Overview of the Call Flow Editor

Working with the Call Flow Editor > Overview of the Call Flow Editor

	Overview of the Call Flow Editor

The Call Flow Editor is the primary editor and work place for Dialog Designer. It is where most of the basic work of creating a speech application takes place. The Call Flow Editor contains the workspace where nodes are placed and connected to make up a call flow. It also provides a palette of nodes and options to simple build call flows.

Note:

The Call Flow Editor primary purpose is for creating simple item list call flow logic. For more complex call flow logic, such as looping or calculations for example, Avaya recommends for the developer to write Java code to support these more complex functions.

In the default perspective layout for Dialog Designer, the Call Flow Editor occupies the Editor view space. See Editor View.

Within that view, the Call Flow Editor incorporates the following elements:

The workspace area is the largest area of the Call Flow Editor view. Initially, before building out the speech application, this is the blank area in the upper right area of the view. This area is where nodes are placed and connected.

During application development, the workspace area can be expanded by clicking the "Maximize" icon in the upper left corner, or by dragging the base of the workspace area. Also, a call flow can be printed at any time using the File > Print option.

The applicationName [main.flow] tab, located at the top of the workspace area is used to bring the main call flow into focus when multiple editors are open.

The Application Options Palette, located along the left side of the view, is used to select nodes to be placed in the workspace. Nodes are grouped as follows:

Template nodes contain predefined system nodes to be used in an application.

Application items are used for creating custom nodes to be used in an application.

In addition, the following functional options are also available within the palette:

Select is used to select one or more items in the workspace

Connection is used to connect the nodes and create the flow

Label is used to add notes and comments to the workspace

Bookmark is used to create markers so it is easier to locate specific places in larger, more complex applications

For more information about this palette, see Call Flow Editor Palette Action Options.

When a node editor is active, the options palette changes to reflect the options available for that node. See Working with Nodes and Node Editors.

Node editor tabs, located along the bottom of the workspace area, show which node editors are open. These tabs are used to quickly switch between node editors and the main flow.

When clicking the Application Flow tab, the workspace displays the main call flow workspace. The second and third tabs of this example display, a menu node (OptionsMenu) and a prompt node (HelloWorld), respectively. See Working with Nodes and Node Editors.

Important:

The Call Flow Editor by default maintains a backup of the flow document, in the event that the main flow is corrupted. Prior to saving the contents of the main flow, the old main flow file is copied to a backup folder using a "round-robin" file numbering system to maintain multiple backups (default is 2; maximum is 10). The backup files are numbered (for example, main.flow.1, mainflow.2, and so on) but after the maximum number of backups is reached, the numbering sequence starts over. Call Flow Editor backup configurations (that is, enabling or disabling the feature, and setting the number of backups maintained) is controlled in the Call Flow Editor Preferences panel. See Call Flow Editor Preferences.