Service creation environment feature

Type of feature

The service creation environment is a base feature.

About the service creation environment feature

The service creation environment feature provides the tools for developing automated transactions, known as applications. Each application is designed and developed to meet a specific customer need. An application script is a set of instructions written for the system that informs it how to carry out the automated transaction. Scripts define the flow of the call and determine what the caller hears and how the caller responds to the system.

IVR Designer is the icon-based, object-oriented application development tool provided with the Avaya IR system. This tool works on an external PC for creation and modification of voice applications by individuals without programming experience.

With the IVR Designer service creation environment, you can create TAS and VoiceXML applications on a Windows-based PC, with a graphical user interface (GUI) that you can customize. IVR Designer features standard Windows operations, with right-click menus and enhanced cut, copy, and paste capabilities.

With IVR Designer, you develop applications by specifying the details of interaction between the Avaya IR system and its callers. IVR Designer includes a set of tools that you use to design, edit, test, simulate, generate, transfer, and install the applications. In addition, you use these tools to diagnose and debug your applications.

The standard system software also supports applications developed using the following tools:

• Script Builder. Applications created with the Script Builder tool on CONVERSANT systems can be ported to the Avaya IR system or converted to IVR Designer applications.

You can convert existing Script Builder applications to IVR Designer automatically, without having to recreate them in IVR Designer. The Script Builder Conversion Tool is activated by an option on the File Menu within IVR Designer. When you select this option, the Script Builder Conversion Tool finds the desired application on the target Avaya IR system, downloads it to the IVR Designer PC, and converts it to IVR Designer format. You can then modify it as desired before reinstalling it on the Avaya IR system. It is likely that converted applications will require some manual editing to maintain the original functionality.

• Transaction Assembly Script (TAS). TAS is an assembly-type instruction language that can be used by programmers who are experienced in assembly language development to develop voice applications very quickly. A sequence of instruction calls run within the generic transaction state machine (TSM) software that manages the low-level interactions required to operate the system. At any time, TAS can be used to assemble, load, change, or replace a script without affecting the other scripts running on TSM or other IRAPI programs running the system.
• Voice eXtensible Markup Language (VoiceXML). VoiceXML applications run on the Avaya IR system. VoiceXML applications can be created using IVR Designer.
• Intuity Response Application Programming Interface (IRAPI). IRAPI is a standard C language programming interface. Applications developed with IRAPI communicate with and execute script applications on the Avaya IR system.

Hardware requirements

The following hardware is required for installation and operation of IVR Designer:

• Pentium personal computer, or equivalent, with the following configuration:

Minimum and Recommended PC Requirements
�	Processor		RAM
Operating System	Minimum	Recommended	Minimum	Recommended
Windows NT 4.0	90 MHz	200 MHz	32 MB	64 MB
Windows 95, 98, 2000	90 MHz	166 MHz	16 MB	32 MB

• VGA monitor (or better)
• Microsoft-compatible mouse
• 30-MB of free hard disk space. The required amount of available disk space depends on the number and complexity of the applications you plan to develop on your personal computer and whether or not you plan to record speech. The entire IVR Designer software package requires 10MB of hard drive space. You need at least 10MB of additional free space for the applications you develop and considerably more disk space if you plan to record speech. For help on determining the hard drive requirements for your applications, contact Avaya.
• CD-ROM drive, any speed
• Sound Blaster compatible card. With the sound card, you can listen to speech that you record with IVR Designer. You can use this speech during simulation, as well as on the system. You can run IVR Designer without a sound card, but you will not be able to record or listen to speech on your PC.
• Microphone. Although any microphone is sufficient for recording speech with IVR Designer, the quality of the microphone you choose affects the fidelity of speech.
• Speaker. Although any speaker is sufficient for listening to recorded speech with IVR Designer, the quality of the speaker you choose affects the fidelity of the recorded speech you hear.

Software requirements

Your personal computer must have the following software installed:

• IVR Designer Version 5.0 or later
• Microsoft Windows 95, 98, 2000, or NT 4.0

The following software must be installed on the Avaya IR system:

• Service Creation Integration package
• Transaction State Machine package for TAS applications
• VoiceXML Interpreter package for VoiceXML applications.

For more information

For more information on the service creation environment, see:

• Application development
• "Application development tours" in the IVR Designer Online Help
• Service Creation Integration
• Transaction State Machine
• VoiceXML Interpreter
• Speechify TTS package
• Speechify ASR package

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