3 Storyboard Manager for Maintenance
This chapter explains how to use the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance to view, modify, and print the storyboard – a detailed list of all prompts used in an application.
In order to use this tool, an application must exist, so that the storyboard can be exported. If no application is in place yet, use the Storyboard Manager for Design and Migration instead, as described in Chapter 2 of this guide.
Creating the Storyboard Export
Storyboards can be created for an entire project version or only a subset thereof (starting from a particular object). If you create the storyboard for an entire project, each Module object with all its subordinate objects is taken into account. Objects that are not linked in any other object will not be part of the storyboard.
For details on how to create a storyboard export in Desktop for Eclipse refer to Creating Storyboard Exports in Chapter 9 – Project Documentation and Storyboard Export in the Desktop for Eclipse Guide.
For details on how to create a storyboard export in Desktop for Web refer to Creating Storyboard Exports in Chapter 7 – Basic Commands in the Desktop for Web Guide.
Understanding the Storyboard Export File
The Excel file created by exporting a storyboard in VoiceObjects Desktop consists of four content sheets: Overview, Prompts, Statistics, and Resources. The Internal sheet is required for technical reasons and must not be modified.
Overview sheet
The Overview sheet holds meta information on the storyboard. It contains the following information:
· Project name
· Project description
· Project creation date and owner
· Project version name
· Project version description
· Project version creation date and owner
· The comment that was entered in the Storyboard Export window.
· The date and time at which this storyboard was generated and the user who did the export
Prompts sheet
The Prompts sheet contains the actual prompt data. When the export is created and macros are enabled, an automatic macro will run and create the initial layout of the storyboard. Furthermore, the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window opens up, which provides all macros required for working with the storyboard. See Working with the Storyboard Manager For Maintenance for a description of this window.
i8 Note: If the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window does not open up automatically and the initial macro is not activated, you can open the window manually through the shortcut key CTRL+SHIFT+S, or by double-clicking any cell in the orange header row (you can always use this key combination to re-open this window later on). To activate the initial macro manually, click Reset in the Layout section.
@8 Tip: The time it takes to process the initial macro increases with the size of the storyboard. Since the macro only needs to be applied once to the storyboard data, you can suppress the processing whenever you open up the file later on by holding the SHIFT key while opening the file from within Microsoft Excel. Note that in this case the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window will not launch automatically and can only be opened using the shortcut key CTRL+SHIFT+S.
The Storyboard Manager for Maintenance offers macros to change the layout of the storyboard, to apply filters, to export data for a later re-import, and to edit and print the storyboard. While open, you can still work in the sheet, scroll up and down, or make modifications to cells.
After running the automatic macro at start-up, the standard layout is applied, all Module objects are grouped (level 1), and below the modules, all output-relevant objects are grouped (level 2). The groupings are collapsed at level 2, so you first see the object setup of your application:
To get a better overview and find your way around in the Excel sheet, you can expand groupings individually by clicking the plus buttons 
on the left side of the sheet, or you can expand and collapse groupings by clicking the number buttons 
at the top left corner of the sheet.
General setup of the storyboard
The storyboard shows information of all objects that have embedded Output, Audio or Video objects. These output-related objects are (embedded Output objects shown in italics):
· Module: Title, Welcome Message, Goodbye Message
· Input: Input Request Initial, Input Request Reprompt
· Output: Output
· Menu: Welcome Message Initial, Welcome Message Reprompt, Menu Item Output, Selection Request Initial, Selection Request Reprompt
· Confirmation: Confirmation Request Initial, Confirmation Request Reprompt, Correction Request Initial, Correction Request Reprompt, Correction Mapping – Presentation Output
· List: Message - Welcome, Message - Begin of List, Message - End of List, Message - No Data, Navigation Output – Activation Output, Navigation Output – Presentation Output, Selection Commands – Presentation Output
· Connector: Process Notification, Wait Loop Audio (Audio object)
· Script: Process Notification, Wait Loop Audio (Audio object)
· Hyperlink: Presentation Output, Confirmation Request Initial, Confirmation Request Reprompt, Confirmation Request Confirm, Confirmation Request Deny, Message - Activation, Message - Deactivation, Message - Return
· Pause: Welcome Message, Looped Pause Message, Final Pause Message, Return Message
· Recording: Recording Request
· Transfer: Transfer Notification, Connect Audio (Audio object)
· Exit: Goodbye Message
The actual prompt information is defined mainly within Audio or Video objects. Other objects, which can be played back through an Output item, are:
· Script
· Variable, Collection, Expression
· Layer
i8 Note: If a Script, Variable, Collection, or Expression object is used within an Output item and the Formatting Type is set to TTA, then the server will transform the current value of this object into the filename of the audio file to be played back, and optionally add a resource locator, prefix, suffix, random file suffix, and file extension, depending on the settings in the Formatting section of the object editor. Since the domain, i.e. the value range of these objects is not known at design time, but depends on processing at call time, the storyboard only provides one row for them, which states that there is a dynamic prompt part in your application. Sometimes you need to record different prompts for a single object of this kind. An example would be a Variable object Month, which can hold a number from 1 to 12 and has the static string Month_ as prefix, .wav as file extension and TTA-Words as formatting type. At call time, the server generates filenames like Month_2.wav for February, Month_10.wav for October etc. In total you need to record twelve prompts for this Variable object. The Storyboard Manager supports you in creating a list of all dynamic objects, so that you can make sure that all prompts of this kind will be recorded. See the filter setting Dynamic Content below on how to generate this list.
