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Open a Telephony Interpreter

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  Microsoft Speech Technologies Homepage

The fourth step in a demonstration of Banking Alerts is to open a telephony interpreter so that interaction with the application is possible. Simulated telephony interpreters are opened from the transaction simulator page.

Note  This page describes using simulated telephony interpreters for demonstration purposes. Production telephony interpreters can also be used. See Banking Alerts Installation and Deployment for instructions on how to install and deploy Banking Alerts for use with Microsoft Speech Server (MSS).

Description

Acting in the role of accounts data controller, the demonstrator uses the transaction simulator page to open simulated telephony interpreters. By default, Banking Alerts uses Microsoft Telephony Application Simulator (TASim) to simulate outgoing phone calls from the application to the customer.

In an actual Microsoft Speech Server (MSS) deployment environment, when an alert is triggered, the Triggered Call Queue (TCQ) coordinator component of Banking Alerts creates an event message and posts this message to an MSMQ message queue. The message contains the following information:

  • The URL of the dialog page that corresponds to the type of alert notification that was triggered.
  • A UserID number identifying the customer receiving the alert.
  • The phone number of the customer receiving the alert.
  • A CallRequestID number that the TCQ coordinator uses to identify the interpreter and to monitor the disposition of the event.

A Message Queue Monitor object instantiated by the Telephony Application Services (TAS) component of MSS polls the MSMQ message queue with a callback function. When a new, unassigned event message exists on the queue, MSMQ sends the event message to TAS. TAS assigns the event to an interpreter. The interpreter loads the dialog page corresponding to the type of alert notification required by the event, and places an outbound call to the customer receiving the alert notification.

Clicking the link labeled "Launch a simulated interpreter" on the Banking Alerts transaction simulator page opens a script executable that simulates the behavior of the Message Queue Monitor object by monitoring the Banking Alerts event queue. When the script detects that an event exists in the queue, the script opens TASim and passes the event message information to TASim.

Like an actual interpreter, TASim loads the URL of the dialog page that corresponds to the type of alert notification required by the event message. However, unlike an actual interpreter, TASim also opens an Outbound Call window. The Outbound Call window has a drop-down list box labeled Status, and a button labeled OK. The Status list contains four call status options: Connect; Busy; No Answer; and Unavailable Channel. When the user selects one of these conditions and clicks OK, TASim simulates how an actual interpreter responds to the selected condition as follows:

  • Connect. Selecting this option and clicking OK causes TASim to simulate a successful call connection, allowing the demonstrator to use Speech Debugging Console to receive the notification alert, and further interact with the application.
  • Busy. Selecting this option and clicking OK causes TASim to simulate a telephone busy signal, and returns the event to the event queue for a period of four minutes.
  • No Answer. Selecting this option and clicking OK causes TASim to simulate an unanswered call, and returns the event to the event queue for a period of ten minutes.
  • Channel Unavailable. Selecting this option and clicking OK causes TASim to simulate a condition in which the telephony server has no outbound channels available. After ten seconds, the Outbound Call window appears again, and any of the four call status options can be selected. The Channel Unavailable option can be selected consecutively three more times before TASim returns the event to the event queue.

Note

  • The link, "Launch a simulated interpreter," appears only if the Banking Alerts application is running on the localhost server.
  • For debugging purposes, the script executable that opens TASim also opens Speech Debugging Console.
  • The Architecture of Banking Alerts document describes in more detail the message information flow in an actual MSS deployment environment.

Steps to Launch a Simulated Telephony Interpreter

After triggering a number of alerts, on the transaction simulator page:

  1. Click the link "Launch a simulated interpreter." Wait for the script executable to detect an event on the event queue. The script executable opens TASim.
  2. When the TASim Outbound Call window appears, select Busy from the drop-down list, and click OK. When the Telephony Application Simulator Shutdown window appears, click Exit. The TCQ coordinator sends the event (event 2) to the end of the queue, and sends the next event (event 4) in line to the interpreter.
  3. When the Outbound Call window appears again, select No Answer from the drop-down list, and then click OK. When the Telephony Application Simulator Shutdown window appears, click Exit. The TCQ coordinator sends the event (event 4) to the end of the queue, and sends the next event (event 0) in line to the interpreter.
  4. Select events 2 and 4 at the end of the event queue and note that values have been added to the DoNotDeliverBefore fields.
  5. When the Outbound Call window appears again, select Connect from the drop-down list, and then click OK. Banking Alerts plays a welcome message, and prompts the customer to enter a personal identification number (PIN).
  6. Click the Speech Debugging Console window, and proceed to the next step in the demonstration.

Next Steps in the Basic Banking Alerts Demonstration

  1. Enroll for a New Customer Account (acting in the role of bank customer).
  2. Set Alert Notification Preferences (acting in the role of bank customer).
  3. Enter Transactions and Submit Bills to Trigger Alerts (acting in the role of accounts data controller).
  4. Open a Telephony Interpreter (acting in the role of accounts data controller).
  5. Act on the Alert Notification (acting in the role of bank customer).

See Also

The Banking Alerts Reference Application: Overview | Banking Alerts: Alerts and Dialogue Flow