Input

Nodes and Palette Options > Detailed Palette Option Descriptions > Input

	Input

Type

Form item

Available from

Announce Node

Prompt and Collect Node

Form Node

Note:

The Input item cannot be used in the same node as the Blind Transfer item, the Bridged Transfer item, or the Record item. So, although the Input item appears on palettes for other nodes, such as the Blind Transfer node, the Bridged Transfer node, and the Record node, it is not actually available for use in those nodes without destroying their intended functionality. It is intended primarily for use in the Prompt and Collect node.

Purpose

The Input item is used to collect and process responses from callers. The responses can be in the form either of DTMF key presses or of spoken responses. Usually, the collected input is then used in some way to direct the flow of the call. The collected input can also be used as data that can be used by the application in a variety of ways.

Note:

The Input item in Dialog Designer corresponds with the field within a form in the VoiceXML Version 2.0 W3C Recommendation. See the W3C VoiceXML 2.0 Recommendation.

Behavior

In Dialog Designer, the primary means of collecting and using inputs from callers is through the Prompt and Collect node. In a typical scenario, the system plays a prompt to prompt the caller what type of response is expected, and then it waits for the caller to respond. The Input item is the node element that is responsible for accepting and processing the caller response. When it receives an input from a caller, it submits that input to the ASR engine and then waits for a return result from the ASR engine.

The one essential sub-item of the Input item is the Grammar item. Grammars determine what type of response the system is listening for and can recognize. DTMF grammars determine what touchtone key press or combination of key presses can be recognized and processed. Voice grammars determine what words or phrases can be recognized and processed. You can use both DTMF grammars and voice grammars with a single Input item. For more information about creating and using grammars, see Working with Grammars.

In addition to the Grammar sub-item, the Input item can also take any of the standard event handlers. The Prompt and Collect node automatically includes the No Input and No Match event handlers, but you can add any others you want.

When you place an Input item in the call flow, Dialog Designer automatically creates a complex variable with the same name.

Note:

Because the Prompt and Collect node, by design, includes an Input item, when you place a Prompt and Collect node in the call flow, Dialog Designer automatically creates a complex variable with the same name as the Input item.

This complex variable contains the following fields, which are populated upon completion of the node:

confidence - A number between 0.0 and 1.0 that expresses the degree of confidence the system has that it has correctly recognized the caller utterance. The number 0.0 indicates minimum confidence, and the number 1.0 indicates maximum confidence. The specific interpretation of this number depends on the ASR platform.

utterance - A text (raw string) summary of what the caller said or keyed in, as recognized by the ASR engine. In the case of a DTMF response, this is the digit sequence of keys that the caller pressed.

inputmode - The mode in which the caller input was provided, either voice or DTMF.

interpretation - The contents of the interpretation tag, as provided by the ASR engine. In other words, this is the result of how the ASR engine recognized and mapped the utterance. If the ASR engine is unable to provide an interpretation, this field remains undefined.

value - If the ASR engine returned an interpretation, this field takes on the same value as the interpretation field. If not, this field takes on the value of the utterance field.

Once the ASR engine returns a recognition result and populates these Input variable fields, you can use the outcome to further direct the call.

Properties

Name - Enter the name you want to assign to the Input item and its corresponding variable.

If you change the name of this item in the Avaya Properties view, Dialog Designer automatically changes the name of the associated variable as well. If the bind name to node attribute is set, then renaming the parent node will rename this field. (This applies to all implicit variable items.)

Note:

This name must follow conventions for naming Java components as described in Naming Java Components.

N-Best - Enter the maximum number of recognition results to allow in the case of multiple recognition results from the ASR engine.

The default for this property is 1.

Modal - Select your choice from the drop-down list. Options are:

True - The system ignores all other grammars that might be active at this point, except the grammar associated with this Input item.

Setting this property to True can be helpful when concerned about a a false match that might redirect the call flow to another part of the application when you do not want it to. In a case like this, you want to make sure that a caller response matches a grammar associated with the Input item, if at all possible.

False (default) - The system recognizes all active grammars. If the system matches a caller response with an item in a grammar other than the grammars associated with this Input item, control passes to the item associated with the other grammar, and any data collected within the current node is lost.

Record Utterance - (True/False). When true, additional fields are added to the variable that store the recording of the caller's utterance, the size of the recording (in bytes) and the duration of the recording (in milliseconds).

Collect Mark Data - (True/False). When true, additional fields are added to the variable that store the name of the last Mark encountered by the VoiceXML platform as well as the time elapsed since the mark was processed.

Bind Name to Node - (True/False). When true, the name of the variable item is bound to the name of the node. When the parent node is renamed, the name of the variable item is renamed as well; keeping the name of the variable in sync with the node name.