To keep an overview of the dialog and prompt flow of your application, the storyboard shows context information in the form of the parent Module object of each output-related object, as well as the output-related object itself. The parent Module objects are displayed with a darker blue background, whereas the output-related objects have a light blue background. Dark blue rows separate the Module objects from each other, and light blue rows separate the output-related objects.
For every output-related object, the content of all embedded Output items is displayed, i.e. the prompt information of every Audio, Video, Silence, Script, Variable, Collection, Expression, and Layer object linked in any of the embedded Output items of the current object is shown. This encompasses all sections of the corresponding object editor that can potentially hold embedded or linked Output objects, i.e. Definition, Pre-/Postprocessing, Event Handling, and Navigation.
For Video, Silence, Script, Variable, Collection, Expression, and Layer objects, always exactly one row is shown, with information on the name of the object, the formatting type, the filename, etc.
For Audio objects, every alternative text item is printed on a separate row; the prompt information for alternative text items includes the filename, filter settings, the random file suffix, the actual prompt text, and much more.
For prompts that are not wrapped in an Audio object, but typed directly into an Output item as plain text, the storyboard shows one row, with the content "Text" and a red background in the column Object Type.
Output objects that are linked within other objects (e.g. Input or Menu) are made transparent, i.e. they are expanded to immediately show their content, which can be any number and sequence of text, Audio, Video, Silence, Variable, Expression, Collection, Script, Layer, and other Output objects.
If a Video, Audio, Silence, Script, Variable, Collection, Expression, or Layer object appears more than once in your application, i.e. it is linked in more than one Output item, it is repeated in the storyboard, to help follow the prompt flow. In this case, a grey background visualizes that the corresponding prompt already appears earlier in the storyboard. If you want to hide all of these duplicate rows, you can apply a special filter, which is explained in the section Hide Duplicates below.
If an output-related object holding one or more prompts appears within another object (e.g. an Exit object inside a hyperlink of an Input object), it is not immediately expanded but shown with a reference to the row where its definition starts. You can activate the hyperlink by clicking it, to arrive at the definition of this object.
The output-related objects are shown in the order in which they appear in the dialog flow. The prompts within one object are sorted in the following order:
1 Preprocessing
All prompts appearing within the preprocessing of the current object
2 Definition
All prompts defined in the Definition section of the corresponding object editor
3 Event Handling
All prompts defined within objects referenced in the Event Handling section of the corresponding object editor
4 Standard Navigation
For Module objects, all prompts defined in the Standard Navigation of the Navigation section of the corresponding object editor
5 Custom Navigation
All prompts defined in the Custom Navigation of the Navigation section of the corresponding object editor
6 Postprocessing
All prompts appearing within the postprocessing of the current object
This initial sorting can be changed. See Sorting of prompts below for more information.
Resources sheet
The Resources sheet serves two purposes: configuring URLs to play back audios from within the Prompts sheet, and automatically checking the availability of audio files.
Configuring resource locator URLs for audio playback
Use the Resources sheet to configure base URLs for Resource Locator objects defined in the Prompts sheet. With this information, audio files can be played back from within the Storyboard Manager by double-clicking a file name in the Audio File column.
The predefined resource locator *Generic* cannot be deleted, but the URL can be modified if required. This locator is used for all audios that do not have any Resource Locator object defined in the corresponding column of the Prompts sheet and for those that have locators defined that have no corresponding definition in the Resources sheet.
Below that row, enter Resource Locator object names of all locators that are used in the Prompts sheet in the first column. In the second column, define the full base URL pointing to the audio resources of that locator, ending in a slash.
If your application is multi-lingual, you can embed the placeholder @LANG@ in the URL. This will be replaced with the folder defined in the Mapping Folder column, corresponding to the language value that is defined for the audio file that you wish to play back.
An audio file is played using the default media player associated with the given file extension of an audio by double-clicking a file name within the Audio File column of the Prompts sheet. The full URL used to resolve the reference to that file consists of the base URL and the full audio file name. If a URL cannot be resolved, a corresponding warning message is displayed.
Checking Resource Availability
The Storyboard Manager can automatically check the availability of audio files referenced in an application. To do this, first define URLs for all Resource Locator objects as described above. Again, use the @LANG@ placeholder if your application is multi-lingual and you want the tool to check resources in different sub-folders. Only HTTP URLs are allowed for the resource availability check.
Click Check Resources to start the process. The Storyboard Manager traverses all audio files defined in the Prompts sheet, checks their availability and shows status information in the following five columns:
· Object Name: Holds the name of the Audio object that an audio file belongs to. Click it to jump to the corresponding definition in the Prompts sheet.
· Full URL: Holds the full URL for a resource, consisting of the base URL as defined by the resource locator, optional replacements of a "@LANG@" placeholder, and the file name. Click it to follow the hyperlink and play the resource using your default media player. If no URL is defined for a resource locator, “n/a” is shown.
· Resource Locator: Holds the name of the Resource Locator object referenced in the corresponding Audio object.
