Appendix A -- Testing VoiceXML Applications on the Tellme Platform
You can run the VoiceXML applications on the Tellme platform to verify that they work.
Important
To do the testing with the Tellme platform, you need to be a developer member of the Tellme Studio: Go to http://studio.tellme.comand click the Join Studio button. Fill out the required information in the Become a Tellme Studio Developer form and click the Submit button. Credentials for using Studio online and by phone are then e-mailed to you.
The Tellme Studio Scratchpad
Tellme Studio includes a window that is called "Scratchpad." When you paste your application into Scratchpad and press the Update button, the application is compiled and deployed to the Tellme platform. You can then call the toll free number shown at the top of the Scratchpad window where you will interact with your application.
Tip
Plan to always use the same phone when calling Tellme to test an application. Studio offers to remember the number you are calling from so you do not have to log in on subsequent calls.
Running an application
To test your application, follow these steps:
Step1
Open a browser and go to http://studio.tellme.com.
Step 2
Log in and click the Scratchpad item in the left-hand menu to open the Scratchpad.
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Important
Scratchpad is capable of running VoiceXML applications on several different platforms. This applications developed in this tutorial are intended to run on the Tellme platform that uses the Microsoft speech recognition engine. To verify that you are using this engine, click the edit my preferences button in Scratchpad's button bar. In the Tellme Preferences window, check the Use MS Speech Engine box and then click the Submit button. The next time you open Scratchpad, you should see the phone number for testing with the Microsoft speech engine.
Step 3
Copy your application and paste it into the Scratchpad window.
.gif "Ff769493.scratchpad(en-us,MSDN.10).gif")
Step 4
Click the orange Update button.
.gif "Ff769493.update_button(en-us,MSDN.10).gif")
This causes your application to compile and deploys it to the Tellme platform. Any errors found in the VoiceXML are displayed in the upper portion of the Scratchpad window.
.gif "Ff769493.after_update(en-us,MSDN.10).gif")
Warning
Clicking the Update button checks the VoiceXML code for errors, but it does not check the syntax of inline grammars beyond validating the grammar as XML.
Step 5
Call the phone number listed at the top of the Scratchpad window and respond to your application's prompts with the language your grammars expect.
Troubleshooting
If you call Tellme to test a VoiceXML application that you pasted into Scratchpad and you get no response, there are errors in your application. You can use the debug log to learn what they are:
Viewing the log
Click the debug log button in the upper left of the Studio window.
.gif "Ff769493.debug_log(en-us,MSDN.10).gif")
A window opens that lists the available debug logs, with the latest listed first
.gif "Ff769493.logs_list(en-us,MSDN.10).gif")
Click View Log for the most recent log.
The debug log that opens should help you find the errors. They are shown in red.
.gif "Ff769493.log_contents(en-us,MSDN.10).gif")
Important
are no critical errors in this log. The one error in red shows that the VoiceXML application does not terminate correctly, but that is immaterial because the test of your code is completed prior to termination.