Cisco Cisco Customer Voice Portal 8.0(1) Release Notes

You can use the Get Speech micro-application to pass information to and from an external VXML file. 

You set up the Get Speech micro-application to utilize external VXML by setting the Media Library Type 
to “V”. The Application Server creates VXML that calls the external VXML that is specified in the 
external VXML file name. The URL to the external VXML is formed from a combination of the 
media_server, locale, App_Media_Lib and external VXML file name. If the VXML file name does not 
contain a file extension, the default “*.vxml” is used.

ISN allows you to pass 1050 characters to and from the VXML. You use an array variable to pass 
information to and from the VXML.

You can pass information to the external VXML using two methods:

Using VXML <param> elements - a completely VXML solution that does not require media server 
side scripting.

Using URL parameter elements - the name/value pairs that are set up in the variable array are 
appended to the URL to the external VXML. Using this instance, the media server side scripting 
logic parses the URL and passes the parameters to the external VXML document. 

Use of complex external VXML applications with ISN 2.1 may hinder performance on IOS Gateways. 
Since each external VXML application is different, the customer/partner is responsible for verifying the 
performance of their own VXML applications.

In ISN 2.0, all audio files needed to be specified in the VRU Script Name of the PlayMedia, Menu, 
GetDigits and GetSpeech micro-applications. ISN 2.1 gives you the capability to use a single 
micro-application and specify the prompt using call variables and the ICM formula editor. If you set the 
second VRU Script Parameter to a value, prefixed by a dash, the ISN looks at the corresponding Call 
PeripheralVariable for the name of the audio file to play. For example, setting the second VRU Script 
Paramter to “-5” causes the ISN to play the audio file listed in the Call PeripheralVariable5. 

ISN 2.1 uses the Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) method of gatekeeper failover. HSRP is a 
Cisco-proprietary routing protocol that provides backup to a gatekeeper in the event of failure. Using 
HSRP, several gatekeepers work together to present the appearance of a single virtual router on the LAN. 
The gatekeepers share the same IP and MAC addresses, therefore in the event of failure of one 
gatekeeper, the hosts on the LAN are able to continue forwarding packets to a consistent IP and MAC 
address. The process of transferring the routing responsibilities from one device to another is transparent 
to the user. 

HSRP is the only failover method utilized by ISN 2.1. Gatekeeper clustering is NOT used.