
    • 6.3.5 Fetching Properties
    • 6.3.6 Miscellaneous Properties
  • 6.4 param element
  • 6.5 Value Designations
• Appendices
  • Appendix A. Glossary of Terms
  • Appendix B. VoiceXML Document Type Definition
  • Appendix C. Form Interpretation Algorithm
  • Appendix D. Timing Properties
  • Appendix E. Audio File Formats
  • Appendix F. Conformance
  • Appendix G. Internationalization
  • Appendix H. Accessibility
  • Appendix I. Privacy
  • Appendix J. Changes from VoiceXML 1.0
  • Appendix K. Reusability
  • Appendix L. Acknowledgements
  • Appendix M. References
  • Appendix N. Media Type and File Suffix
  • Appendix O. VoiceXML XML Schema Definition
  • Appendix P. Builtin Grammar Types

1. Overview

This document defines VoiceXML, the Voice Extensible Markup Language. Its background, basic concepts and use are presented in Section 1. The dialog constructs of form, menu and link, and the mechanism (Form Interpretation Algorithm) by which they are interpreted are then introduced in Section 2. User input using DTMF and speech grammars is covered in Section 3, while Section 4 covers system output using speech synthesis and recorded audio. Mechanisms for manipulating dialog control flow, including variables, events, and executable elements, are explained in Section 5. Environment features such as parameters and properties as well as resource handling are specified in Section 6. The appendices provide additional information including the VoiceXML Schema, a detailed specification of the Form Interpretation Algorithm and timing, audio file formats, and statements relating to conformance, internationalization, accessibility and privacy.

The origins of VoiceXML began in 1995 as an XML-based dialog design language intended to simplify the speech recognition application development process within an AT&T project called Phone Markup Language (PML). As AT&T reorganized, teams at AT&T, Lucent and Motorola continued working on their own PML-like languages.

In 1998, W3C hosted a conference on voice browsers. By this time, AT&T and Lucent had different variants of their original PML, while Motorola had developed VoxML, and IBM was developing its own SpeechML. Many other attendees at the conference were also developing similar languages for dialog design; for example, such as HP's TalkML and PipeBeach's VoiceHTML.

The VoiceXML Forum was then formed by AT&T, IBM, Lucent, and Motorola to pool their efforts. The mission of the VoiceXML Forum was to define a standard dialog design language that developers could use to build conversational applications. They chose XML as the basis for this effort because it was clear to them that this was the direction technology was going.

In 2000, the VoiceXML Forum released VoiceXML 1.0 to the public. Shortly thereafter, VoiceXML 1.0 was submitted to the W3C as the basis for the creation of a new international standard. VoiceXML 2.0 is the result of this work based on input from W3C Member companies, other W3C Working Groups, and the public.

Developers familiar with VoiceXML 1.0 are particularly directed to Changes from Previous Public Version which summarizes how VoiceXML 2.0 differs from VoiceXML 1.0.

1.1 Introduction

VoiceXML is designed for creating audio dialogs that feature synthesized speech, digitized audio, recognition of spoken and DTMF key input, recording of spoken input, telephony, and mixed initiative conversations. Its major goal is to bring the advantages of Web-based development and content delivery to interactive voice response applications.

Here are two short examples of VoiceXML. The first is the venerable "Hello World":

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<vxml xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd"
   version="2.0">
  <form>
    <block>Hello World!</block>
  </form>
</vxml>

The top-level element is <vxml>, which is mainly a container for dialogs. There are two types of dialogs: forms and menus. Forms present information and gather input; menus offer choices of what to do next. This example has a single form, which contains a block that synthesizes and presents "Hello World!" to the user. Since the form does not specify a successor dialog, the conversation ends.

Our second example asks the user for a choice of drink and then submits it to a server script:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vxml xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd"
   version="2.0">
  <form>
  <field name="drink">
     <prompt>Would you like coffee, tea, milk, or nothing?</prompt>
     <grammar src="drink.grxml" type="application/srgs+xml"/>
  </field>
  <block>
     <submit next="http://www.drink.example.com/drink2.asp"/>
  </block>
 </form>
</vxml>

A field is an input field. The user must provide a value for the field before proceeding to the next element in the form. A sample interaction is:

C (computer): Would you like coffee, tea, milk, or nothing?

H (human): Orange juice.

C: I did not understand what you said. (a platform-specific default message.)

C: Would you like coffee, tea, milk, or nothing?

H: Tea

C: (continues in document drink2.asp)

1.2 Background

This section contains a high-level architectural model, whose terminology is then used to describe the goals of VoiceXML, its scope, its design principles, and the requirements it places on the systems that support it.

1.2.1 Architectural Model

The architectural model assumed by this document has the following components:

Figure 1: Architectural Model

A document server (e.g. a Web server) processes requests from a client application, the VoiceXML Interpreter, through the VoiceXML interpreter context. The server produces VoiceXML documents in reply, which are processed by the VoiceXML interpreter. The VoiceXML interpreter context may monitor user inputs in parallel with the VoiceXML interpreter. For example, one VoiceXML interpreter context may always listen for a special escape phrase that takes the user to a high-level personal assistant, and another may listen for escape phrases that alter user preferences like volume or text-to-speech characteristics.

The implementation platform is controlled by the VoiceXML interpreter context and by the VoiceXML interpreter. For instance, in an interactive voice response application, the VoiceXML interpreter context may be responsible for detecting an incoming call, acquiring the initial VoiceXML document, and answering the call, while the VoiceXML interpreter conducts the dialog after answer. The implementation platform generates events in response to user actions (e.g. spoken or character input received, disconnect) and system events (e.g. timer expiration). Some of these events are acted upon by the VoiceXML interpreter itself, as specified by the VoiceXML document, while others are acted upon by the VoiceXML interpreter context.

1.2.2 Goals of VoiceXML

VoiceXML's main goal is to bring the full power of Web development and content delivery to voice response applications, and to free the authors of such applications from low-level programming and resource management. It enables integration of voice services with data services using the familiar client-server paradigm. A voice service is viewed as a sequence of interaction dialogs between a user and an implementation platform. The dialogs are provided by document servers, which may be external to the implementation platform. Document servers maintain overall service logic, perform database and legacy system operations, and produce dialogs. A VoiceXML document specifies each interaction dialog to be conducted by a VoiceXML interpreter. User input affects dialog interpretation and is collected into requests submitted to a document server. The document server replies with another VoiceXML document to continue the user's session with other dialogs.

VoiceXML is a markup language that:

• Minimizes client/server interactions by specifying multiple interactions per document.

• Shields application authors from low-level, and platform-specific details.

• Separates user interaction code (in VoiceXML) from service logic (e.g. CGI scripts).

• Promotes service portability across implementation platforms. VoiceXML is a common language for content providers, tool providers, and platform providers.

• Is easy to use for simple interactions, and yet provides language features to support complex dialogs.

While VoiceXML strives to accommodate the requirements of a majority of voice response services, services with stringent requirements may best be served by dedicated applications that employ a finer level of control.

1.2.3 Scope of VoiceXML

The language describes the human-machine interaction provided by voice response systems, which includes:

• Output of synthesized speech (text-to-speech).

• Output of audio files.

• Recognition of spoken input.

• Recognition of DTMF input.

• Recording of spoken input.

• Control of dialog flow.

• Telephony features such as call transfer and disconnect.

The language provides means for collecting character and/or spoken input, assigning the input results to document-defined request variables, and making decisions that affect the interpretation of documents written in the language. A document may be linked to other documents through Universal Resource Identifiers (URIs).

