RE: Timeout property or timeout attribute?

Hi,

I think as per the VoiceXML 2.0 specification also, the value for timeout
must be 1s.

 

Excerpts from the spec.

 

Section 4.1.7 (Prompt element)

The timeout attribute specifies the interval of silence allowed while
waiting for user input after the end of the last prompt. If this interval is
exceeded, the platform will throw a noinput event. >>"This attribute
defaults to the value specified by the timeout property"<<

 

Section 6.3 (Property element)

Properties may be defined for the whole application, for the whole document
at the <vxml> level, for a particular dialog at the <form> or <menu> level,
or for a particular form item. >>>"Properties apply to their parent element
and all the descendants of the parent."<<< A property at a lower level
overrides a property at a higher level. When different values for a property
are specified at the same level, the last one in document order applies.
Properties specified in the application root document provide default values
for properties in every document in the application; properties specified in
an individual document override property values specified in the application
root document.

 

>From the above two highlighted text, it is expected that the field
'forcePlay' will wait for 1sec before throwing the noinput event.

 

Please let me know about your inputs on this.

 

Regards,

Harbhanu

 

Ps;>Please ignore the text that follows.

****************************************************************************
***********

 

            This e-mail and attachments contain confidential information
from HUAWEI, which is intended only for the person or entity whose address
is listed above. Any use of the information contained herein in any way
(including, but not limited to, total or partial disclosure, reproduction,
or dissemination) by persons other than the intended recipient's) is
prohibited. If you receive this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by
phone or email immediately and delete it!

 

-----Original Message-----
From: www-voice-request@w3.org [mailto:www-voice-request@w3.org] On Behalf
Of Dan Evans
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 8:36 PM
To: www-voice@w3.org
Subject: Timeout property or timeout attribute?

 

 

The following document (extracted from a larger one) produced a 

surprising result which seems to highlight an omission in the spec.

 

<vxml application="root.vxml">

<property name="inputmodes" value="dtmf"/>

<form>

   <block>

     <prompt>some prompt</prompt>

   <block>

   <field name="forcePlay" type="boolean">

     <property name="timeout" value="1s"/>

     <catch event="noinput nomatch">

       <assign name="forcePlay" expr="true"/>

     </catch>

   </field>

</form>

</vxml>

 

root.vxml

<vxml application="root.vxml">

<property name="timeout" value="7s"/>

</vxml>

 

The question is: how long does the field forcePlay wait before throwing 

noinput?

 

The answer: 7 seconds.

 

But if the field timeout property is moved to the dialog scope, the 

answer is: 1 second.

 

The justification supplied by the vendor of the VoiceXML interpreter I 

was using was that the prompt: since it did not specify a timeout 

attribute, defaults to the timeout property in scope (spec 4.1.7) when 

the prompt is queued (the root timeout).  The same section also says 

that the prompt timeout attribute is for supporting tapered prompts.

 

The spec appears to be silent on the relative precedence of a prompt 

timeout versus an explicit property timeout for a field.

 

I think the local scope property timeout should have precedence when 

there is a conflict.  This would make timeout specification explicit 

instead of an inadvertent, and potentially unexpected, side effect.  As 

an alternative, the prompt timeout attribute could define an empty value 

to allow the developer to indicate that the prompt should not carry an 

inherited timeout: <prompt timeout=""> or <prompt timeout="none">.

 

Dan Evans