Debugging Dialogue Flow

The Activations tab of Speech Debugging Console displays activation information. This information is useful in debugging dialogue flow in a voice-only application.

Viewing Activation Information

RunSpeech is a client-side dialog manager that drives the dialogue flow within a speech-enabled Web application. RunSpeech activates Microsoft ASP.NET Speech Controls within a Web page.

The activation information that is available on the Activations tab applies to voice-only applications, and not multimodal applications. Because voice-only applications have no graphical user interface (GUI) that is visible to the user, they must verbally inform the user where he or she is within the application, and that feedback has been accepted and processed correctly. Track these processes from the Activations tab and determine whether the controls are implemented as planned.

The Activations tab displays activation information for Speech QA (QA), Speech CustomValidator (CustomValidator), Speech CompareValidator (CompareValidator), and Speech Command (Command) controls.

Note  To view activation information, Break on listen must be active in Speech Debugging Console. When Break on listen is active, application execution breaks when each listen element starts. Toggle this option from the Speech Debugging Console toolbar, or apply a default setting while Configuring Speech Debugging Console.

The History pane displays an item and sub-item tree view of all activations during a testing session, with the most recent activation listed at the top. Each item in the tree represents a single activation, and each sub-item represents a query associated with that activation.

If a QA control needs to be activated, it appears as an item in the tree, and it has "IsActive=true" appended to its label.

To submit sample input using text

1. In the Input text box, type the sample input.
2. Click Use Text to send the input to the application.

To submit sample input using audio

1. To the right of the Input text box, click Use Audio.
2. Speak sample input into the microphone.

Viewing CompareValidator and CustomValidator Information

For CompareValidator and CustomValidator controls, the History pane displays either the control that failed or the last control executed.

• If the control fails, "IsValid=false" appends to the item label.
• If the control executes successfully, "IsValid=true" appends to the item label.

A CompareValidator or CustomValidator control that has a prompt associated with it constitutes a special case. When the application plays the prompt, the application activates the control like a QA control, and "IsActive=true" appends to the item label.

Viewing Programmatic Output

The Output tab of Speech Debugging Console displays the programmatic output flow of an application, as well as internal log and error messages.

See Also

Debugging Speech Applications | Debugging the Tutorial Application