Table Of Contents
Overview of the Cisco Unity Express Script Editor
Exporting Variables by Using Parameters
Continue on Prompt Errors Step
Installing the Cisco Unity Express Script Editor
Using the Script Editor
This chapter provides information on using the Cisco Unity Express Script Editor.
Overview of the Cisco Unity Express Script Editor
The Cisco Unity Express Script Editor is a visual programming environment for creating autoattendant application scripts.
Figure 1 shows the Script Editor window, which is divided into the Palette (1), Design (2), Variable (3), and Debug (4) panes.
Figure 1 Cisco Unity Express Script Editor Window
Palette Pane
Use the Palette pane to choose the steps you need to create your script. To display the contents of a palette, click the plus sign (+) to the left of the palette icon in the Palette pane.
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If you try to drag a step to the Design pane when a customizer window is open, the Design pane will not accept the step. Before you drag a step to the Design pane, close any open customizer window(s), one or more of which may be hidden behind the Cisco Unity Express Script Editor window.
Design Pane
To create your script, click a step in the Palette pane and drag it on top of the step that it should follow in the Design pane. Each step performs a specific function and creates a portion of the underlying programming. You can customize most of the steps once you have placed them in the Design pane.
To add a step to your script, drag the step icon from the Palette pane and drop it onto the step it will follow in the Design pane. Place the steps in logical order for the script you are building.
To change the order of a step in the script, drag the individual step icon from its old location to its new location. To delete a step, select the step icon and press the Delete key.
To end the script, click the General palette and drag End to your script. The End step appears.
Many steps have output branches under which you add steps to provide desired script logic based on the exit condition of the step.
Figure 2
Script Example in the Design Pane
In Figure 2, the Menu step has five output branches:
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Output branches often contain steps and other output branches. The DialByExtn output branch in Figure 2 contains five steps below it, one of which (the Get Digit String step) contains three output branches.
To expand the script under a step, click the plus sign (+) to the left of the step icon. To hide the script under a step, click the minus sign (-) to the left of the step icon.
At run time, each script follows a hierarchical sequence, as indicated by the vertical lines connecting steps. In Figure 2, for example, if the script reaches the Timeout output branch of the Get Digit String step, the script moves to the next step at the level of the Menu step, which, in this example, is the Play Prompt step.
Use the Design pane to create your script. Drag script steps from the Palette pane to the Design pane.
Step Properties
Most steps have properties which can be modified according to the needs of the script. Depending on the step, the properties can be grouped under multiple tabs. To display the properties window for a step, right-click the step in the Design pane and click Properties in the popup menu. For example, Figure 3 shows the Label step Properties dialog box.
Figure 3 Properties Popup Menu—Label Step
Variable Pane
The Variable pane is where you add and modify the script variables. Variables store data that a script uses when it executes the steps. Any step in your script can use variables once you define them in the Variable pane of the Cisco Unity Express Script Editor window.
You can also map variables you define for your script to variables you define in a subflow, which is a set of steps that function as part of another script, called the primary script. A subflow can use and manipulate a variable, then return the data that is stored in the variable to the primary script. Scripts cannot share variables with other scripts, except in the case of default scripts, in which the primary script automatically transfers the values of its variables to a default script.
The value of a variable can change during execution.
Variable Pane
Use the Variable pane to add and modify the script variables. Variables store user-defined data or the data resulting from the completion of a step or expression. Any step in your script can use a variable once it is defined. Because data comes in different forms, you must also declare a variable's type before you can use it. Variables are grouped into the following types:
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Defining Variables
Because data comes in different forms, you must also define the variable before you can use it. To define a new variable, click the New Variable icon (1 in Figure 4) at the top left corner of the Variable pane (1 in Figure 4). The Edit Variable window appears. After you use the Edit Variable window to define your variables, the variables appear in the Variable pane. Delete (2) deletes the selected variable. Use Modify (3) to change to the selected variable.
Figure 4 Variable Pane and Edit Variable Window
Table 2 describes the fields in the Edit Variable window.
Table 2 Edit Variable Properties
Name
Name of the variable you want to declare.
Type
Type of variable that you want to declare. See "Basic Built-in Data Types" section for the available variable types.
Java Type
Fully qualified class name located using the CLASSPATH environment variable on your computer.
Note
Value
Data you initially assign to a variable. The type of data you enter must match the data type you declared in the Type field.
Parameter
If checked, sets the value for this parameter in the autoattendant web interface when you provision applications that use this script.