1.2.4 Principles of Design

VoiceXML is an XML application [XML].

1. The language promotes portability of services through abstraction of platform resources.

2. The language accommodates platform diversity in supported audio file formats, speech grammar formats, and URI schemes. While producers of platforms may support various grammar formats the language requires a common grammar format, namely the XML Form of the W3C Speech Recognition Grammar Specification [SRGS], to facilitate interoperability. Similarly, while various audio formats for playback and recording may be supported, the audio formats described in Appendix E must be supported

3. The language supports ease of authoring for common types of interactions.

4. The language has well-defined semantics that preserves the author's intent regarding the behavior of interactions with the user. Client heuristics are not required to determine document element interpretation.

5. The language recognizes semantic interpretations from grammars and makes this information available to the application.

6. The language has a control flow mechanism.

7. The language enables a separation of service logic from interaction behavior.

8. It is not intended for intensive computation, database operations, or legacy system operations. These are assumed to be handled by resources outside the document interpreter, e.g. a document server.

9. General service logic, state management, dialog generation, and dialog sequencing are assumed to reside outside the document interpreter.

10. The language provides ways to link documents using URIs, and also to submit data to server scripts using URIs.

11. VoiceXML provides ways to identify exactly which data to submit to the server, and which HTTP method (GET or POST) to use in the submittal.

12. The language does not require document authors to explicitly allocate and deallocate dialog resources, or deal with concurrency. Resource allocation and concurrent threads of control are to be handled by the implementation platform.

1.2.5 Implementation Platform Requirements

This section outlines the requirements on the hardware/software platforms that will support a VoiceXML interpreter.

Document acquisition. The interpreter context is expected to acquire documents for the VoiceXML interpreter to act on. The "http" URI scheme must be supported. In some cases, the document request is generated by the interpretation of a VoiceXML document, while other requests are generated by the interpreter context in response to events outside the scope of the language, for example an incoming phone call. When issuing document requests via http, the interpreter context identifies itself using the "User-Agent" header variable with the value "<name>/<version>", for example, "acme-browser/1.2"

Audio output. An implementation platform must support audio output using audio files and text-to-speech (TTS). The platform must be able to freely sequence TTS and audio output. If an audio output resource is not available, an error.noresource event must be thrown. Audio files are referred to by a URI. The language specifies a required set of audio file formats which must be supported (see Appendix E); additional audio file formats may also be supported.

Audio input. An implementation platform is required to detect and report character and/or spoken input simultaneously and to control input detection interval duration with a timer whose length is specified by a VoiceXML document. If an audio input resource is not available, an error.noresource event must be thrown.

• It must report characters (for example, DTMF) entered by a user. Platforms must support the XML form of DTMF grammars described in the W3C Speech Recognition Grammar Specification [SRGS]. They should also support the Augmented BNF (ABNF) form of DTMF grammars described in the W3C Speech Recognition Grammar Specification [SRGS].

• It must be able to receive speech recognition grammar data dynamically. It must be able to use speech grammar data in the XML Form of the W3C Speech Recognition Grammar Specification [SRGS]. It should be able to receive speech recognition grammar data in the ABNF form of the W3C Speech Recognition Grammar Specification [SRGS], and may support other formats such as the JSpeech Grammar Format [JSGF] or proprietary formats. Some VoiceXML elements contain speech grammar data; others refer to speech grammar data through a URI. The speech recognizer must be able to accommodate dynamic update of the spoken input for which it is listening through either method of speech grammar data specification.

• It must be able to record audio received from the user. The implementation platform must be able to make the recording available to a request variable. The language specifies a required set of recorded audio file formats which must be supported (see Appendix E); additional formats may also be supported.

Transfer The platform should be able to support making a third party connection through a communications network, such as the telephone.

1.3 Concepts

A VoiceXML document (or a set of related documents called an application) forms a conversational finite state machine. The user is always in one conversational state, or dialog, at a time. Each dialog determines the next dialog to transition to. Transitions are specified using URIs, which define the next document and dialog to use. If a URI does not refer to a document, the current document is assumed. If it does not refer to a dialog, the first dialog in the document is assumed. Execution is terminated when a dialog does not specify a successor, or if it has an element that explicitly exits the conversation.

1.3.1 Dialogs and Subdialogs

There are two kinds of dialogs: forms and menus. Forms define an interaction that collects values for a set of form item variables. Each field may specify a grammar that defines the allowable inputs for that field. If a form-level grammar is present, it can be used to fill several fields from one utterance. A menu presents the user with a choice of options and then transitions to another dialog based on that choice.

A subdialog is like a function call, in that it provides a mechanism for invoking a new interaction, and returning to the original form. Variable instances, grammars, and state information are saved and are available upon returning to the calling document. Subdialogs can be used, for example, to create a confirmation sequence that may require a database query; to create a set of components that may be shared among documents in a single application; or to create a reusable library of dialogs shared among many applications.

1.3.2 Sessions

A session begins when the user starts to interact with a VoiceXML interpreter context, continues as documents are loaded and processed, and ends when requested by the user, a document, or the interpreter context.

1.3.3 Applications

An application is a set of documents sharing the same application root document. Whenever the user interacts with a document in an application, its application root document is also loaded. The application root document remains loaded while the user is transitioning between other documents in the same application, and it is unloaded when the user transitions to a document that is not in the application. While it is loaded, the application root document's variables are available to the other documents as application variables, and its grammars remain active for the duration of the application, subject to the grammar activation rules discussed in Section 3.1.4.

Figure 2 shows the transition of documents (D) in an application that share a common application root document (root).

Figure 2: Transitioning between documents in an application.

1.3.4 Grammars

Each dialog has one or more speech and/or DTMF grammars associated with it. In machine directed applications, each dialog's grammars are active only when the user is in that dialog. In mixed initiative applications, where the user and the machine alternate in determining what to do next, some of the dialogs are flagged to make their grammars active (i.e., listened for) even when the user is in another dialog in the same document, or on another loaded document in the same application. In this situation, if the user says something matching another dialog's active grammars, execution transitions to that other dialog, with the user's utterance treated as if it were said in that dialog. Mixed initiative adds flexibility and power to voice applications.

1.3.5 Events

VoiceXML provides a form-filling mechanism for handling "normal" user input. In addition, VoiceXML defines a mechanism for handling events not covered by the form mechanism.

Events are thrown by the platform under a variety of circumstances, such as when the user does not respond, doesn't respond intelligibly, requests help, etc. The interpreter also throws events if it finds a semantic error in a VoiceXML document. Events are caught by catch elements or their syntactic shorthand. Each element in which an event can occur may specify catch elements. Furthermore, catch elements are also inherited from enclosing elements "as if by copy". In this way, common event handling behavior can be specified at any level, and it applies to all lower levels.

1.3.6 Links

A link supports mixed initiative. It specifies a grammar that is active whenever the user is in the scope of the link. If user input matches the link's grammar, control transfers to the link's destination URI. A link can be used to throw an event or go to a destination URI.

1.4 VoiceXML Elements

1.5 Document Structure and Execution

A VoiceXML document is primarily composed of top-level elements called dialogs. There are two types of dialogs: forms and menus. A document may also have <meta> and <metadata> elements, <var> and <script> elements, <property> elements, <catch> elements, and <link> elements.

1.5.1 Execution within One Document

Document execution begins at the first dialog by default. As each dialog executes, it determines the next dialog. When a dialog doesn't specify a successor dialog, document execution stops.

