My focus for this blog is to describe various stages of a life cycle for a VXML Application in Cisco CVP Call Studio. We will see how to start a new application, debug it and deploy it in the CVP VXML Server in this blog.
Start a new CVP VXML application
In one of my previous blogs, I had described as to how you can start a new VXML application / project in Cisco CVP call studio. Please refer this link to view that blog and put in a comment if you think you need more information regarding this topic.
Debug a VXML Application
Once you have started the project and built your call flow in CVP Call Studio, it is highly recommended to test or debug it before deploying it in the VXML Server. This way you can make sure your application is working as expected and there aren’t any unwanted loops that can break your CVP server. Also you may have to get scheduled window to deploy your application in production environment, so you may not get such windows quite often, just to test if your application is working properly and tweak few things. So let’s see how you can debug your application within Call Studio.
Let’s assume you already have an application like below:
Now let’s perform a right click on app.callflow, select Debug As -> Call Studio Project
This step will take you the Debug window of Call Studio. There you will see Console tab in lower left corner and will display any errors if there is any, if not, then you will see a last line stating “INFO: Server Startup in x ms”
Next is to look on the right of above window, which is Voice Application tab. You will see two buttons – Connect, Clear – and num pad for DTMF. If application is running without any issue, then “Connect” button will be enabled.
If you see Server Startup message in Console tab, but Connect button is not enabled in Voice Application tab, then you should terminate the debug session by clicking red square button in Console tab, close Call Studio and start fresh to debug again.
Once you have Connect button, you can click on it which will start executing call studio application from Start of Call element. You will see executed steps on top left window of Debug tab.
You will see any Element or Session Data, Local variables and break points on top right corner.
You will also see application elements and their configuration in debug session.
Above described layout may change a bit according to your preferences, but you will see most of these tabs in debug session and will help you see execution steps along with data flow in real time.
Everyone wish their application is flowless and works great, but if you see the application is not working as expected or fails to execute fully; you can review logs – both Error and Activity logs – during this debug session. These logs are stored under below folder: %CVP_Call_Studio_Home%\eclipse\plugins\com.audiumcorp.studio.debug.runtime\AUDIUM_HOME\applications\Application_Name\logs\
Once you have reviewed your application in debug, resolved any errors/modifications, next step is to deploy this application.
Deploy VXML Application
First step to deploy any VXML Application is to export the application out of Call Studio. To do so, perform right click on name of the project and select Export.
On the next window, expand General, select Archive File and click Next.
On the next screen, make sure your project has tick mark on it. Select the location where your project’s archive file is located. Make sure options- “Save in Zip format” and “Create directory structure for files” – are selected. Click Finish.
Navigate to the path where file is saved, copy the archive file and move it to the place from where you can upload it to CVP Ops console.
Login to your CVP Ops console. Navigate to Bulk Administration -> File Transfer -> VXML Application.
On next screen, select and move your CVP servers to the right pane, select “Select new file” option and navigate the archive file that we just exported out of CVP call studio.
Click “Transfer” button to initiate deploying CVP VXML Application to CVP servers. Click on File Transfer Status to make sure VXML application is deployed to selected CVP servers.
Next login to your CVP servers to make sure these application is deployed and running under VXML Server.
To do this, login to CVP server and navigate to %CVP_Home%\VXMLServer\admin and run status.batch file. You should see VXML application name when you run status.batch file.
Once you see this, your VXML Application is running and you are good to start using that in your ICM scripts.
I hope this article will help you get going with your development. If you come across any error or any other query related to CVP Call Studio, please drop in a comment and I will definitely try to answer them.
See you in next blog!!!