Basic Built-in Data Types
You must set the type for each variable you define. A variable's type indicates the kind of information a variable contains and allows the script to process that information accordingly. For instance, the script uses a variable containing the string "Tuesday" differently than a variable containing the number 25.
Table 3 describes the basic built-in variable types:
Exporting Variables by Using Parameters
You can declare variables as parameters by clicking Parameter in the Edit Variables dialog box. This feature allows you to set the value for a parameter in the auto attendant web interface. Because the value is initialized at configuration time for the script that uses it, you can change the value without editing the script in the Cisco Unity Express Script Editor. Such a variable is called an exported variable or parameter.
For example, when you add a new automated attendant by using the AA Wizard, the second window of the AA wizard (the Script Parameters window) provides a list of the parameters with their default or current values. You can modify the values in this list.
The variable types that Cisco Unity Express supports for parameters include Number, Character, String, Boolean, and Prompt.
Contact Variable
A Contact variable consists of a contact representing a telephone call. You can pass a Contact variable as a parameter to a subflow.
Prompt Variable
A Prompt variable contains the information that the script uses to create prompts for callers. A Prompt variable can be as simple as a single prompt or as complex as a concatenation of multiple prompts.
User Variable
A User variable contains information that is useful for user authentication. You cannot manually enter a User variable as a value. User variables can be returned only from the Name To User step of the Media palette. You can pass a User variable as a parameter to a subflow.
Debug Pane
The Debug pane displays the error messages output by the Validate tool. If the Validate tool runs error free, the Script Editor displays a message box indicating that script validation succeeded.
Double-clicking the error message displays the line in the script that the error message refers to.
Figure 5 show the error messages resulting from a misnamed Label step. Label step MainMenu1 should be named MainMenu. The error message "Dangling GoTo" indicates that there is no MainMenu to go to. The error message "MainMenu not exist" also indicates this. The four "Dangling GoTo" error messages indicate that the Goto step refers to a misnamed or nonexistent label four different times in the script. Double-click each error message to go to each dangling Goto step.
Figure 5
Debug Pane
Using Prompts
The Cisco Unity Express Script Editor uses the following two types of prompts:
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All Media and Prompt steps support prompts specified in the following ways:
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For more information on managing the prompts, refer to the Cisco Unity Express GUI and CLI administration documents for your system that can be found at http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/unityexp/index.htm.
Using Expressions
Expressions are useful if you do not know the exact value at design time and instead enter a formula that can be evaluated at run time. The resulting type of the expression must match the expected input type or types (which you check at design time).
Many steps include an Expression Editor (...) button(1 in Figure 6) in the customizer window, which you can use to enter an expression.
You can enter an expression directly in the input text field, or click Expression Editor (...) to open the Expression Editor.
You can enter the expression in the text field, or choose the Variable drop-down menu to get quick access to variables you have previously defined in the script. When you choose a variable from the Variable drop-down menu, the variable name appears in the input text field.
After you enter the expression, click OK. The Expression Editor closes.
Figure 6 Expression Editor Button and Expression Editor
Using Operators
To create expressions, use operators to combine variables and other values (also known as operands) to produce a result that is not known until the script is run. Operator priority refers to the order in which the operators are evaluated if there is more than one operator in an expression. The following operators are listed in order of priority:
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Number operands are properly promoted to a valid type before testing.
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Number operands are properly promoted to a valid type before testing.
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Comparison operands work only on String, Character, and Number operands.
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Testing for the <null> constant is supported by the two equality operators.
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If at least one of the operands is a String, and the other one is not a prompt, then the other one is converted to a String by using the String.value() method. The result is a new String corresponding to the concatenation of the String representation of both operands. Typically, the String.valueOf() method simply calls the toString() method of the object being concatenated, or returns the string "null" if the object is null.
If the operands are Characters, then they are concatenated together, resulting in a new String.
Handling Exceptions
The Cisco Unity Express Script Editor provides a variety of ways to handle exceptions. Exceptions are errors in scripts from unexpected user input or unexpected result in scripts.
Continue on Prompt Errors Step
The Continue on Prompt Errors option allows the script to continue to run when the script receives invalid input (for example, Invalid Audio Format or File Not Found).
The Cisco Unity Express Script Editor provides the Continue on Prompt Errors option in the customizer windows of steps in the Media palette. (See "Media Steps" on page 84.) For example, Figure 7 shows the Prompt tab of the Get Digit String customizer window.