Here is "Hello World!" expanded to illustrate some of this. It now has a document level variable called "hi" which holds the greeting. Its value is used as the prompt in the first form. Once the first form plays the greeting, it goes to the form named "say_goodbye", which prompts the user with "Goodbye!" Because the second form does not transition to another dialog, it causes the document to be exited.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vxml xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd"
   version="2.0">
 <meta name="author" content="John Doe"/>
 <meta name="maintainer" content="hello-support@hi.example.com"/>
 <var name="hi" expr="'Hello World!'"/>
 <form>
  <block>
     <value expr="hi"/>
     <goto next="#say_goodbye"/>
  </block>
 </form>
 <form id="say_goodbye">
  <block>
     Goodbye!
  </block>
 </form>
</vxml>

Alternatively the forms can be combined:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vxml xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd"
   version="2.0">
 <meta name="author" content="John Doe"/>
 <meta name="maintainer" content="hello-support@hi.example.com"/>
 <var name="hi" expr="'Hello World!'"/>
 <form>
  <block>
     <value expr="hi"/> Goodbye!
  </block>
 </form>
</vxml>

Attributes of <vxml> include:

Language information is inherited down the document hierarchy: the value of "xml:lang" is inherited by elements which also define the "xml:lang" attribute, such as <grammar> and <prompt>, unless these elements specify an alternative value.

1.5.2 Executing a Multi-Document Application

Normally, each document runs as an isolated application. In cases where you want multiple documents to work together as one application, you select one document to be the application root document, and the rest to be application leaf documents. Each leaf document names the root document in its <vxml> element.

When this is done, every time the interpreter is told to load and execute a leaf document in this application, it first loads the application root document if it is not already loaded. The application root document remains loaded until the interpreter is told to load a document that belongs to a different application. Thus one of the following two conditions always holds during interpretation:

• The application root document is loaded and the user is executing in it: there is no leaf document.

• The application root document and a single leaf document are both loaded and the user is executing in the leaf document.

If there is a chain of subdialogs defined in separate documents, then there may be more than one leaf document loaded although execution will only be in one of these documents.

When a leaf document load causes a root document load, none of the dialogs in the root document are executed. Execution begins in the leaf document.

There are several benefits to multi-document applications.

• The root document's variables are available for use by the leaf documents, so that information can be shared and retained.
• Root document <property> elements specify default values for properties used in the leaf documents.
• Common ECMAScript code can be defined in root document <script> elements and used in the leaf documents.
• Root document <catch> elements define default event handling for the leaf documents.
• Document-scoped grammars in the root document are active when the user is in a leaf document, so that the user is able to interact with forms, links, and menus in the root document.

Here is a two-document application illustrating this:

Application root document (app-root.vxml)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vxml xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd"
   version="2.0">
 <var name="bye" expr="'Ciao'"/>
 <link next="operator_xfer.vxml">
   <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" root="root" version="1.0">
     <rule id="root" scope="public">operator</rule>
  </grammar>
 </link>
</vxml>

Leaf document (leaf.vxml)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vxml xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
   xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
   xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd"
   version="2.0" application="app-root.vxml">
 <form id="say_goodbye">
  <field name="answer">
     <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" src="/grammars/boolean.grxml"/>
     <prompt>Shall we say <value expr="application.bye"/>?</prompt>
     <filled>
       <if cond="answer">
        <exit/>
       </if>
       <clear namelist="answer"/>
     </filled>
  </field>
 </form>
</vxml>

In this example, the application is designed so that leaf.vxml must be loaded first. Its application attribute specifies that app-root.vxml should be used as the application root document. So, app-root.vxml is then loaded, which creates the application variable bye and also defines a link that navigates to operator-xfer.vxml whenever the user says "operator". The user starts out in the say_goodbye form:

C: Shall we say Ciao?

H: Si.

C: I did not understand what you said. (a platform-specific default message.)

C: Shall we say Ciao?

H: Ciao

C: I did not understand what you said.

H: Operator.

C: (Goes to operator_xfer.vxml, which transfers the caller to a human operator.)

Note that when the user is in a multi-document application, at most two documents are loaded at any one time: the application root document and, unless the user is actually interacting with the application root document, an application leaf document. A root document's <vxml> element does not have an application attribute specified. A leaf document's <vxml> element does have an application attribute specified. An interpreter always has an application root document loaded; it does not always have an application leaf document loaded.

The name of the interpreter's current application is the application root document's absolute URI. The absolute URI includes a query string, if present, but it does not include a fragment identifier. The interpreter remains in the same application as long as the name remains the same. When the name changes, a new application is entered and its root context is initialized. The application's root context consists of the variables, grammars, catch elements, scripts, and properties in application scope.

During a user session an interpreter transitions from one document to another as requested by <choice>, <goto> <link>, <subdialog>, and <submit> elements. Some transitions are within an application, others are between applications. The preservation or initialization of the root context depends on the type of transition:

Root to Leaf Within Application

A root to leaf transition within the same application occurs when the current document is a root document and the target document's application attribute's value resolves to the same absolute URI as the name of the current application. The application root document and its context are preserved.

Leaf to Leaf Within Application

A leaf to leaf transition within the same application occurs when the current document is a leaf document and the target document's application attribute's value resolves to the same absolute URI as the name of the current application. The application root document and its context are preserved.

Leaf to Root Within Application

A leaf to root transition within the same application occurs when the current document is a leaf document and the target document's absolute URI is the same as the name of the current application. The current application root document and its context are preserved when the transition is caused by a <choice>, <goto>, or <link> element. The root context is initialized when a <submit> element causes the leaf to root transition, because a <submit> always results in a fetch of its URI.

Root to Root

A root to root transition occurs when the current document is a root document and the target document is a root document, i.e. it does not have an application attribute. The root context is initialized with the application root document returned by the caching policy in Section 6.1.2. The caching policy is consulted even when the name of the target application and the current application are the same.

Subdialog

A subdialog invocation occurs when a root or leaf document executes a <subdialog> element. As discussed in Section 2.3.4, subdialog invocation creates a new execution context. The application root document and its context in the calling document's execution context are preserved untouched during subdialog execution, and are used again once the subdialog returns. A subdialog's new execution context has its own root context and, possibly, leaf context. When the subdialog is invoked with a non-empty URI reference, the caching policy in Section 6.1.2 is used to acquire the root and leaf documents that will be used to initialize the new root and leaf contexts. If a subdialog is invoked with an empty URI reference and a fragment identifier, e.g. "#sub1", the root and leaf documents remain unchanged, and therefore the current root and leaf documents will be used to initialize the new root and leaf contexts.

Inter-Application Transitions

All other transitions are between applications which cause the application root context to be initialized with the next application's root document.

If a document refers to a non-existent application root document, an error.badfetch event is thrown. If a document's application attribute refers to a document that also has an application attribute specified, an error.semantic event is thrown.

The following diagrams illustrate the effect of the transitions between root and leaf documents on the application root context. In these diagrams, boxes represent documents, box texture changes identify root context initialization, solid arrows symbolize transitions to the URI in the arrow's label, dashed vertical arrows indicate an application attribute whose URI is the arrow's label.

Figure 3: Transitions that Preserve the Root Context

In this diagram, all the documents belong to the same application. The transitions are identified by the numbers 1-4 across the top of the figure. They are:

1. A transition to URI A results in document 1, the application context is initialized from document 1's content. Assume that this is the first document in the session. The current application's name is A.
2. Document 1 specifies a transition to URI B, which yields document 2. Document 2's application attribute equals URI A. The root is document 1 with its context preserved. This is a root to leaf transition within the same application.
3. Document 2 specifies a transition to URI C, which yields another leaf document, document 3. Its application attribute also equals URI A. The root is document 1 with its context preserved. This is a leaf to leaf transition within the same application.
4. Document 3 specifies a transition to URI A using a <choice>, <goto>, or <link>. Document 1 is used with its root context intact. This is a leaf to root transition within the same application.

