Appendix I: Voxeo GSL Grammar Guide

If you are writing a Voice enabled telephone application, then you will have to know grammar theory inside and out. This appendix deals with the subtleties of constructing a grammar in the Nuance-proprietary GSL format.

Overview

GSL Basics: This subsection covers the basic syntactical requirements of the GSL markup, including grammar scoping, GSL platform limits, and the inline and external formats.

GSL Hints: This section contains helpful information and tips on constructing external GSL grammars.

Universal Grammars: This small slice of a subsection deals with the active Universal grammars in a VoiceXML application, including how to turn them on or off, and how to change their default behavior.

GSL Grammar Slots: Covers how to use grammar slots so you can make your inline or external grammar more modular, and hence, more easily reusable with minimal effort.

DTMF Grammars in the GSL Format: This brief section covers the best practices that should be used when writing a DTMF grammar for your 1.0 or 2.0 application.

GSL Built-in Grammars: This listing covers the available built-in grammars for Prophecy platform.

Multislot GSL Grammars: This section serves as a primer on how to construct a multislot grammar that will return more than one result for each utterance; intended for advanced grammar enthusiasts.

External GSL Subgrammars: Covering how to design an external subgrammar with finesse and style, which is necessary for increasing grammar performance when a complex grammar structure is required.

Inline GSL Subgrammars: Covering how to design a subgrammar which is embedded within the VoiceXML itself, rather than as an externally referenced document.

Downloadable GSL Subgrammar Library: This section lists the common downloadable external subgrammars that are available for you to download and use, or modify.

GSL Multislot Subgrammars: This listing covers the Holy Grail of complex subgrammars; the fine art of authoring a complex subgrammar which returns multiple values for each user utterance. Recommended for advanced grammar developers.

ANNOTATIONS: EXISTING POSTS

parit

9/28/2007 5:14 AM (EDT)

hi,

Am writing a grammar where words can have synonyms.But the problem is some of the words can have the same synonyms like the grammar below:

<grammar type="application/text-gsl" mode="voice">
<![CDATA[
[
[(marie cruz) (marie)] {<dept "030">}
[(marie washington) (marie)] {<dept "040">}
]
]]>
</grammar>

so what will be the slot value in this case. I tried it out and it was always the last one. I want to confirm if this is the default behavior. If so then how to specify synonyms in grammar?

-Parit

voxeo.benb

9/29/2007 3:20 PM (EDT)

Hello,
Unfortunately, I don't see a way to do what you're asking. You're asking the system to pick between Marie and Marie, which are the same utterance. Unless I'm misunderstanding you, the system has no way to differentiate between the two.

If I am misunderstanding you, please feel free to clarify, so we may further assist you.

Thanks,
Ben Bohn

sathya.boopathi

2/26/2008 5:33 AM (EST)

Hi,

Can anybody say me how to write a gsl grammar for EMail?. Thanks in advance.

mikethompson

2/26/2008 11:11 AM (EST)

Hello Sathya,

I should start off by letting you know, this is no easy feat. When you think about all of the possible combinations and strange characters involved with an e-mail address, you might start seeing the obstacles. For example, you'll need to include utterances for the below characters:

at: @
underscore: _
dash: -
period: .
dot: .
com: com
net: net
org: org

the list goes on...

For your convenience, I happen to have an already built alpha-numeric grammar for you to look at. This should give you a solid foundation to modify the attached script into your own e-mail address grammar. Bear in mind, this will only catch the simplest of utterances. For example:

JetMan1234@hotmail.com should be spoken as such:

j-e-t-m-a-n-one-two-three-four-at-h-o-t-m-a-i-l-dot-com

In essence, this will be a grammar which allows you to spell out the e-mail address. It is not smart enough to capture complex utterances like:

Jet, Man, twelve, thirty four, at, hotmail, dot, com.

Hope this helps,
Mike Thompson
Voxeo Corporation

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