Figure 7 Continue on Prompt Errors Option—Prompt Tab of the Get Digit String Customizer Window
When enabled, the step continues with the next prompt in the list of prompts to be played back. If the prompt is last in the list, the script waits for caller input.
When you enable Continue on Prompt Errors, you instruct the script to ignore prompt errors and continue as if the playback of a particular prompt was successful. For example, in a sequence of prompts "1 + 2 + 3", if prompt #1 fails, the step will continue with prompt #2. If prompt #3 fails, the step continues to wait for caller input as if prompt #3 had been properly played back.
When you disable Continue on Prompt Errors, the media steps generate an exception, which can then be handled in the script.
Available prompt exceptions are the following:
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Error Output Branches
Error output branches are parts of a script that provide instructions on what to do when typical errors occur.
Figure 8 shows error output branches under a Call Redirect step in a script.
Figure 8 Error Output Branches—Call Redirect Step
In this figure, the Call Redirect step includes logic for both an invalid extension and an out-of-service extension.
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On Exception Goto Step
The On Exception Goto step of the General palette (see "On Exception Goto" on page 70) causes the script to continue running at a specified place in the script when an exception is generated.
By using the On Exception Goto step for a specific exception in a script, you can register a new handler for a specific exception or override a previously existing one.
The registration process affects the complete script. The assigned handler activates the script no matter where the exception occurs (before, during, or after the given step). After the step runs, the handler is registered until either a new handler is reregistered or the exception is cleared with the On Exception Clear step.
If an exception results in a subflow, the script first consults the exception handlers of the subflows. If none are defined for the given exception, the exception aborts the subflow, and the Cisco Unity Express application looks for exception handlers in the parent script. This process continues until the script finds an exception handler or the top level of the script is reached.
If no exception handlers are registered, the script aborts and error handling falls back to the last level of error handling, which is the default script.
Using Default Scripts
The default script is the last level of user-defined error handling before the Cisco Unity Express Script Editor applies a default system treatment to all active contacts.
The Cisco Unity Express Script Editor invokes this default script under the following conditions:
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In each of these scenarios, the Cisco Unity Express Script Editor marks all active contacts as aborting before the default script is run. The final state of these contacts is Aborted, even if the contacts are transferred or redirected as a result of the default script running.
Caution
The default script does not run if the primary script ends normally. If contacts are still active when the primary script ends, all active contacts not marked as handled will abort, and all active contacts marked as handled are simply terminated. In this case, check the primary script for any design problems.
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The system applies the CallContact script if the contact is still active after the system executes the default script (if any). The CallContact script plays back the prompt, "We are currently experiencing system problems, please call back later" as an announcement, followed by a fast busy signal.
Script Interruption
Script interruption is a feature that allows external events to interrupt the current processing of a script in order to return to another part of the script or stop the execution of the script.
Script interruption is typically used when the script needs to be notified that one of its contacts has been remotely terminated, such as when the caller hangs up.
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By default, scripts are automatically interruptible before any step is executed. Should any external event (such as that described in the preceding text) interrupt the script, the script continues running based on the proper handling for the specific event before the script continues with the next step.
If you want two consecutive steps to run without the possibility of interruption, you must move these two steps to a subflow where you can disable interruptions completely while the script processes that subflow.
Cisco Unity Express Script Editor has an "interruptible" option for some steps that allows you to indicate whether or not the script can interrupt the step from within when an external event occurs.
When a contact terminates remotely, the script performs one of the following actions:
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If an interrupting event occurs when the script is not currently interruptible, the script is automatically interrupted whenever it becomes interruptible again. For example, although a script is not interruptible when it is running a subflow that is marked to disable interruptions, the script processes the interruption as soon as the subflow terminates, and control is returned to the parent (if that primary script is interruptible).
Installing the Cisco Unity Express Script Editor
This section describes how to install the Cisco Unity Express Script Editor application.
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The CUE Script Editor is a Microsoft Windows application. The computer you install it on must be running one of the following operating systems:
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Step 1
http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/tablebuild.pl?topic=278535672
Select the specific Cisco Unity Express 2.2 version you are using (Cisco Unity Express Release 2.2.1, or 2.2.2).
Alternatively, you can install the Cisco Unity Express Script Editor from the Cisco Unity Express Application Software CD.
Step 2
The InstallShield Wizard appears and begins extracting files for the installation. (This process may take a few minutes.)
Step 3
The prompts also allow you to move back to an earlier step in the installation process or cancel the installation completely.
Step 4
The default installation path on your hard drive is
C:\Program Files\wfavvid\WFCCNEditor.exe.