The next diagram illustrates transitions which initialize the root context.

Figure 4: Transitions that Initialize the Root Context

5. Document 1 specifies a transition to its own URI A. The resulting document 4 does not have an application attribute, so it is considered a root document, and the root context is initialized. This is a root to root transition.
6. Document 4 specifies a transition to URI D, which yields a leaf document 5. Its application attribute is different: URI E. A new application is being entered. URI E produces the root document 6. The root context is initialized from the content of document 6. This is an inter-application transition.
7. Document 5 specifies a transition to URI A. The cache check returns document 4 which does not have an application attribute and therefore belongs to application A, so the root context is initialized. Initialization occurs even though this application and this root document were used earlier in the session. This is an inter-application transition.

1.5.3 Subdialogs

A subdialog is a mechanism for decomposing complex sequences of dialogs to better structure them, or to create reusable components. For example, the solicitation of account information may involve gathering several pieces of information, such as account number, and home telephone number. A customer care service might be structured with several independent applications that could share this basic building block, thus it would be reasonable to construct it as a subdialog. This is illustrated in the example below. The first document, app.vxml, seeks to adjust a customer's account, and in doing so must get the account information and then the adjustment level. The account information is obtained by using a subdialog element that invokes another VoiceXML document to solicit the user input. While the second document is being executed, the calling dialog is suspended, awaiting the return of information. The second document provides the results of its user interactions using a <return> element, and the resulting values are accessed through the variable defined by the name attribute on the <subdialog> element.

Customer Service Application (app.vxml)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vxml xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
   xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
   xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd"
   version="2.0">
  <form id="billing_adjustment">
    <var name="account_number"/>
    <var name="home_phone"/>
    <subdialog name="accountinfo" src="acct_info.vxml#basic">
      <filled>
        <!-- Note the variable defined by "accountinfo" is
          returned as an ECMAScript object and it contains two
          properties defined by the variables specified in the
          "return" element of the subdialog. -->

        <assign name="account_number" expr="accountinfo.acctnum"/>
        <assign name="home_phone" expr="accountinfo.acctphone"/>
      </filled>
    </subdialog>

    <field name="adjustment_amount">
     <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" src="/grammars/currency.grxml"/>
      <prompt>
        What is the value of your account adjustment?
      </prompt>
      <filled>
        <submit  next="/cgi-bin/updateaccount"/>
      </filled>
    </field>
  </form>
</vxml>

Document Containing Account Information Subdialog (acct_info.vxml)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vxml xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
   xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd"
   version="2.0">
  <form id="basic">
    <field name="acctnum">
      <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" src="/grammars/digits.grxml"/>
      <prompt> What is your account number? </prompt>
    </field>
    <field name="acctphone">
      <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" src="/grammars/phone_numbers.grxml"/>
      <prompt> What is your home telephone number? </prompt>
      <filled>
        <!-- The values obtained by the two fields are supplied
          to the calling dialog by the "return" element. -->
        <return namelist="acctnum acctphone"/>
      </filled>
    </field>
  </form>
</vxml>

Subdialogs add a new execution context when they are invoked.The subdialog could be a new dialog within the existing document, or a new dialog within a new document.

Subdialogs can be composed of several documents. Figure 5 shows the execution flow where a sequence of documents (D) transitions to a subdialog (SD) and then back.

Figure 5: Subdialog composed of several documents
returning from the last subdialog document.

The execution context in dialog D2 is suspended when it invokes the subdialog SD1 in document sd1.vxml. This subdialog specifies execution is to be transfered to the dialog in sd2.vxml (using <goto>). Consequently, when the dialog in sd2.vxml returns, control is returned directly to dialog D2.

Figure 6 shows an example of a multi-document subdialog where control is transferred from one subdialog to another.

Figure 6: Subdialog composed of several documents
returning from the first subdialog document.

The subdialog in sd1.vxml specifies that control is to be transfered to a second subdialog, SD2, in sd2.vxml. When executing SD2, there are two suspended contexts: the dialog context in D2 is suspending awaiting SD1 to return; and the dialog context in SD1 awaiting SD2 to return. When SD2 returns, control is returned to the SD1. It in turn returns control to dialog D2.

1.5.4 Final Processing

Under certain circumstances (in particular, while the VoiceXML interpreter is processing a disconnect event) the interpreter may continue executing in the final processing state after there is no longer a connection to allow the interpreter to interact with the end user. The purpose of this state is to allow the VoiceXML application to perform any necessary final cleanup, such as submitting information to the application server. For example, the following <catch> element will catch the connection.disconnect.hangup event and execute in the final processing state:

<catch event="connection.disconnect.hangup">
    <submit namelist="myExit" next="http://mysite/exit.jsp"/>
</catch>

While in the final processing state the application must remain in the transitioning state and may not enter the waiting state (as described in Section 4.1.8). Thus for example the application should not enter <field>, <record>, or <transfer> while in the final processing state. The VoiceXML interpreter must exit if the VoiceXML application attempts to enter the waiting state while in the final processing state.

Aside from this restriction, execution of the VoiceXML application continues normally while in the final processing state. Thus for example the application may transition between documents while in the final processing state, and the interpreter must exit if no form item is eligible to be selected (as described in Section 2.1.1).

2. Dialog Constructs

2.1 Forms

Forms are the key component of VoiceXML documents. A form contains:

• A set of form items, elements that are visited in the main loop of the form interpretation algorithm. Form items are subdivided into input items that can be 'filled' by user input and control items that cannot.

• Declarations of non-form item variables.

• Event handlers.

• "Filled" actions, blocks of procedural logic that execute when certain combinations of input item variables are assigned.

Form attributes are:

This section describes some of the concepts behind forms, and then gives some detailed examples of their operation.

2.1.1 Form Interpretation

Forms are interpreted by an implicit form interpretation algorithm (FIA). The FIA has a main loop that repeatedly selects a form item and then visits it. The selected form item is the first in document order whose guard condition is not satisfied. For instance, a field's default guard condition tests to see if the field's form item variable has a value, so that if a simple form contains only fields, the user will be prompted for each field in turn.

Interpreting a form item generally involves:

• Selecting and playing one or more prompts;

• Collecting a user input, either a response that fills in one or more input items, or a throwing of some event (help, for instance); and

• Interpreting any <filled> actions that pertained to the newly filled in input items.

The FIA ends when it interprets a transfer of control statement (e.g. a <goto> to another dialog or document, or a <submit> of data to the document server). It also ends with an implied <exit> when no form item remains eligible to select.

The FIA is described in more detail in Section 2.1.6.

2.1.2 Form Items

Form items are the elements that can be visited in the main loop of the form interpretation algorithm. Input items direct the FIA to gather a result for a specific element. When the FIA selects a control item, the control item may contain a block of procedural code to execute, or it may tell the FIA to set up the initial prompt-and-collect for a mixed initiative form.