· Filename: Holds the filename of the resource as defined in the Audio object.
· Status: Shows the status after a resource has been checked for availability. Possible values are:
· Found: The resource could be found under the full URL
· Not Found: The resource could not be found under the full URL
· No URL: There is no URL defined for the resource locator. Make sure to define a valid URL.
· No Filename: There is no filename defined in the Audio object. This hints at an incomplete object definition.
· Dynamic: The resource could not be checked as the filename has dynamic parts, i.e. references to Variable, Layer, Expression, or Script objects.
i8 Note: Make sure the audios can be accessed by the machine running Microsoft Excel and the Storyboard Manager. This might be a different URL from the one used in the dialog implementation, which is usually aimed at the speech platform accessing the audios at call time.
Working with the Storyboard Manager For Maintenance
The Storyboard Manager for Maintenance offers macros for changing the layout of the storyboard, applying filters, exporting data for a later re-import, and editing and printing the storyboard. While open, you can still work in the sheet, scroll up and down, or make modifications to cells. If closed, open the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window manually through the shortcut key CTRL+SHIFT+S, or by double-clicking any cell in the orange header row.
Change the layout
The detail level of the displayed data depends on the layout settings applied to the storyboard. Using the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance, you can select between three different views: Standard, Extended, and Recording. In addition, you can customize the view by including only those columns that you currently need for your work with the storyboard.
Change the layout by selecting one of the three corresponding radio buttons. Customize the layout by clicking Customize. Reset the view to the initial layout by clicking Reset in the Layout section of the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window. The selection stays when closing and re-opening the window, so you can tell which layout is currently active.
If a custom layout has been applied, this is visualized by the disabled radio button Custom.
Standard layout
The Standard layout is the recommended default layout, which provides enough information to read and also modify the storyboard for a standard monolingual voice application with no custom layers associated with prompts and no differentiation between input modes. The columns in this layout are also found in the Extended layout.
The following table lists all columns of the Standard layout and describes their meaning:
|
Column |
Description |
Editable |
|
Module Name |
The name of the parent Module object of the current output-related object. |
O |
|
Parent Object Type |
The type of the current output-related object. This can be one of Module, Input, Output, Menu, Confirmation, List, Connector, Script, Hyperlink, Pause, Recording, Transfer, or Exit. |
O |
|
Parent Object Name |
The name of the current output-related object, serving as the parent object of an Audio, Video, Variable, Collection, Expression, Script, Layer, or Silence object, or plain TTS prompt text. |
O |
|
Object Type |
The type of the object holding the actual prompt information. This can be one of Audio, Video, Silence, Script, Variable, Collection, Expression, and Layer. For TTS prompts that are not wrapped in Audio objects, but typed directly into an Output item, this column shows the value "Text" with a red background; this helps in finding remaining TTS prompts (cf. TTS Only filtering below). |
O |
|
Object Name |
The name of the object holding the actual prompt information. |
P |
|
Variation |
The variation number of the alternative text item. Only given for rows holding alternative text items. If you change this number, the column Max Variations is automatically adapted if required. |
P |
|
Audio File |
The complete filename corresponding to the alternative text item, with file prefix, filename, file suffix, random index, and extension. Only given for rows holding alternative text items. If a filename is missing for an Audio object, or the current row shows a Variable, Collection, Expression, or Layer object, this column shows "???"+File Extension. In case of a missing filename in an Audio object, the background color is red. |
O |
|
Prompt Comment |
An empty column. Enter a descriptive comment on the prompt, if desired. It should be aimed at the voice talent speaking this prompt in a recording studio. |
P |
|
Prompt Text |
The prompt text itself. Only given for rows holding alternative text items or TTS prompts. This column has a light yellow or, in case of a missing prompt, a red background. |
P |
|
Max Variations |
The random variations information from the Audio object, i.e. the maximum number of random variations of this prompt. Only given for rows holding alternative text items. Since this setting is common for all alternative text items, the number is repeated for every such item. If you modify this number in one row, the change is automatically copied to all other alternative text items pertaining to the same Audio object. |
P |
|
Changes |
A status column, showing if a row in the Excel file has been modified or added by the user. |
O |
|
Technical Notes |
An empty column. Enter a note on the prompt, if desired. It should be aimed at the dialog implementer. |
P |
|
Grammar |
An empty column. Enter suggestions for the grammar to be implemented for the current input state, if desired. |
P |
The following figure shows the correspondence between the Audio editor and the storyboard in the Standard layout:
Extended layout
The Extended layout shows more context information of the prompts, as well as all filter settings associated with an alternative text item, such as language, input mode etc.
