Hitesh Seth

Welcome to VoiceXML. This column focuses on VoiceXML (Voice eXtensible Markup Language), an emerging standard (defined by VoiceXML Forum, submitted to the W3C Voice Browser Activity Group) for the development of interactive voice-based applications. It's one of the first standards that opens up the formerly proprietary platforms for the development of Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) and Speech Recognition applications. VoiceXML allows developers to leverage their skills and investments in existing Web technologies (such as J2EE and Microsoft COM+). This first column focuses on getting you started with developing dynamic VoiceXML applications. Just as HTML allowed developers to create sites and personalized Web applications for anyone with a browser and an Internet connection, so VoiceXML enables developers to create voice portals that can be accessed by anyone ... (more)

Tools For Developing VoiceXML Apps

The previous article in this series, "Building VoiceXML Applications Using J2EE" (XML-J, Vol. 2, issue 2), discussed building dynamic and interactive voice applications using VoiceXML and J2EE. In this issue we'll focus on the tools available to aid development and testing of VoiceXML-based components and applications. We'll discuss how to use the tools to test and debug such applications from a normal Touch-Tone-based phone. The tools reviewed are: BeVocal Café (BeVocal, Inc.) WebSphere Voice Server SDK (IBM Corporation) Mobile ADK (Motorola, Inc.) V-Builder (Nuance Communicati... (more)

Tools for Developing VoiceXML Applications Part 2

Last year in this column (XML-J, Vol. 2, issue 2) we reviewed an initial set of VoiceXML development tools and integrated development environments (IDEs). Now we'll review some of the new tool sets developed by independent software vendors for the development and testing of dynamic speech-based components and applications. I'll focus on how to use these tools to test and debug VoiceXML applications from a desktop-based development environment and/or a normal touch-tone-based phone. Note/Disclaimer: This article doesn't attempt to compare the capabilities and features of the var... (more)

Java Architecture for XML Binding

Two foundation technologies, Java and XML, represent the marriage of portable code and data. A key ingredient of a successful marriage is compatibility. XML and a number of XML-based vocabularies are being used extensively as the standard data-exchange mechanism (and beyond) by both stand-alone Java 2, Standard Edition (J2SE) applications and server-based Java 2, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) enterprise applications. A basic requirement in a number of these programmatic scenarios is the mapping of XML data as Java objects and/or vice versa (converting Java objects into XML). Althoug... (more)

Essential XML Quick Reference

If you're a developer looking for a quick and useful reference on some of the fundamental standards around XML, look no more. In a handy paperback edition priced at $24.99, Essential XML Quick Reference from Addison-Wesley is a great buy. Regardless of which programming language you use, this book stands out as a great reference on the basic constructs of XML and its usage. Organization The book is organized into 10 chapters and contains a detailed index, which is actually quite useful given the new terms that XML and its associated standards have introduced. Each of the 10 chapte... (more)