name$.duration available on hangup?

[pinkatron]

related to my previous message re: recording duration, i've noticed that the variable name$.duration is only available on dtmf-terminated recordings.

I am currently using a catch block to submit any recording that is terminated by a hangup. However, in this case the duration variable is not available.

The docs say as much; my question is, can this be made available? How might I escalate such a request?

thank you,

-Todd

[support]

Hello,

The IVR problem you are experiencing is variable scoping. The name$.duration you are referring to is only available at the form level it was captured. What this means is that in order to use the name$.duration variable you will have to have your <catch> block inside of the same form as the <record> tag:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<vxml version="2.0">
<form id="form1">
  <record name="test">
    <prompt>Please record something</prompt>
    <filled>
      <value expr="test$.duration"/>
    </filled>
    <catch event="connection.disconnect.hangup">
      <log><value expr="test$.duration"/></log>
    </catch>
  </record>
</form>
</vxml>

The following IVR code fails because the test variable is no longer in the scope of the catch element and its contents are lost:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<vxml version="2.0">
<catch event="connection.disconnect.hangup">
  <log><value expr="test$.duration"/></log>
</catch>
<form id="form1">
  <record name="test">
    <prompt>Please record something</prompt>
    <filled>
      <value expr="test$.duration"/>
    </filled>
  </record>
</form>
</vxml>

Regards,
Plum Support

[pinkatron]

Hi support, I asked a related question long ago, but this issue is coming up again:

i have a <record> block like this :

Code: Select all

<record name="audiomsg"> 
	<catch event="connection.disconnect.hangup">
<var name="duration" expr="audiomsg$.duration"/>
<submit next="http://mydomain.com/" namelist="audiomsg duration" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data"/>
</catch>

<filled>
<var name="duration" expr="audiomsg$.duration"/>
<submit next="http://mydomain.com" namelist="audiomsg duration" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data"/>
</filled>
</record>

note that both the <filled> and <catch> blocks are inside the record message.


this works, for the cases when a user records a message and hangs up, but when a user calls, and hangs up *before* leaving a message, or leaving a very short (<1sec) message, then some of the record variables are missing; specifically, this line :

VXI::var_element(name="duration" expr = "audiomsg$.duration")

which appears in the log during a successful recording, throws an error on an unsuccessful one, saying that $audiomsg$.duration is not available.

It's odd, in that the hangup catch block is obviously catching the hangup event, but at that point the variable does not seem to be available.

Ideally, it would exist but contain a null or zero value. That way my application can look at the duration, regardless of the situation, and determine what to do with the message based upon that.

Can you explain what is happening here, or what I can do to obtain the $audiomsg.duration variable?

[support]

This appears to be a bug in the IVR platform. It should be returning "NULL" as the value of audiomsg$ rather than leaving it undefined. We will attempt to get the IVR platform patched to resolve this permanently.

In the meantime use the IVR tag, <var>, for a workaround:

Code: Select all

<var name="duration" expr="typeof audiomsg$ == 'undefined' ? 0 : audiomsg$.duration"/>

This will set duration to 0 if audiomsg$ is undefined.

[locamoda]

thanks -- that works like a charm.

I don't recall the 'typeof' syntax being discussed in the Plum online docs; is it in there? I'm wondering what other programatic controls I'm missing out on.

thanks again,

-Todd

[support]

Hello,

This is actually a ECMAScript capability. Plum uses a standards compliant ECMAScript interpreter where specified by the VoiceXML specification. The typeof syntax is a safe way to check to see if that variable has been initialized. This syntax can be found by going to Plum's IVR "Programmer's Reference Manual" and then viewing the "ECMAScript Language Specification" located at the top of the IVR document.

Regards,
Plum Support