If your voice application is multi-lingual, having more than one persona and potentially distinguishing voice from DTMF prompts, you need to work with this extended layout. In addition to the columns from the Standard layout, it holds the following columns:
|
Column |
Description |
Editable |
|
Prompt Category |
This corresponds to the section in the editor of the output-related objects, where the prompt is used. It can be one of Definition, Pre-/Postprocessing, Event Handling, and Custom Navigation. For Confirmation objects, it can additionally be Event Handling Correction and Event Handling Confirmation. For Module objects, it can additionally be Standard Navigation. |
O |
|
Prompt Usage |
This corresponds to the section headers within the Definition section of the editor of the output-related object. For a full list of the prompt usages, see General setup of the storyboard. For the sections Pre-/Postprocessing, Event Handling, and Navigation, this column shows the corresponding usage type, e.g. Postprocessing, No Input (1), or Custom Navigation. |
O |
|
Output Item Occ. |
The occurrence level of the parent Output item of the current prompt. In the Module and parent object rows, a comma-separated list of all occurrence levels that appear in any of the child objects is shown. Use this information to quickly debug an application by checking these lists. |
O |
|
File Prefix |
In case of Audio objects, the file prefix setting in the Audio Resource section. In case of Variable, Collection, Expression, and Layer objects, the file prefix setting in the Formatting section. |
P |
|
Filename |
The file setting of the Audio Resource information of the Audio object. |
P |
|
File Suffix |
In case of Audio objects, the file suffix setting in the Audio Resource section. In case of Variable, Collection, Expression, and Layer objects, the file suffix setting in the Formatting section. |
P |
|
File Ext. |
In case of Audio objects, the file extension setting in the Audio Resource section. In case of Variable, Collection, Expression, and Layer objects, the file extension setting in the Formatting section. |
P |
|
Language |
The language associated with the alternative text item. Only given for rows holding alternative text items, and for TTS prompts, in which case the language of the parent Output item is shown. In the Module and parent object rows, a comma-separated list of all languages that appear in any of the child objects is shown. Use this information to quickly debug an application by checking these lists. |
P |
|
AltText Layer |
The Layer object or condition associated with the alternative text item. Only given for rows holding alternative text items. |
P |
|
AltText Layer RefID |
The reference ID of the Layer object associated with the alternative text item. Only given for rows holding alternative text items. |
P |
|
Input Mode |
The input mode associated with the alternative text item. This can be one of Voice, DTMF, Voice+DTMF, and Default. Only given for rows holding alternative text items, and for TTS prompts, in which case the input mode of the parent Output item is shown. In the Module and parent object rows, a comma-separated list of all input modes that appear in any of the child objects is shown. Use this information to quickly debug an application by checking these lists. |
P |
|
Resource Locator |
The name of the Resource Locator object linked to the Audio object. Only given for rows holding alternative text items. Since this setting is common for all alternative text items, the resource locator is repeated for every such item. If you modify this column in one row, the change is automatically copied to all other alternative text items pertaining to the same Audio object. |
P |
|
RL RefID |
The reference ID of the Resource Locator object linked in the Audio object. Only given for rows holding alternative text items. Since this setting is common for all alternative text items, the resource locator is repeated for every such item. If you modify this column in one row, the change is automatically copied to all other alternative text items pertaining to the same Audio object. |
P |
|
AltText Item Label |
If given, the label of the alternative text item. Only present for rows holding alternative text items. |
P |
|
Object Duplicate |
The row number of the first occurrence of the prompt. Only given if the current row is a duplicate, indicated by grey background, or if the current row points to a complete object definition, which is shown in detail somewhere else in the storyboard. In all other cases this column shows the value 0 (zero). If the number is above 0, then you can click the cell to jump to the original object or prompt definition. |
O |
Recording layout
The Recording layout is a very condensed view on the prompt data, with only the columns Audio File, Prompt Comment, and Prompt Text left, which are explained in the section on Standard layout.
This layout is useful for the recording session in a studio, where the voice talent only needs to see the prompt text plus optional comments. To help keep the orientation, the module header rows (darker blue background) as well as the rows for the output-related objects (light blue background) stay in this view. The name of the Module object and the type and name of the parent object can be found in the Audio File column.
i8 Note: When switching to this layout, the duplicate rows (those with grey background) are automatically hidden.
Customizing the layout
In case you want to add columns to or remove columns from a predefined layout, you can customize the layout by clicking Customize in the Layout section of the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window. A window pops up, allowing you to select the columns you want to see in the storyboard:
By clicking Standard, Extended, or Recording you can see the columns that are part of the respective layout. So, for instance, if the standard layout is adequate for your work but you want to see the language column in addition, click Standard and select the check box Language. Then, click OK to arrive at your customized view. Clicking OK closes this window and the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window, whereas Apply leaves both windows open. Cancel closes this window without applying any changes to the layout.
Full view
The storyboard has 40 columns in total. The additional columns, which are typically hidden and not needed for working with the storyboard, are the following:
|
Column |
Description |
Editable |
|
Row |
A counter for all rows of the storyboard. When sorting the storyboard manually, this column helps to re-arrange the rows to the original setup. |
O |
|
Mod Nbr |
A counter for all Module objects displayed in the storyboard. It starts at 1 and is repeated for all rows belonging to the same Module object. |
O |
|
Obj Nbr |
A counter for all output-related objects displayed in the storyboard. It starts at 1 and is repeated for all rows belonging to the same object. |
O |
|
Output Item Layer |
The name of the Layer object associated with the parent Output item of the current prompt, if defined. |
O |
|
Output Item Label |
The label for the parent Output item of the current prompt, if defined. |
O |
|
Object Comment |
The comment provided in the Properties section of the editor of the corresponding parent object, if given. |
P |
|
Object Short Description |
The short description provided in the Properties section of the editor of the corresponding parent object, if given. |
P |
|
Last Modified |
The date and time when the corresponding parent object was last modified. |
O |
|
Disabled |
The Disabled setting of the parent object. Can be true or false. |
O |
|
Text GUID |
The Object ID of the alternative text item. Only given for rows holding alternative text items, and for TTS prompts. |
O |
|
Object ID |
The object ID of the parent object. |
O |
|
Object RefID |
The reference ID of the parent object. |
O |
Sorting of prompts
The output-related objects appear in the order in which they are defined in the dialog flow. Within one object, the prompts are sorted in the order described in General setup of the storyboard above. This order does not necessarily reflect the order that a prompt designer initially defined, in case the storyboard was created with some external tool. In order to be able to preserve this initial ordering of prompts, the Comment property of the Audio object can be used to hold sorting criteria, so that the storyboard can be sorted according to the content of its corresponding Comment column.
