5 Dialog Designer

The Dialog Designer is the main working area of VoiceObjects Desktop for Web for designing and developing applications. It displays dialog flows of objects in a tree structure and allows you to modify them within this graphical environment.

i8Note: Since the Dialog Designer displays the dialog structure of objects, it is only available in project mode.

Opening a Dialog Designer

To open a Dialog Designer, do the following:

1. Select an object either in the Object Browser or within the Dialog Designer of any other object and right-click it.

2. In the context menu, click Display Dialog.

The new Dialog Designer will open up and be displayed as the active worksheet starting with the selected object.

Each item displayed in the dialog flow represents an object. The top left object of a dialog flow represents the object that you selected to be displayed.

If you point to an object icon or name, a tooltip will show a short description of it, if available.

If you double-click an object in the Dialog Designer the corresponding object editor will open up in a separate window (see Edit Objects in Chapter 7 – Basic Commands).

Expanding or Collapsing Subtrees

Objects preceded by a plus box [+] include subtrees of one or more objects. Clicking the plus box [+] will expand the corresponding object and display its subtree. Clicking a minus box [-] in front of an object will collapse it.

Alternatively, you can expand or collapse objects by selecting them and clicking the Expand button or Collapse button on the toolbar.

Example 1: Object (Sequence) collapsed

Example 2: Object (Sequence) expanded

If a dialog flow does not fit into the worksheet you can scroll up and down with the vertical scroll bar.

i8Note: Dialog flows can get very complex the more they are nested and include other complex objects. In order to keep the dialog flow legible there are restrictions in the display of objects. If a dialog flow is nested too deeply, objects at some level cannot be expanded any further in the current Dialog Designer but have to be viewed in a separate Dialog Designer. This is indicated by a blue right arrow . This generally applies to all Module objects included within other objects.

Display Features

Straight vs. curved connection lines

Straight connection lines indicate that the respective objects are processed sequentially.

Curved connection lines indicate that the respective objects are alternatives of which only one is processed.

Blue vs. black object names

Object names written in blue correspond to autonomous objects. Autonomous objects are visible and accessible within the Object Browser and can be added to other dialogs.

Object names written in black correspond to embedded objects. Embedded objects are automatically defined inside another object. They are only accessible within their parent object and are not visible within the Object Browser.

In addition to these features the view of a dialog flow can be modified through several display options. These options can be switched on or off in the Display Options window. For more information Display options in Chapter 7 – Basic Commands.

Status Icons

Several icons may appear in front of or behind an object name in the Dialog Designer to indicate a specific object status:

The icons represent the following properties:

Icon	Status
	The object has a comment. If you point to the icon a tooltip with the comment is displayed. To edit the comment right-click the object and from the context menu select Properties. See also Properties in the Object Reference.
	Indicates the start point of a business task within the dialog flow.
	Indicates the end point of a business task within the dialog flow.
	The object is disabled. Disabled objects will not be processed during a call. This feature may be used, for example, for development and test purposes. For information on how to enable or disable an object see Enable or Disable Objects in Chapter 7 – Basic Commands.
	The object has a precondition. If you point to the icon a tooltip with a short description of the precondition is displayed, if available.
	The object has a precondition and is disabled at the same time.
	Green Lock icon: The object has been locked by you. Objects that you have locked can only be modified by yourself or the Server Administrator. This feature is useful for development purposes. For information on how to lock or unlock an object see Lock or Unlock Objects in Chapter 7 – Basic Commands.
	Red Lock icon: The object has been locked by any other user. You can open an object locked by someone else and you can use it in a dialog flow but you cannot modify it.
	The object has a preprocessing definition.
	The object has a postprocessing definition.
	The object belongs to a library.
	The corresponding Menu item exits the Menu object and does not return to the main menu.
	The object is recursive: Within a dialog flow an object A may refer to an object B, which again refers to the object A. In this case the reference to object A is marked with an icon to avoid displaying recursive objects multiple times.
	The object cannot be expanded in the current Dialog Designer due to space restrictions but has to be viewed in a separate Dialog Designer.
	The object processes a subdialog and afterwards returns to the current dialog flow.

Dialog Designer Context Menus

Similar to the Object Browser, the Dialog Designer provides context menus for all objects. To open the context menu, select an object and right-click it.

The context menus of the Dialog Designer contain the following commands, most of them being explained in more detail in Chapter 7 – Basic Commands.

i8Note: Depending on the type of the selected object, not all of the below-mentioned options may be available.

