escape_sequence

Defines an alternative ESC character (ASCII 0x1B) for Vocalizer control sequences within the input text. (ESC continues to work even when this is set.) Alternative escape sequence for native markup.

Value

A Perl 5 compatible regular expression. Special characters must be escaped with the backslash "\" character in the file, but not when used in VoiceXML.

DEFAULT: \\!

How to set

Shown in precedence order (see Rules of parameter precedence):

Set in a VoiceXML application, using the switts.escape_sequence property in a <property> element.

Set in the voice browser, with switts.escape_sequence using the Vendor-Specific-Parameters header in a SPEAK method.

Set in the session xml file for the application. Configure the <speechsynth> element located under <sessionparameters>, <speechserver>.

In Management Station, set on the Vocalizer service. If not using Management Station, set in the Vocalizer configuration file (User-nvsxx.xml).

Usage

Frequently used. This is useful to allow Vocalizer native control sequences in environments like SSML documents where the <ESC> character (\x1b) is not permitted.

This parameter specifies an alternative ESC character for use in Vocalizer native control sequences (The ASCII 0x1B escape continues to work even when this parameter is set.) If this parameter is non-empty, it overrides the default Vocalizer escape sequence with that string.

For example, you can set an escape sequence to be three hash marks in a row (###):

Welcome to our phone system. ###\pause=500\ How may I help you?

This alternative escape sequence allows you to use a native control sequence under circumstances where it would otherwise not be allowed, such as in an SSML document.

When defining an alternative escape sequence, be careful to avoid using characters that might appear in your input text, otherwise you may inadvertently create an extra escape sequence. For example, "\\$" would be a bad choice if your input text might include "$". This example creates an unwanted escape sequence:

\$volume=80\$50 has been transferred to your savings account