If the Comment column holds numbers reflecting the initial order of the prompts, click Design-based Sorting in the Layout section of the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window to sort the storyboard by the content of this column. If no such content exists, the Storyboard Manager responds with the following message:
To get back to the original storyboard sorting, click Object-based Sorting in the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window.
Apply user-defined filters
In addition to the different detail levels, you can also filter the storyboard to see a subset of the prompts only. Since the storyboard initially shows the prompts of all languages, personas, input modes, etc., and the prompts of all Module objects and output-related objects, it might be desirable to reduce the view to see only one language or persona, or to hide all duplicate rows. With the filter settings of the Storyboard Manager you can apply various filters to the current view.
i8 Note: Applying a user-defined filter does not change the layout of the storyboard. Select a layout of your choice first and then apply a filter to arrive at the desired view on the storyboard. In general, layouts affect the columns, whereas filters affect the rows of a storyboard.
There are six user-definable filter settings, and four predefined ones. The user-definable filter settings are Language, Custom Layer, Input Mode, Resource Locator, Occurrence Level, and Prompt Category. The view on the storyboard changes when an option from the corresponding drop-down list is selected in the Filter section of the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window.
Language
If your application is multi-lingual, filtering by Language gives you all the prompts of one specific language only. This is particularly useful for the recording session in the studio, since one voice talent typically covers one language only, and showing the prompts of other languages will only confuse.
Example: In case your application has English and German prompts, selecting English from the drop-down list would hide all those prompts that are not tagged with English.
Custom Layer
If your application has some custom layers associated with individual prompts, filtering by Custom Layer gives you all the prompts of one specific Layer object or layer condition only.
Example: If your application has two personas, which are distinguished by a Layer object Voice and the two layer states Male and Female, selecting Voice=Male would give you all prompts of the male speaker only.
Input Mode
If your application makes a distinction between voice and DTMF prompts, filtering by Input Mode would give you the prompts of one specific mode only.
Example: If your application is controllable either through voice commands or DTMF keys, and the prompts reflect that, then selecting Voice would give you only the prompts that are tagged with the input mode Voice.
Resource Locator
Sometimes, different Resource Locator objects are used for different kinds of prompts. For example, a portal-like voice application might offer news, sports, and entertainment, and use completely different personas for these three categories. The prompts for this application might lie in different directories to keep them apart from each other. Filtering by Resource Locator allows you to only see the prompts (i.e. the Audio objects), that have a specific Resource Locator object defined.
Example: If your application has the three different Resource Locator objects News Prompts, Sports Prompts, and Entertainment Prompts, selecting News would give you only the prompts pertaining to the news part of your application, i.e. the Audio objects that have the Resource Locator object News Prompts defined.
Occurrence Level
Since all prompts (i.e. Audio, Silence, Variable, Expression objects etc.) are always linked within an Output item, every prompt also has an occurrence level, which is associated with this Output item. In a menu-based application, you might want to define a prompt that is played the first time the caller enters the menu, and another one that is played in all subsequent visits to this menu. Filtering by Occurrence Level gives you the prompts that are played at a specific occurrence count of the parent object.
Example: Selecting If >= 1 gives you all the prompts that are embedded in Output items tagged with this occurrence level.
Prompt Category
Prompts can occur in different places in the object editor, and thus in different phases of an input state. An input state typically has initial prompts played first, then some event handling prompts played after an event has occurred, and maybe a prompt asking for confirmation when the user tries to activate a hyperlink. Filtering by Prompt Category gives you only the prompts that occur in a specific place in your object.
Example: Selecting Event Handling gives you all prompts used in the event handling of the current object, whereas Standard Navigation gives you all messages associated with a standard navigation command of a Module object. The initial prompts as well as the event reprompts are categorized under Definition.
Apply predefined filters
The predefined filters are called TTS Only, New or Modified, Dynamic Content, Missing Filenames and Hide Duplicates. They are activated by selecting or clicking the corresponding radio button or check box.
i8 Note: Applying a predefined filter does not change the layout of the storyboard. Select a layout of your choice first and then apply a filter to arrive at the desired view on the storyboard. In general, layouts affect the columns, whereas filters affect the rows of a storyboard.
TTS Only
The TTS Only filter shows all the prompts that are not wrapped in Audio objects yet, i.e. all the prompts that are typed directly into an Output item. Since the prompt is lacking any kind of audio file information, it would be played back by a text-to-speech engine.