2.1.2.1 Input Items

An input item specifies an input item variable to gather from the user. Input items have prompts to tell the user what to say or key in, grammars that define the allowed inputs, and event handlers that process any resulting events. An input item may also have a <filled> element that defines an action to take just after the input item variable is filled. Input items consist of:

2.1.2.2 Control Items

There are two types of control items:

2.1.3 Form Item Variables and Conditions

Each form item has an associated form item variable, which by default is set to undefined when the form is entered. This form item variable will contain the result of interpreting the form item. An input item's form item variable is also called an input item variable, and it holds the value collected from the user. A form item variable can be given a name using the name attribute, or left nameless, in which case an internal name is generated.

Each form item also has a guard condition, which governs whether or not that form item can be selected by the form interpretation algorithm. The default guard condition just tests to see if the form item variable has a value. If it does, the form item will not be visited.

Typically, input items are given names, but control items are not. Generally form item variables are not given initial values and additional guard conditions are not specified. But sometimes there is a need for more detailed control. One form may have a form item variable initially set to hide a field, and later cleared (e.g., using <clear>) to force the field's collection. Another field may have a guard condition that activates it only when it has not been collected, and when two other fields have been filled. A block item could execute only when some condition holds true. Thus, fine control can be exercised over the order in which form items are selected and executed by the FIA, however in general, many dialogs can be constructed without resorting to this level of complexity.

In summary, all form items have the following attributes:

2.1.4 Directed Forms

The simplest and most common type of form is one in which the form items are executed exactly once in sequential order to implement a computer-directed interaction. Here is a weather information service that uses such a form.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<vxml version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd">
<form id="weather_info">
 <block>Welcome to the weather information service.</block>
 <field name="state">
  <prompt>What state?</prompt>
  <grammar src="state.grxml"  type="application/srgs+xml"/>
  <catch event="help">
     Please speak the state for which you want the weather.
  </catch>
 </field>
 <field name="city">
  <prompt>What city?</prompt>
  <grammar src="city.grxml" type="application/srgs+xml"/>
  <catch event="help">
     Please speak the city for which you want the weather.
  </catch>
 </field>
 <block>
  <submit next="/servlet/weather" namelist="city state"/>
 </block>
</form>
</vxml>

This dialog proceeds sequentially:

C (computer): Welcome to the weather information service. What state?

H (human): Help

C: Please speak the state for which you want the weather.

H: Georgia

C: What city?

H: Tblisi

C: I did not understand what you said. What city?

H: Macon

C: The conditions in Macon Georgia are sunny and clear at 11 AM ...

The form interpretation algorithm's first iteration selects the first block, since its (hidden) form item variable is initially undefined. This block outputs the main prompt, and its form item variable is set to true. On the FIA's second iteration, the first block is skipped because its form item variable is now defined, and the state field is selected because the dialog variable state is undefined. This field prompts the user for the state, and then sets the variable state to the answer. A detailed description of the filling of form item variables from a field-level grammar may be found in Section 3.1.6. The third form iteration prompts and collects the city field. The fourth iteration executes the final block and transitions to a different URI.

Each field in this example has a prompt to play in order to elicit a response, a grammar that specifies what to listen for, and an event handler for the help event. The help event is thrown whenever the user asks for assistance. The help event handler catches these events and plays a more detailed prompt.

Here is a second directed form, one that prompts for credit card information:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<vxml version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd">
<form id="get_card_info">
 <block>We now need your credit card type, number,
    and expiration date.</block>
 <field name="card_type">
  <prompt count="1">What kind of credit card
    do you have?</prompt>
  <prompt count="2">Type of card?</prompt>
  <!-- This is an inline grammar. -->
  <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" root="r2" version="1.0">
    <rule id="r2" scope="public">
       <one-of>
       <item>visa</item>
       <item>master <item repeat="0-1">card</item></item>
       <item>amex</item>
       <item>american express</item>
       </one-of>
    </rule>
  </grammar>
  <help> Please say Visa, MasterCard, or American Express.</help>
 </field>

 <field name="card_num">
  <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" src="/grammars/digits.grxml"/>
  <prompt count="1">What is your card number?</prompt>
  <prompt count="2">Card number?</prompt>
  <catch event="help">
  <if cond="card_type =='amex' || card_type =='american express'">
       Please say or key in your 15 digit card number.
     <else/>
       Please say or key in your 16 digit card number.
     </if>
  </catch>
  <filled>
     <if cond="(card_type == 'amex' || card_type =='american express') 
          &amp;&amp; card_num.length != 15">
       American Express card numbers must have 15 digits.
       <clear namelist="card_num"/>
       <throw event="nomatch"/>
     <elseif cond="card_type != 'amex'
                &amp;&amp; card_type !='american express'
                &amp;&amp; card_num.length != 16"/>
       MasterCard and Visa card numbers have 16 digits.
       <clear namelist="card_num"/>
       <throw event="nomatch"/>
     </if>
  </filled>
 </field>

 <field name="expiry_date">
   <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" src="/grammars/digits.grxml"/>
   <prompt count="1">What is your card's expiration date?</prompt>
   <prompt count="2">Expiration date?</prompt>
  <help>
     Say or key in the expiration date, for example one two oh one.
  </help>
  <filled>
     <!-- validate the mmyy -->
     <var name="mm"/>
     <var name="i" expr="expiry_date.length"/>
     <if cond="i == 3">
       <assign name="mm" expr="expiry_date.substring(0,1)"/>
     <elseif cond="i == 4"/>
       <assign name="mm" expr="expiry_date.substring(0,2)"/>
     </if>
     <if cond="mm == '' || mm &lt; 1 || mm &gt; 12">
       <clear namelist="expiry_date"/>
       <throw event="nomatch"/>
     </if>
  </filled>
 </field>

 <field name="confirm">
  <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" src="/grammars/boolean.grxml"/>
  <prompt>
      I have <value expr="card_type"/> number
      <value expr="card_num"/>, expiring on
      <value expr="expiry_date"/>.
      Is this correct?
  </prompt>
  <filled>
    <if cond="confirm">
      <submit next="place_order.asp"
        namelist="card_type card_num expiry_date"/>
    </if>
    <clear namelist="card_type card_num expiry_date confirm"/>
  </filled>
 </field>
</form>
</vxml>

Note that the grammar alternatives 'amex' and 'american express' return literal values which need to be handled separately in the conditional expressions. Section 3.1.5 describes how semantic attachments in the grammar can be used to return a single representation of these inputs.

The dialog might go something like this:

C: We now need your credit card type, number, and expiration date.

C: What kind of credit card do you have?

H: Discover

C: I did not understand what you said. (a platform-specific default message.)

C: Type of card? (the second prompt is used now.)

H: Shoot. (fortunately treated as "help" by this platform)

C: Please say Visa, MasterCard, or American Express.

H: Uh, Amex. (this platform ignores "uh")

C: What is your card number?

H: One two three four ... wait ...

C: I did not understand what you said.

C: Card number?

H: (uses DTMF) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 #

C: What is your card's expiration date?

H: one two oh one

C: I have Amex number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 expiring on 1 2 0 1. Is this correct?

H: Yes

Fields are the major building blocks of forms. A field declares a variable and specifies the prompts, grammars, DTMF sequences, help messages, and other event handlers that are used to obtain it. Each field declares a VoiceXML form item variable in the form's dialog scope. These may be submitted once the form is filled, or copied into other variables.

Each field has its own speech and/or DTMF grammars, specified explicitly using <grammar> elements, or implicitly using the type attribute. The type attribute is used for builtin grammars, like digits, boolean, or number.

Each field can have one or more prompts. If there is one, it is repeatedly used to prompt the user for the value until one is provided. If there are many, prompts are selected for playback according to the prompt selection algorithm (see Section 4.1.6). The count attribute can be used to determine which prompts to use on each attempt. In the example, prompts become shorter. This is called tapered prompting.

