Managing Prompt Projects

Article
07/05/2006

A prompt project must be part of the same solution as the Web application that is to make use of its prompts. Add new or existing prompt projects to a solution in Solution Explorer. Change prompt project settings in the Options dialog box for Speech Prompt Editor.

Creating a Prompt Project

Create a new prompt project within an existing solution, or add an existing prompt project. Connect one or more prompt databases to a Web application using the Manage Prompt Databases dialog box.

To create a new prompt project

In Solution Explorer, click the name of the solution.
In Visual Studio .NET 2003, on the File menu, select New, then select Project.
In the New Project dialog box, from Project Types, select Prompt Projects.
If needed, edit the project name and location, then click OK.

Update the output location of a prompt project's .prompts file at any time.

To update the .prompts output location

In Solution explorer, right-click the prompt project, and on the shortcut menu, click Properties to open the ProjectName Property Pages dialog box.
To the right of the Output path text box, click Browse to specify the new output location.

To add an existing prompt project

In Solution Explorer, select the name of the solution.
In Visual Studio .NET 2003, on the File menu, select Add Project, then select Existing Project.
Use the file browser to point to the existing .prproj file, then click Open.

Adding a prompt database

Add one or more prompt databases to a prompt project.

To add a new prompt database

In Solution Explorer, right-click the prompt project. On the shortcut menu, select Add, then select Add New Item.
In the Add New Item dialog box, in the Templates pane, double-click Prompt Database. The Recording and Extraction panes appear.

To add an existing prompt database

In Solution Explorer, right-click the prompt project. On the shortcut menu, select Add, then select Add Existing Item.
Use the file browser to point to the existing .promptdb file, then click Open.

Connecting a Prompt Database to a Web Application

Before any Speech Control can use a prompt, it must be provided the location of one or more prompt databases. Connect a prompt database to a Web application in the Manage Prompt Databases dialog box.

To connect a prompt database to a Web application

Right-click any Speech Control. On the shortcut menu, select Manage Prompt Databases. The Manage Prompt Databases dialog box appears.
Click Add.
In the URL text box, type the URL to the prompt database. Visual Studio .NET 2003 displays the location of the .prompts file in the Build window when it builds a prompt project.
- or -
Click Browse. Use the file browser to point to the .prompts file, then click Open.
Click OK and click OK.

Selecting the Language for a Prompt Project

Prompt projects in SASDK support any of the installed languages. Selecting a language in the Speech Application Project Wizard specifies the language for the initial prompt project. For more information see Using the Project Wizard to Set the Application Language.

To select the language for a prompt project after running the Speech Application Project Wizard, or to change the language of an existing prompt project, use the Language drop-down list box on the project Property page, as described in the following procedure. If no language is selected, the default, English(United States), is used.

Note The TTS engine used for Spanish (United States) projects is the Spanish (Mexico) TTS engine.

To specify the language for a prompt project

In Solution Explorer, right-click the prompt project.
On the context menu, select Properties.
On the Property page, use the Language drop-down list box to select from the installed languages.
Click OK.

When transcriptions are aligned and when prompt validation is performed, the voice engine used is the one that is mapped to the prompt project language. For information about selecting voice engines, see Languages and Speech Engines, Options Dialog Box.

Changing Prompt Project Settings

Use the Options dialog box for Speech Prompt Editor to set the default recording format and frequency, and to choose which columns to display in the Recording and Extractions windows.

To open the Options dialog box

Open a prompt project.
On the Tools menu, click Options.
In the tree view pane on the left, expand the Speech Application SDK item, and then click Prompt Editor.

Feature	Description
Recording format	There are four choices. pcm8. PCM is a recording format typically used in desktop applications. In PCM8 each sample is 8 bits. This format results in lower quality audio than with PCM16, but it requires less disk space. pcm16. PCM is a recording format typically used in desktop applications. In PCM16 each sample is 16 bits. a-law. Phone systems in Europe and most of the world (except in North America and Japan) use the a-law encoding scheme. u-law. Phone systems in North America and Japan use the u-law encoding scheme.
Recording frequency	Choices range from 8000 Hz to 48000 Hz.
Create alignments	Select this entry to create alignments (word boundaries) automatically for recorded or imported .wav files. Clear this entry to preserve existing alignments, or to create alignments using the Wave Editor for each recorded or imported .wav file.
Column display	Select or clear check boxes to select default columns for display in new windows. Changes to this feature do not affect existing .promptdb files.
Warn on arbitrary alignment	Select this entry to display a warning when displaying a .wav file in the Wave Editor if automatic alignments were not created. Clear this entry to prevent the warning from displaying. When the Prompt Editor is not able to create alignments automatically, arbitrarily positioned alignments will be added when the .wav file is displayed in the Wave Editor. These alignments then need to be moved to the appropriate locations in the .wav file using the Wave Editor.

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