When this filter is activated, it first checks if your storyboard holds any remaining TTS prompts at all. If there are none, it comes back with a corresponding message. Otherwise, the storyboard is filtered so that only TTS prompts remain.
New or Modified
The storyboard allows to make changes to the prompts and also add more variations to or remove some from an Audio object. Whenever a change is made to a row in the storyboard, the content of the column Changes automatically changes to CHG or NEW, with different background colors. For more information on the coloring, see Edit the Storyboard.
When the filter New or Modified is activated, it first checks if your storyboard holds any new or modified prompts at all. If there are none, it comes back with a corresponding message. Otherwise, the storyboard is filtered so that only new or modified prompts remain.
Dynamic Content
If a Script, Variable, Collection, or Expression object is used within an Output item and the formatting type is set to TTA, then the server will transform the current value of this object into the filename of the audio file to be played back and optionally add a resource locator, prefix, suffix, random file suffix, and file extension, depending on the settings in the Formatting section. Since the domain, i.e. the value range of these objects is not known at design time but depends on processing at call time, the storyboard only provides one row for them, which states that there is a dynamic prompt part in your application. If you need to record different prompts for a single object of this kind, you can generate a list of all these objects, by activating the filter Dynamic Content. If there are no dynamic objects in your application, it comes back with a corresponding message. Otherwise, the storyboard is filtered so that only Script, Variable, Collection, Layer, and Expression objects remain.
i8 Note: Silence, Script, Variable, Collection, Expression, and Layer objects are only shown in the storyboard if they appear in at least one Output item. All other objects of this kind, which are never played back, are not shown in the storyboard.
Hide Duplicates
If an Audio, Video, Silence, Script, Variable, Collection, Expression, or Layer object appears more than once in your application, i.e. it is linked in more than one Output item, it is repeated in the storyboard to help following the prompt flow. In this case, a grey background visualizes that the corresponding prompt already appears earlier in the prompt flow. If you want to hide all duplicate rows you can select the check box Hide Duplicates in the Filter section of the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window, which simply hides all duplicate prompts as well as all references to other output-related objects.
Manual filtering
In addition to the user-defined and predefined filters, you can apply a filter on every existing column in the storyboard. The header row provides a drop-down list on each column.
Clicking the arrow gives you the contents of all rows of this column. Selecting one of the entries hides all cells of the current column that do not have this entry as their content. The entries (All), (Top 10), (Custom...), (Blanks), and (NonBlanks) are special filters that allow you, for example, to show all cells with no content at all (Blanks), all non-empty cells (NonBlanks), or to create a custom filter condition, if required (Custom...). Refer to the Microsoft Excel documentation for more information on the special filters.
The drop-down lists always show only the entries that are visible in the current view, i.e. if you hide certain rows and open the drop-down list the content of only the visible cells is shown.
By expanding all rows first and then opening the drop-down lists of columns like Language, Input Mode, Output Item Occ. etc., you can easily check for the correctness of your corresponding settings. Looking at the list for Language you can make out, for example, if there are alternative text items tagged with an invalid language code, i.e. one that should not occur in your application.
Edit the storyboard
As mentioned earlier, the prompts in the storyboard can be modified and new alternative text items can be added or existing ones removed. Not all columns and rows are editable; all Module object and parent object rows, as well as all rows of Variable, Expression, Collection, Script, Silence and Layer objects are write-protected. Thus, you can only modify rows of TTS (text) prompts, Audio and Video objects.
i8 Note: You can only edit text prompts to generate Audio objects out of it. It is not possible to edit text prompts and re-import them as such into your application, e.g. for text or Web applications. This means that in the text and Web channel, the Storyboard Manager can only be used to (re-)view prompts, but not to alter them and re-import them into your application definition.
The editable columns in the Standard layout are:
· Object Name, Variation, Prompt Comment, Prompt Text, Max Variations, Technical Notes, Grammar
In the Extended layout, the following additional columns are editable:
· File Prefix, Filename, File Suffix, File Ext., Language, AltText Layer, AltText Layer RefID, Input Mode, Resource Locator, RL RefID, AltText Item Label, Technical Notes, Grammar
The Storyboard Manager helps you in editing the prompts and the required definitions in many ways. The following list describes all validation and editing assistance taking place in the various columns.
