Cisco Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal 11.0(1)

Voice elements are designed to be reusable. They possess enough functionality to reduce the overall 
complexity of voice applications while limiting overly specific functionality, which would cut down on 
their reusability. 

Due to their general, reusable nature, voice elements can be seen as raw templates which must be 
configured for use in an application. To fully configure voice elements, developers must specify values 
for four components: settings, VoiceXML properties, audio groups, and variables. 

Settings are used to store information that affects how the voice element performs. For example, a 
setting describes what phone number to transfer to or the length of audio input recording. A voice 
element can have many or few settings, depending on its complexity and its level of customization. 

VoiceXML properties are equivalent to the properties outlined in the VoiceXML specification, and 
are used to modify voice element behavior by directly inserting data into the VoiceXML that each 
element produces. For example, the length of time the voice element waits before encountering a no 
input event can be changed by setting a VoiceXML property. Available properties correspond 
directly to those listed in the VoiceXML specification or voice browser specification. It is up to the 
developer to understand the consequences of modifying these properties. 

Audio Groups – Nearly all voice elements involve the use of audio assets, whether in the form of 
pre-recorded audio files or text-to-speech (TTS) phrases. An audio group encapsulates the audio that 
the application plays when reaching a certain point in the voice element call flow. For example, an 
audio group might perform the function of asking a question, giving an answer, playing an error 
message, etc. An audio group may contain any number of audio items. Audio items are defined as 
pre-recorded audio files, TTS phrases, or information that conforms to a specified format to be read 
to the user (such as a date or currency value). Each audio item in an audio group is played in the 
order they appear in the audio group. 

Variables, as described in the previous section, allow voice elements to set or use element or session 
data. Many voice elements use element data to store information captured from a caller, though 
voice element configurations can also define additional variables. 

Finally, a voice element's configuration can be either fixed or dynamic. 

Fixed configurations are XML files stored on the server containing the desired settings, VoiceXML 
properties, audio groups, and variables. The same configuration is applied each time the voice 
element is called. 

The configuration of some voice elements can only be determined at runtime. In these cases a 
dynamic configuration is used. As described previously, the Java API and XML API can be used to 
create dynamic configurations. 

For a complete list of the voice elements included in CVP VoiceXML Server, refer to the Cisco CVP 
VoiceXML Server Elements Specifications.

CVP VoiceXML Server Voice Elements included in CVP VoiceXML Server fulfill the requirements of 
most voice applications. Some applications, however, may require elements with custom behavior. For 
example, developers may wish to control a specific voice function at the VoiceXML tag level, 
applications may require the use of a proprietary extension to VoiceXML provided by a specific voice 
browser, or developers prefer to use static VoiceXML than create a custom voice element (which requires 
Java knowledge). All of these situations can be handled by a VoiceXML Insert Element.