Dialogs

The VoiceXML application structure model is a Finite State Machine. A user of a VoiceXML application is always in one conversational state or dialog at a given time. Each dialog is followed by another dialog, and if no dialog is specified next, then the execution of the VoiceXML application is terminated. There are two types of dialogs: forms and menus. Forms collect user inputs in the form of values, just like an HTML form. Menus present the user with a list of options to select from.

Sessions

A session begins once the user begins to interact with a VoiceXML document.

Applications

An application is a collection of VoiceXML documents. All the documents in an application can share the same application root document. Root documents can be used to pass variables from one VoiceXML document to another. Any variables defined in the root document are available for all your documents.

Grammars

A grammar specifies a list of permissible vocabulary for the user to select from in order to interact with the VoiceXML application. Each dialog has one or more speech and/or grammars associated with it.

Events

An event is thrown by the VoiceXML platform for a number of reasons, such as when a user does not respond to an input, doesn't respond correctly, requests help, etc. The VoiceXML interpreter also throws events in case there are any semantic errors in the VoiceXML document.

Links

A link specifies a transition that is common to all dialogs in the scope of the link. When a user input matches the link's grammar, control transfers to the link's destination