|
Column |
Validation |
Editing Assistance |
Applied to |
|
Object Name |
None |
When the column Filename has no value yet the object name is copied into this column. |
TTS prompts only |
|
None |
The value is copied to all rows pertaining to the same Audio object. |
TTS prompts & Audio |
|
|
File Prefix |
None |
The value is copied to all rows pertaining to the same Audio object. Furthermore, the column Audio File is adapted accordingly. |
TTS prompts & Audio |
|
Filename |
None |
When the column Object Name has no value yet the filename is copied into this column. |
TTS prompts only |
|
None |
The value is copied to all rows pertaining to the same Audio object. Furthermore, the column Audio File is adapted accordingly. |
TTS prompts & Audio |
|
|
File Suffix |
None |
The value is copied to all rows pertaining to the same Audio object. Furthermore, the column Audio File is adapted accordingly. |
TTS prompts & Audio |
|
Variation |
Only numbers between 1 and 99 are accepted |
On change of this column, the column Audio File is adapted accordingly. |
TTS prompts & Audio |
|
File Ext. |
Only valid audio file extensions are accepted: |
The value is copied to all rows pertaining to the same Audio object. Furthermore, the column Audio File is adapted accordingly. |
TTS prompts & Audio |
|
Language |
Only valid languages are accepted |
Lower case is converted to upper case. |
TTS prompts & Audio |
|
AltText Layer |
None |
After entering the layer (condition) the Storyboard Manager checks if this layer has been defined before. If so, it copies the reference ID into the column AltText Layer RefID. Otherwise, it asks you to enter the required reference ID yourself. |
TTS prompts & Audio |
|
AltText Layer RefID |
None |
After entering the reference ID the Storyboard Manager asks you to define a corresponding AltText Layer. If you have deleted an existing reference ID, then the corresponding layer is deleted automatically. |
TTS prompts & Audio |
|
Input Mode |
Only valid input modes are accepted, i.e. one of Voice, DTMF, Voice+DTMF, and Default. |
Lower case is converted to upper case. |
TTS prompts & Audio |
|
Resource Locator |
None |
After entering the name of a Resource Locator object the Storyboard Manager checks if this object has been defined before. If so, it copies the reference ID into the column RL RefID. Otherwise, it asks you to enter the required reference ID yourself. |
TTS prompts & Audio |
|
RL RefID |
None |
After entering the reference ID the Storyboard Manager asks you to define a corresponding Resource Locator name. If you have deleted an existing reference ID, then the corresponding Resource Locator is deleted automatically. |
TTS prompts & Audio |
|
Max Variations |
Only Disabled or numbers between 2 and 99 are accepted |
Lower case is converted to upper case. |
TTS prompts & Audio |
The column Changes keeps track of all modifications made to rows. When you edit the prompt text or some other definition in a row it turns green and says CHG:
When you add an alternative text item to an Audio object it turns red and says NEW:
Integration with VoiceObjects Desktop for Web
Desktop for Web provides the possibility to open the editor of any object found in the storyboard and show the dialog flow of the parent Module object. Looking at the dialog flow or the object details helps to better understand the application.
To do this, double-click a cell holding the name of an object. This is possible for cells in the columns Module Name, Parent Object Name, and Object Name.
i8 Note: It is required to close any open Desktop for Web sessions on your machine before accessing the Desktop from the storyboard. Note also that this integration is not supported in Desktop for Eclipse.
To control the behavior of the Storyboard Manager when double-clicking, open the Settings window found at the bottom of the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window.
In the Desktop Login section, define the URL of the Desktop for Web installation you want to use. By default, it is the same Desktop that was used to generate the storyboard. If you want to change the URL, make sure to append "External" at the end.
When you first access Desktop for Web from the storyboard, you need to authenticate yourself by logging in. The user ID defined in the Settings window is taken as the ID for the login.
In the Desktop Behavior section, define the action to be performed when double-clicking an object name. You can open the object's editor, show the dialog flow of the parent Module object, or do both. Dialog flows are shown for Module objects only. If you double-click an Audio object and wish to see the dialog flow, the flow of the Module object which holds the Audio's parent object is shown.
How to add a new alternative text item
For existing Audio or Video objects you can add more alternative text items by doing the following:
1. Place the cursor on a row of an Audio or Video object (the added item will appear below this row).
2. Press CTRL+SHIFT+A
OR
In the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window, click Add Item.
A new row is added to the storyboard with most of the values copied from the original row. The columns Variation and Prompt Text are empty and turn red, to visualize that these two columns must be filled if you intend to update your application after changing the storyboard. The update will fail if incomplete rows remain. After adding a new item, the column Changes turns red and shows NEW. When you fill in one of the obligatory columns the color in the Changes column turns yellow. When both columns are filled the color turns green, to visualize that this row is then complete.
In addition to Variation and Prompt Text, you can modify any other editable column such as Language, Input Mode, AltText Layer etc. Any definition of the entire Audio or Video object such as Object name, Filename, Resource Locator, etc. can also be modified.
How to remove an existing alternative text item
In case you want to remove existing alternative text items, e.g. to reduce the number of random prompts, or to delete prompts for a specific language etc., you can do the following:
1. Place the cursor on the row of the alternative text item to be deleted.
2. Press CTRL+SHIFT+R
OR
In the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window, click Remove Item.
The row will be removed, and the Changes column of all other remaining alternative text items turns red and shows CHG, so that the change to this Audio or Video object is tracked.
Remember to adapt the value of the column Max Variations in case you remove random variations from an Audio or Video object.
Adding a new layer state
The Storyboard Manager provides a functionality to add entire prompt structures for new layer states. As an example, imagine you want to add prompts for a new language in an already multi-lingual application. What you need is a copy of all alternative text items with the required language code set for all new items. By clicking Add Layer State in the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window, this can be performed automatically.
To add a new layer state, do the following:
1. In the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window, click Add Layer State.
2. On the left-hand side of the window that comes up, select the type of layer you want to add a state for.
3. If you require a copy of only those alternative text items that are associated with a certain layer state, set the corresponding base state by selecting one from the corresponding drop-down list. If you want a copy of all items, irrespective of a layer, do not select a base state.
