Developer's Guide

CHAPTER 9: CONFIGURABLE ELEMENTS VOICEXML PROGRAMMING GUIDE

FOR CISCO UNIFIED CUSTOMER VOICE PORTAL RELEASE 4.0(1)

creating and editing a configuration object, a custom element uses these classes basically to read

their information. There is little reason to edit the configuration classes within a custom element

as the configuration object applies only to that particular use of the element (revisiting the

element will provide it with a new configuration).

Action Elements

A configurable action element extends the abstract Java class ActionElementBase found in the

com.audium.server.voiceElement package. This class has default implementations for the

abstract configuration methods inherited from the ElementBase class. The default

implementation sets an empty configuration (null name, folder name, description, element data,

settings, and one exit state named “done”). This was done because this same base class is

extended to create standard action elements as well as configurable action elements. What makes

a configurable action element different is the fact that it defines a specific configuration, so the

custom action element must re-implement all the configuration methods rather than relying on

the default implementation. Some of the default implementations, though, may be appropriate

even for a custom action element. For example, the default implementation of the

getExitStates method returns a single exit state named “done”, which applies to all action

elements and so a custom action element need not implement this method.

The execution method, doAction(), receives an instance of the API class ActionElementData.

This class belongs to the Session API and is used to access session information (See Chapter 3:

Session API for more on this API). In addition to providing access to session information, this

API class is also used to return the action element configuration that drives the functionality of

the element. The getActionElementConfig() method in ActionElementData returns an

ActionElementConfig object. The VoiceXML Server takes care of obtaining the appropriate

configuration and returning it in this method, whether or not the configuration is dynamic. The

element need not worry about where the configuration came from.

ActionElementConfig is almost a direct extension of the base ElementConfig class. It is kept

separate for future differentiation.

Decision Elements

A configurable decision element extends the abstract Java class DecisionElementBase found in

the

com.audium.server.voiceElement package. This class has default implementations of the

abstract configuration methods inherited from the ElementBase class. The default

implementation sets an empty configuration (null name, folder name, description, element data,

settings, and exit states). This was done because this same base class is extended to create

generic decision elements as well. What makes a configurable decision element different is the

fact that it defines a specific configuration, so the custom decision element must re-implement all

the configuration methods rather than relying on the default implementation. Some of the default

implementations, though, may be appropriate even for a custom decision element. For example,

if the decision element creates no element data, the custom decision element need not implement

the getElementData method as the default implementation is sufficient.