Sometimes, technological innovations are touted for being revolutionary, but only end up being grand disappointments. Remember the laser disc? Or the Segway? These disappointments are only heightened when the technology in question promises to be simple, easy and free. Alas, that is exactly what happened with VoiceXML (News - Alert), which, to put it bluntly, sucks. Fortunately, there is an alternative: .NET VoIP.
But why, exactly, does VoiceXML suck? First of all, VoiceXML was supposed to be a simple, open source application that could run on any hardware platform and be easily portable. However, since VoiceXML failed to deliver on that promise, we saw a flood of additional standards: CCXML, SSML, SISR, EcmaScript, SCXML, SRGS, SSML, MSML, and MSCML, to name just a few.
At the root of this problem is a weakness at the heart of VoiceXML itself. In a VoiceXML project, most decisions are made at the Web server, meaning a programmer must scatter logic across many pages delivering snippets of VoiceXML to get the next response. This makes top-down programming impossible and, since VoiceXML syntax is very particular, it makes maintenance, development and debugging very difficult.
Another major issue with VoiceXML is that it is not well-suited to large or complex projects. It does not allow for seamless integration into existing Web pages, and it does not give developers the flexibility for customization they need. In addition, VoiceXML is not well suited to cloud-based applications, which is where most businesses are heading. VoiceXML requires many machines to implement, which is extremely costly.
Fortunately for developers, there is an alternative to the awfulness that is VoiceXML. That alternative, built on a .NET (News - Alert) VoIP framework, is the Voice Elements Platform from Inventive Labs. It was built from the ground up for the .NET developer and is a top-down, low-cost solution for voice applications.
Voice Elements boasts many advantages. Since more than 70 percent of enterprise applications are written in C#, business rules are already developed and debugged in a new voice application, allowing for seamless integration into existing rules and procedures. Voice Elements has channel, voice, conferencing, call routing and fax classes built with .NET developers in mind. Other advantages include: flexible, client-based or server-based architecture; efficient, compiled code; free speech recognition and text-to-speech in 20 different languages; and many features not available with VoiceXML such as fax, beep detection and conferencing, all at a lower price point.
So, while VoiceXML did not live up to the hype and provide the ease and functionality it promised, at least there is another, even better alternative out there. Voice Elements is just what developers need to shake off the VoiceXML blues.
Edited by Carrie Schmelkin
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