4. Enter the name of the new state. In case of language, enter a correct language, e.g. English (UK). In case of input mode, enter one of Voice, DTMF or Voice+DTMF. In case of custom layers, provide a layer state ID as defined in the corresponding Layer object. Note that the Layer object must already exist in the application for this to work.
5. If you want a copy of the original prompt content for the new items, select the check box Copy prompts of base layer. If you want empty prompt cells for the new items, leave this check box clear.
6. Click OK.
Re-import the storyboard
After changes have been made to the storyboard you can re-import the modified Audio objects into your application, so that the metadata gets updated and all changes are reflected in the object definitions of your application.
1. To re-import the storyboard into VoiceObjects Desktop, first define a valid path and file name in the File field. The path must exist on your system and the file name will be the name of the VoiceObjectsXML file that will be created. If that file already exists, it will be overwritten.
2. To create the VoiceObjectsXML file, click Update Application.
If there are one or more alternative text items with a missing value in the Variation column, the Storyboard Manager responds with a message like this:
The cell concerned is marked, so that you can add the missing number.
You can also check for any remaining cells in the Changes column having a red background before trying the re-import.
3. Open VoiceObjects Desktop and select the correct project to apply the changes to. It is recommended to create a new project version and perform the import there, for reasons of data security. When the re-import is successful use this new version then as the default version of your application.
4. Select Import from the VoiceObjects menu (in Desktop for Web, select Import Object from File from the Tools menu).
5. In the Import window, enter the correct location and filename as specified in the File field.
6. Click Import.
When the import is done all changes are applied to the corresponding object definitions in your application.
8 Caution: If one or more of the re-imported Audio objects has a precondition (embedded or through an autonomous object), this precondition will be deleted when overwriting the original Audio object definition on re-import. If the precondition is required for your application, you need to define the corresponding setting in the object editor again after re-importing a storyboard.
Create Audio objects from TTS prompts
Prompts that are typed into Output items directly without wrapping them with an Audio object will be played back by a text-to-speech engine. Since most applications work with pre-recorded audio, you need to convert these TTS prompts into Audio objects, with the appropriate file information and alternative texts. The Storyboard Manager can automatically generate Audio object definitions from all TTS prompts in your storyboard. Texts belonging to the same prompt will be put into one and the same Audio object as different alternative text items.
i8 Note: The Storyboard Manager for Maintenance does not support creating Video objects the same way.
To generate Audio objects from TTS prompts, do the following:
1. In the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window, click TTS > Audio.
If there are one or more prompts with a missing value in the Variation column, the tool responds with a message like this:
You can then choose to let the tool fill up the missing numbers automatically, to ignore all alternative text items with missing variation numbers, or to cancel the operation.
2. Open VoiceObjects Desktop and select the project to apply the changes to. It is recommended to create a new project version and perform the import there, for reasons of data security. When the re-import is successful, use this new version then as the default version of your application.
3. Select Import from the VoiceObjects menu (in Desktop for Web, select Import Object from File from the Tools menu).
4. In the Import window, set the correct location and filename. The file is called NewAudios.xml and is located either in the default directory defined in Microsoft Excel (typically a user's root folder), or in the same directory where the storyboard is stored, given it was saved in the same Excel session.
5. Click Import.
When the import is done all generated Audio objects can be found in the Object Browser of VoiceObjects Desktop and then need to be linked into the correct Output items of the corresponding objects.
Note that TTS prompts which are exported from the application into the storyboard only hold the values for the columns Prompt Text, Language, and Input Mode. In order to convert these into Audio objects you need to provide at least random indices for the alternative text items to be created. In order for the application to work the remaining definitions of the Audio object also need to be provided, Resource Locator and Filename as a minimum. You can also define these within the storyboard before starting the conversion process.
If you do not provide Object Names for the new Audio objects, automatic names are created, based on the values from the columns Parent Object Type, Parent Object Name, Prompt Category and Prompt Usage.
Example: The automatically created name for the Audio object of a prompt that appears as the welcome message of the Module object Main Menu would be Module - Main Menu - Definition - Welcome Message.
If you do not provide Filenames for the new Audio objects, a filename is automatically created by taking the Parent Object Name and removing all blanks.
Example: The automatically created filename of a prompt within the Input object Ask For Age would be AskForAge.
Print the storyboard
As a reference for your project work, for recording sessions in a studio, or for documentation purposes, you can print out the storyboard. Printing is possible for all available layouts. The Storyboard Manager automatically sets the following headers and footers:
|
Position |
Value |
|
Left Header |
Storyboard: Project name |
|
Center Header |
(empty) |
|
Right Header |
Last Change: Date&Time of last change |
|
Left Footer |
Project Version: Project version name |
|
Center Footer |
(C) VoiceObjects |
|
Right Footer |
Page X of Y |
To print the storyboard, do the following:
1. Select the layout of your choice, by selecting one of the available layout settings, applying user-defined, pre-defined or manual filters, manually hiding rows etc. as described above.
2. Click Print Preview at the bottom of the Storyboard Manager for Maintenance window.
3. In the print preview, adapt the layout as desired. For more information on this, refer to the Microsoft Excel documentation.
4. Click the Print button to print the storyboard.