The <catch event="help"> elements are event handlers that define what to do when the user asks for help. Help messages can also be tapered. These can be abbreviated, so that the following two elements are equivalent:

<catch event="help">
 Please say visa, mastercard, or amex.
</catch>

<help>
 Please say visa, mastercard, or amex.
</help>

The <filled> element defines what to do when the user provides a recognized input for that field. One use is to specify integrity constraints over and above the checking done by the grammars, as with the date field above.

2.1.5 Mixed Initiative Forms

The last section talked about forms implementing rigid, computer-directed conversations. To make a form mixed initiative, where both the computer and the human direct the conversation, it must have one or more form-level grammars. The dialog may be written in several ways. One common authoring tyle combines an <initial> element that prompts for a general response with <field> elements that prompt for specific information. This is illustrated in the example below. More complex techniques, such as using the 'cond' attribute on <field> elements, may achieve a similar effect.

If a form has form-level grammars:

• Its input items can be filled in any order.

• More than one input item can be filled as a result of a single user utterance.

Only input items (and not control items) can be filled as a result of matching a form-level grammar. The filling of field variables when using a form-level grammar is described in Section 3.1.6.

Also, the form's grammars can be active when the user is in other dialogs. If a document has two forms on it, say a car rental form and a hotel reservation form, and both forms have grammars that are active for that document, a user could respond to a request for hotel reservation information with information about the car rental, and thus direct the computer to talk about the car rental instead. The user can speak to any active grammar, and have input items set and actions taken in response.

Example. Here is a second version of the weather information service, showing mixed initiative. It has been "enhanced" for illustrative purposes with advertising and with a confirmation of the city and state:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<vxml version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd">
<form id="weather_info">

 <grammar src="cityandstate.grxml" type="application/srgs+xml"/>

 <!-- Caller can't barge in on today's advertisement. -->
 <block>
  <prompt bargein="false">
     Welcome to the weather information service.
     <audio src="http://www.online-ads.example.com/wis.wav"/>
  </prompt>
 </block>

 <initial name="start">
  <prompt>
     For what city and state would you like the weather?
  </prompt>
  <help> 
    Please say the name of the city and
    state for which you would like a weather report.
  </help>
  <!-- If user is silent, reprompt once, then
   try directed prompts. -->
  <noinput count="1"> <reprompt/></noinput>
  <noinput count="2"> <reprompt/>
    <assign name="start" expr="true"/></noinput>
 </initial>

 <field name="state">
  <prompt>What state?</prompt>
  <help>
    Please speak the state for which you want the weather.
  </help>
 </field>

 <field name="city">
  <prompt>Please say the city in <value expr="state"/> 
                for which you want the weather.</prompt>
  <help>Please speak the city for which you
    want the weather.</help>
  <filled>
     <!-- Most of our customers are in LA. -->
     <if cond="city == 'Los Angeles' &amp;&amp; state == undefined">
       <assign name="state" expr="'California'"/>
     </if>
  </filled>
 </field>

 <field name="go_ahead" modal="true">
  <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" src="/grammars/boolean.grxml"/>
  <prompt>Do you want to hear the weather for
    <value expr="city"/>, <value expr="state"/>?
  </prompt>
  <filled>
     <if cond="go_ahead">
       <prompt bargein="false">
         <audio src="http://www.online-ads.example.com/wis2.wav"/>
       </prompt>
       <submit next="/servlet/weather" namelist="city state"/>
     </if>
     <clear namelist="start city state go_ahead"/>
  </filled>
 </field>
</form>
</vxml>

Here is a transcript showing the advantages for even a novice user:

C: Welcome to the weather information service. Buy Joe's Spicy Shrimp Sauce.

C: For what city and state would you like the weather?

H: Uh, California.

C: Please say the city in California for which you want the weather.

H: San Francisco, please.

C: Do you want to hear the weather for San Francisco, California?

H: No

C: For what city and state would you like the weather?

H: Los Angeles.

C: Do you want to hear the weather for Los Angeles, California?

H: Yes

C: Don't forget, buy Joe's Spicy Shrimp Sauce tonight!

C: Mostly sunny today with highs in the 80s. Lows tonight from the low 60s ...

The go_ahead field has its modal attribute set to true. This causes all grammars to be disabled except the ones defined in the current form item, so that the only grammar active during this field is the grammar for boolean.

An experienced user can get things done much faster (but is still forced to listen to the ads):

C: Welcome to the weather information service. Buy Joe's Spicy Shrimp Sauce.

C: What ...

H (barging in): LA

C: Do you ...

H (barging in): Yes

C: Don't forget, buy Joe's Spicy Shrimp Sauce tonight!

C: Mostly sunny today with highs in the 80s. Lows tonight from the low 60s ...

2.1.5.1 Controlling the order of field collection.

The form interpretation algorithm can be customized in several ways. One way is to assign a value to a form item variable, so that its form item will not be selected. Another is to use <clear> to set a form item variable to undefined; this forces the FIA to revisit the form item again.

Another method is to explicitly specify the next form item to visit using <goto nextitem>. This forces an immediate transfer to that form item even if any cond attribute present evaluates to "false". No variables, conditions or counters in the targeted form item will be reset. The form item's prompt will be played even if it has already been visited. If the <goto nextitem> occurs in a <filled> action, the rest of the <filled> action and any pending <filled> actions will be skipped.

Here is an example <goto nextitem> executed in response to the exit event:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<vxml version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd">
<link event="exit">
 <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" src="/grammars/exit.grxml"/>
</link>

<form id="survey_2000_03_30">
  <catch event="exit">
    <reprompt/>
    <goto nextitem="confirm_exit"/>
  </catch>
  <block>
   <prompt>
     Hello, you have been called at random to answer questions
     critical to U.S. foreign policy.
   </prompt>
  </block>

  <field name="q1">
   <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" src="/grammars/boolean.grxml"/>
   <prompt>Do you agree with the IMF position on
     privatizing certain functions of Burkina Faso's
     agriculture ministry?</prompt>
  </field>

  <field name="q2">
    <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" src="/grammars/boolean.grxml"/>
    <prompt>If this privatization occurs, will its
      effects be beneficial mainly to Ouagadougou and
      Bobo-Dioulasso?</prompt>
  </field>

  <field name="q3">
    <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" src="/grammars/boolean.grxml"/>
    <prompt>Do you agree that sorghum and millet output
      might thereby increase by as much as four percent per
      annum?</prompt>
  </field>

  <block>
    <submit next="register" namelist="q1 q2 q3"/>
  </block>

  <field name="confirm_exit">
    <grammar type="application/srgs+xml" src="/grammars/boolean.grxml"/>
    <prompt>You have elected to exit.  Are you
      sure you want to do this, and perhaps adversely affect
      U.S. foreign policy vis-a-vis sub-Saharan Africa for
      decades to come?</prompt>
    <filled>
      <if cond="confirm_exit">
        Okay, but the U.S. State Department is displeased.
        <exit/>
      <else/>
        Good, let's pick up where we left off.
        <clear namelist="confirm_exit"/>
      </if>
    </filled>
    <catch event="noinput nomatch">
      <throw event="exit"/>
    </catch>
  </field>
</form>
</vxml>

If the user says "exit" in response to any of the survey questions, an exit event is thrown by the platform and caught by the <catch> event handler. This handler directs that confirm_exit be the next visited field. The confirm_exit field would not be visited during normal completion of the survey because the preceding <block> element transfers control to the registration script.