Menu Command	Submenu Command	Submenu Command	Function
Edit			Opens up the object editor for the selected object.
Insert	New	List of all object types	Opens up the respective object editor of the selected object type to create a new object and inserts it before the object selected in the dialog flow.
	Browse	List of all object types	Browses for all available objects of the selected object type and inserts the selected object before the one selected in the dialog flow.
	Search		Searches for an object that matches particular search criteria and inserts the object selected from the search result before the one selected in the dialog flow.
	Clipboard	All	Inserts all objects that are currently in the Clipboard individually before the object selected in the dialog flow.
		All Wrapped With Sequence	Inserts all objects that are currently in the Clipboard – grouped into one Sequence object – before the object selected in the dialog flow.
		< Object >	Inserts the respective object before the one selected in the dialog flow.
Append	New	List of all object types	Opens up the respective object editor of the selected object type to create a new object and appends it to the object selected in the dialog flow.
	Browse	List of all object types	Browses for all available objects of the selected object type and appends the selected object to the one selected in the dialog flow.
	Search		Searches for an object that matches particular search criteria and appends the object selected from the search result to the one selected in the dialog flow.
	Clipboard	All	Appends all objects that are currently in the Clipboard individually to the object selected in the dialog flow.
		All Wrapped With Sequence	Appends all objects that are currently in the Clipboard – grouped into one Sequence object – to the object selected in the dialog flow.
		< Object >	Appends the respective object to the one selected in the dialog flow.
Replace	New	List of all object types	Opens up the respective object editor of the selected object type to create a new object and replaces the object selected in the dialog flow with this new one.
	Browse	List of all object types	Browses for all available objects of the selected object type and replaces the object selected in the dialog flow by the selected one.
	Search		Searches for an object that matches particular search criteria and replaces the object selected in the dialog flow by the one selected from the search result.
	Clipboard	All	Replaces the object selected in the dialog flow with all objects that are currently in the Clipboard.
		All Wrapped With Sequence	Replaces the object selected in the dialog flow with all objects that are currently in the Clipboard grouped into one Sequence object.
		< Object >	Replaces the object selected in the dialog flow with the respective object.
Wrap with Sequence			Replaces the selected object with a new Sequence object and adds it to the new Sequence object. Thus the selected object is “wrapped” with a Sequence object.
Display Dialog			Displays the dialog flow in a Dialog Designer starting with the selected object.
Display And Validate Dialog			Displays the dialog flow in a Dialog Designer and validates the dialog flow starting with the selected object.
Add to Clipboard			Adds the selected object to the Clipboard.
Move to Clipboard			Removes the selected object from the dialog flow and adds it to the Clipboard.
Remove			Removes the selected object from the dialog flow.
Remove and Delete			Removes the selected object from the dialog flow and deletes it.
Save As			Saves an embedded object as an autonomous object.
Move	To Top		Moves the selected object to the top of the sequence.
	Up		Moves the selected object one position up in the sequence.
	Down		Moves the selected object one position down in the sequence.
	To End		Moves the selected object to the end of the sequence.
Export			Exports the selected object and all its referenced object as an XML file.
Lock/Unlock			Locks or respectively unlocks the selected object.
Enable/ Disable			Enables or respectively disables the selected object.
Search Parent Objects			Displays a list of all parent objects of the selected object.
Tools	Project Documentation		Opens up the Project Documentation window to specify various options and create the corresponding project documentation as a PDF document.
	Storyboard Export		Opens up the Storyboard Export window to specify various options and create the corresponding storyboard as a Microsoft Excel file.
Properties			Opens up a window displaying the standard properties of the selected object and allows to modify them. For more information see Properties in the Object Reference.

There is also a context menu opening up if you click any white space within the Dialog Designer:

These commands have the following functions:

Menu Command	Submenu Command	Function
Refresh		Refreshes the current Dialog Designer.
Search	Objects	Opens up the Search editor with all object types pre-selected. For details on the Search editor see Search Objects in Chapter 7 – Basic Commands.
	Unused Objects	Lists all objects that are not referenced by other objects. For details see Search Unused Objects in Chapter 7 – Basic Commands.
Display Options		Opens up the Display Options window to specify the display options for the dialog flow. For details see Display options in Chapter 7 – Basic Commands.
Expand Subtrees		Expands all subtrees in the current dialog flow.
Collapse Subtrees		Collapses all subtrees in the current dialog flow.
Remove Worksheet		Removes the current worksheet.