The VoiceXML Handbook: Understanding and Building the Phone-Enabled Web [Paperback]

john wills (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2001

VoiceXML combines the power of the Internet with the flexibility of voice, using the telephone as the access point to the Internet. XML is replacing HMTL as the state of the art for enabling customers and employees to access business over the Internet. VoiceXML enables companies to provide the same information via the phone with minimal additional development. This book shows how to build phone-enabled Web sites with VoiceXML. For Web developers it explains the essentials of telephony, and for telecom experts it explains the essentials of the Web.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bob Edgar, PhD., works for Dialogic Corp., an Intel company, and a leading manufacturer of computer telephony hardware and software components. Dr. Edgar started his software career as a theoretical physicist running mainframe calculations to simulate relativistic quantum fields. Bob later founded and ran Parity Software development tools, which was acquired by Dialogic in September 1999. Bob's previous book, PC Telephony, has been a best seller in the industry for many years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 481 pages
• Publisher: CMP Books (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578200849
• ISBN-13: 978-1578200849
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,335,708 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Disappointing, June 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The VoiceXML Handbook: Understanding and Building the Phone-Enabled Web (Paperback)

If one calls the first available VoiceXML book the best, one can also call it the worst. Bod Edgar is an expert in computer telephony, but what can you expect to learn about VoiceXML, the language for the Voice Web, from someone who "had little experience of Internet technologies" and "decided to learn about HTTP, HTML" by the summer of 2000, and who doesn't seem to have created any practical VoiceXML applications? He states that one critical decision to be made in writing the book was which VoiceXML version to cover. Oddly, he chose VoiceXML 2.0. Then you realize how convenient that is - he actually revealed it himself: "there were no VoiceXML 2.0 browsers available for me in developing and testing example code." The fact is there were already at least three commercially available VoiceXML 1.0 browsers at the time of his writing (January 2001) for him to develop and test code: cafe.bevocal.com, studio.tellme.com, and developer.voicegenie.com. The next question is: does VoiceXML 1.0 lack many important features in VoiceXML 2.0? No, with strong integration with Web server technologies, applications built on VoiceXML 1.0 can do a lot! Yes, nobody supports VoiceXML 2.0 yet, as it's still an early draft. But many support VoiceXML 1.0, an already powerful language if you know how to build advanced VoiceXML application using web server technologies and some important VoiceXML elements such as <subdialog> and <object>, which he didn't give appropriate coverage at all. He says "A subdialog is a form which is called from another form and returns", where in fact, a subdialog can invoke either a form on the current page or more importantly, another VoiceXML document, which can be dynamically generated by your web application. Again, because the author's inexperience with Internet technologies, you miss great opportunities in learning how to integrate VoiceXML with your web applications.

What further bothers me are mistakes in the book such as "The VoiceXML 1.0 standard was published on March 7th, 2000" - the fact is VoiceXML 1.0 was submitted to and acknowledged by the W3C on that day, and is still on the standardization process now - and that the title for the classic "Hello, World" application is "Hello, Web" - which reminds of the professor George Polya describes: he says A, writes B, thinks C, and the correct answer is D.

Even if you just want to get some basic introduction to the language itself, you'll gain a lot more reading those online documentaion from sites offering VoiceXML browsers. If you want to get serious about VoiceXML and build real-world VoiceXML applications, wait or look elsewhere. This book will make you feel very disappointed.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not very informative, July 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The VoiceXML Handbook: Understanding and Building the Phone-Enabled Web (Paperback)

As a VoiceXML developer, I looked forward to this book. I was disappointed. Too much time was spent speculating on Version 2.0 and not enough time explaining Version 1.0. If you are looking to learn VoiceXML this is not the book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars VoiceXML for very beginners, December 12, 2001

By 

jean triquet (Tres Cantos, Madrid Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The VoiceXML Handbook: Understanding and Building the Phone-Enabled Web (Paperback)

The book is a general overview of telephony application and a thin introduction to VoiceXML. It covers important matters in a very rapid and unprecise way. It contains even errors in the examples.