2.1.6 Form Interpretation Algorithm

We've presented the form interpretation algorithm (FIA) at a conceptual level. In this section we describe it in more detail. A more formal description is provided in Appendix C.

2.1.6.1 Initialization Phase

Whenever a form is entered, it is initialized. Internal prompt counter variables (in the form's dialog scope) are reset to 1. Each variable (form-level <var> elements and form item variables) is initialized, in document order, to undefined or to the value of the relevant expr attribute.

2.1.6.2 Main Loop

The main loop of the FIA has three phases:

The select phase: the next unfilled form item is selected for visiting.

The collect phase: the selected form item is visited, which prompts the user for input, enables the appropriate grammars, and then waits for and collects an input (such as a spoken phrase or DTMF key presses) or an event (such as a request for help or a no input timeout).

The process phase: an input is processed by filling form items and executing <filled> elements to perform actions such as input validation. An event is processed by executing the appropriate event handler for that event type.

Note that the FIA may be given an input (a set of grammar slot/slot value pairs) that was collected while the user was in a different form's FIA. In this case the first iteration of the main loop skips the select and collect phases, and goes right to the process phase with that input. Also note that if an error occurs in the select or collect phase that causes an event to be generated, the event is thrown and the FIA moves directly into the process phase.

2.1.6.2.1 Select phase

The purpose of the select phase is to select the next form item to visit. This is done as follows:

If a <goto> from the last main loop iteration's process phase specified a <goto nextitem>, then the specified form item is selected.

Otherwise the first form item whose guard condition is false is chosen to be visited. If an error occurs while checking guard conditions, the event is thrown which skips the collect phase, and is handled in the process phase.

If no guard condition is false, and the last iteration completed the form without encountering an explicit transfer of control, the FIA does an implicit <exit> operation (similarly, if execution proceeds outside of a form, such as when an error is generated outside of a form, and there is no explicit transfer of control, the interpreter will perform an implicit <exit> operation).

2.1.6.2.2 Collect phase

The purpose of the collect phase is to collect an input or an event. The selected form item is visited, which performs actions that depend on the type of form item:

If a <field> or <record> is visited, the FIA selects and queues up any prompts based on the item's prompt counter and the prompt conditions. Then it activates and listens for the field level grammar(s) and any active higher-level grammars, and waits for the item to be filled or for some event to be generated.

If a <transfer> is visited, the prompts are queued based on the item's prompt counter and the prompt conditions. The item grammars are activated. The queue is played before the transfer is executed.

If a <subdialog> or <object> is visited, the prompts are queued based on the item's prompt counter and the prompt conditions. Grammars are not activated. Instead, the input collection behavior is specified by the executing context for the subdialog or object. The queue is not played before the subdialog or object is executed, but instead should be played during the subsequent input collection.

If an <initial> is visited, the FIA selects and queues up prompts based on the <initial>'s prompt counter and prompt conditions. Then it listens for the form level grammar(s) and any active higher-level grammars. It waits for a grammar recognition or for an event.

A <block> element is visited by setting its form item variable to true, evaluating its content, and then bypassing the process phase. No input is collected, and the next iteration of the FIA's main loop is entered.

2.1.6.2.3 Process phase

The purpose of the process phase is to process the input or event collected during the previous phases, as follows:

• If an event (such as a noinput or a hangup) occurred, then the applicable catch element is identified and executed. Selection of the applicable catch element starts in the scope of the current form item and then proceeds outward by enclosing dialog scopes. This can cause the FIA to terminate (e.g. if it transitions to a different dialog or document or it does an <exit>), or it can cause the FIA to go into the next iteration of the main loop (e.g. as when the default help event handler is executed).
• If an input matches a grammar from a <link> then that link's transition is executed, or its event is thrown. If the <link> throws an event, the event is processed in the context of the current form item (e.g. <initial>, <field>, <transfer>, and so forth).
• If an input matches a grammar in a form other than the current form, then the FIA terminates, the other form is initialized, and that form's FIA is started with this input in its process phase.

If an input matches a grammar in this form, then:

• The semantic result from the grammar is mapped into one or more form item variables as described in Section 3.1.6.
• The <filled> actions triggered by these assignments are identified as described in Section 2.4.
• Each identified <filled> action is executed in document order. If a <submit>, <disconnect>, <exit>, <return>, <goto> or <throw> is encountered, the remaining <filled> elements are not executed, and the FIA either terminates or continues in the next main loop iteration. <reprompt> does not terminate the FIA (the name suggests an action), but rather just sets a flag that affects the treatment of prompts on the subsequent iteration of the FIA. If an event is thrown during the execution of a <filled>, event handler selection starts in the scope of the <filled>, which could be a form item or the form itself, and then proceeds outward by enclosing dialog scopes.

After completion of the process phase, interpretation continues by returning to the select phase.

A more detailed form interpretation algorithm can be found in Appendix C.

2.2 Menus

A menu is a convenient syntactic shorthand for a form containing a single anonymous field that prompts the user to make a choice and transitions to different places based on that choice. Like a regular form, it can have its grammar scoped such that it is active when the user is executing another dialog. The following menu offers the user three choices:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<vxml version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd">
<menu>
  <prompt>
    Welcome home. Say one of: <enumerate/>
  </prompt>
  <choice next="http://www.sports.example.com/vxml/start.vxml">
     Sports
  </choice>
  <choice next="http://www.weather.example.com/intro.vxml">
     Weather
  </choice>
  <choice next="http://www.stargazer.example.com/voice/astronews.vxml">
     Stargazer astrophysics news
  </choice>
  <noinput>Please say one of <enumerate/></noinput>
</menu>
</vxml>

This dialog might proceed as follows:

C: Welcome home. Say one of: sports; weather; Stargazer astrophysics news.

H: Astrology.

C: I did not understand what you said. (a platform-specific default message.)

C: Welcome home. Say one of: sports; weather; Stargazer astrophysics news.

H: sports.

C: (proceeds to http://www.sports.example.com/vxml/start.vxml)

2.2.1 menu element

This identifies the menu, and determines the scope of its grammars. The menu element's attributes are:

2.2.2 choice element

The <choice> element serves several purposes:

• It may specify a speech grammar, defined either using a <grammar> element or automatically generated by the process described in Section 2.2.5.

• It may specify a DTMF grammar, as discussed in Section 2.2.3.

• The contents may be used to form the <enumerate> prompt string. This is described in Section 2.2.4.

• And it specifies either an event to be thrown or the URI to go to when the choice is selected.

The choice element's attributes are:

Exactly one of "next", "expr", "event" or "eventexpr" must be specified; otherwise, an error.badfetch event is thrown. Exactly one of "message" or "messageexpr" may be specified; otherwise, an error.badfetch event is thrown.

If a <grammar> element is specified in <choice>, then the external grammar is used instead of an automatically generated grammar. This allows the developer to precisely control the <choice> grammar; for example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<vxml version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd">
<menu>
  <choice next="http://www.sports.example.com/vxml/start.vxml">
    <grammar src="sports.grxml" type="application/srgs+xml"/>
    Sports
  </choice>
  <choice next="http://www.weather.example.com/intro.vxml">
   <grammar src="weather.grxml" type="application/srgs+xml"/>
   Weather
  </choice>
  <choice next="http://www.stargazer.example.com/voice/astronews.vxml">
   <grammar src="astronews.grxml" type="application/srgs+xml"/>
   Stargazer astrophysics
  </choice>
</menu>
</vxml>

2.2.3 DTMF in Menus

Menus can rely purely on speech, purely on DTMF, or both in combination by including a <property> element in the <menu>. Here is a DTMF-only menu with explicit DTMF sequences given to each choice, using the choice's dtmf attribute:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<vxml version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd">
<menu>
  <property name="inputmodes" value="dtmf"/>
  <prompt>
   For sports press 1, For weather press 2, For Stargazer
   astrophysics press 3.
  </prompt>
  <choice dtmf="1" next="http://www.sports.example.com/vxml/start.vxml"/>
  <choice dtmf="2" next="http://www.weather.example.com/intro.vxml"/>
  <choice dtmf="3" next="http://www.stargazer.example.com/astronews.vxml"/>
</menu>
</vxml>

Alternatively, you can set the <menu>'s dtmf attribute to true to assign sequential DTMF digits to each of the first nine choices that have not specified their own DTMF sequences: the first choice has DTMF "1", and so on:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<vxml version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd">
<menu dtmf="true">
  <property name="inputmodes" value="dtmf"/>
  <prompt>
   For sports press 1, For weather
   press 2, For Stargazer astrophysics press 3.
  </prompt>
  <choice next="http://www.sports.example.com/vxml/start.vxml"/>
  <choice next="http://www.weather.example.com/intro.vxml"/>
  <choice dtmf="0" next="#operator"/>
  <choice next="http://www.stargazer.example.com/voice/astronews.vxml"/>
</menu>
</vxml>

2.2.4 enumerate element

The <enumerate> element is an automatically generated description of the choices available to the user. It specifies a template that is applied to each choice in the order they appear in the menu. If it is used with no content, a default template that lists all the choices is used, determined by the interpreter context. If it has content, the content is the template specifier. This specifier may refer to two special variables: _prompt is the choice's prompt, and _dtmf is a normalized representation (i.e. a single whitespace between DTMF tokens) of the choice's assigned DTMF sequence (note that if no DTMF sequence is assigned to the choice element, or if a <grammar> element is specified in <choice>, then the _dtmf variable is assigned the ECMAScript undefined value ). For example, if the menu were rewritten as

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<vxml version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd">
<menu dtmf="true">
  <prompt>
    Welcome home.
    <enumerate>
     For <value expr="_prompt"/>, press <value
     expr="_dtmf"/>.
   </enumerate>
   </prompt>
   <choice next="http://www.sports.example.com/vxml/start.vxml">
      sports </choice>
   <choice next="http://www.weather.example.com/intro.vxml">
      weather </choice>
   <choice next="http://www.stargazer.example.com/voice/astronews.vxml">
      Stargazer astrophysics news
   </choice>
</menu>
</vxml>

then the menu's prompt would be:

C: Welcome home. For sports, press 1. For weather, press 2. For Stargazer astrophysics news, press 3.

The <enumerate> element may be used within the prompts and the catch elements associated with <menu> elements and with <field> elements that contain <option> elements, as discussed in Section 2.3.1.3. An error.semantic event is thrown if <enumerate> is used elsewhere (for example, <enumerate> within an <enumerate>).

2.2.5 Grammar Generation

Any choice phrase specifies a set of words and phrases to listen for. A choice phrase is constructed from the PCDATA of the elements contained directly or indirectly in a <choice> element of a <menu>, or in the <option> element of a <field>.

If the accept attribute is "exact" then the user must say the entire phrase in the same order in which they occur in the choice phrase.

If the accept attribute is "approximate", then the choice may be matched when a user says a subphrase of the expression. For example, in response to the prompt "Stargazer astrophysics news" a user could say "Stargazer", "astrophysics", "Stargazer news", "astrophysics news", and so on. The equivalent grammar may be language and platform dependent.

As an example of using "exact" and "approximate" in different choices, consider this example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<vxml version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd">
<menu accept="approximate">
  <choice next="http://www.stargazer.example.com/voice/astronews.vxml"> 
   Stargazer Astrophysics News </choice>
  <choice accept="exact"
  next="http://www.physicsweekly.com/voice/example.vxml"> 
   Physics Weekly  </choice>
  <choice accept="exact"
  next="http://www.particlephysics.com/voice/example.vxml"> 
  Particle Physics Update </choice>
  <choice next="http://www.astronomytoday.com/voice/example.vxml"> 
  Astronomy Today </choice>
</menu>
</vxml>

Because "approximate" is specified for the first choice, the user may say a subphrase when matching the first choice; for instance, "Stargazer" or "Astrophysics News". However, because "exact" is specified in the second and third choices, only a complete phrase will match: "Physics Weekly" and "Particle Physics Update".

2.2.6 Interpretation Model

A menu behaves like a form with a single field that does all the work. The menu prompts become field prompts. The menu event handlers become the field event handlers. The menu grammars become form grammars. As with forms, grammar matches in menu will update the application.lastresult$ array. These variables are described in Section 5.1.5. Generated grammars must always produce simple results whose interpretation and utterance values are identical.

Upon entry, the menu's grammars are built and enabled, and the prompt is played. When the user input matches a choice, control transitions according to the value of the next, expr, event or eventexpr attribute of the <choice>, only one of which may be specified. If an event attribute is specified but its event handler does not cause the interpreter to exit or transition control, then the FIA will clear the form item variable of the menu's anonymous field, causing the menu to be executed again.

2.3 Form Items

A form item is an element of a <form> that can be visited during form interpretation. These elements are <field>, <block>, <initial>, <subdialog>, <object>, <record>, and <transfer>.

All form items have the following characteristics:

• They have a result variable, specified by the name attribute. This variable may be given an initial value with the expr attribute.

• They have a guard condition specified with the cond attribute. A form item is visited if it is not filled and its cond is not specified or evaluates, after conversion to boolean, to true.

Form items are subdivided into input items, those that define the form's input item variables, and control items, those that help control the gathering of the form's input items. Input items (<field>, <subdialog>, <object>, <record>, and <transfer>) generally may contain the following elements:

• <filled> elements containing some action to execute after the result input item variable is filled in.

• <property> elements to specify properties that are in effect for this input item (the <initial> form item can also contain this element).

• <prompt> elements to specify prompts to be played when this element is visited.

• <grammar> elements to specify allowable spoken and character input for this input item (<subdialog> and <object> cannot contain this element).

• <catch> elements and catch shorthands that are in effect for this input item (the <initial> form item can also contain this element).

Each input item may have an associated set of shadow variables. Shadow variables are used to return results from the execution of an input item, other than the value stored under the name attribute. For example, it may be useful to know the confidence level that was obtained as a result of a recognized grammar in a <field> element. A shadow variable is referenced as name$.shadowvar where name is the value of the form item's name attribute, and shadowvar is the name of a specific shadow variable. Shadow variables are writeable and can be modified by the application. For example, the <field> element returns a shadow variable confidence. The example below illustrates how this shadow variable is accessed.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<vxml version="2.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml 
   http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/vxml.xsd">
<form id="get_state">
<field name="state">
  <prompt> Please say the name of a state. </prompt>
  <grammar src="http://mygrammars.example.com/states.gram"
              type="application/srgs"/>
  <filled>
    <if cond="state$.confidence &lt; 0.4">
      <throw event="nomatch"/>
    </if>
  </filled>
</field>
</form>
</vxml>

In the example, the confidence of the result is examined, and the result is rejected if the confidence is too low.

2.3.1 field element

A field specifies an input item to be gathered from the user. The field element's attributes are:

The shadow variables of a <field> element with the name name are given in Table 10. The values of the utterance, inputmode and interpretation shadow variables must be the same as those in application.lastresult$ (see Section 5.1.5).