Application server providing personalized voice enabled web application services using extensible markup language documents

• US 8,099,283 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2010
• Issued: 01/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dodrill, Lewis Dean, Joshi, Satish, Danner, Ryan Alan, Martin, Steven J
• Primary Examiner(s): Armstrong, Angela A
• Application Number:
  US12/941,680
• Publication Number:
  US 20110060810A1
• Time in Patent Office: 435 Days
• Field of Search: 704/270, 704/270.1, 704/275, 709/204, 709/206, 709/217
• US Class Current: 704/270
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/253 where a visual mode is used instead of a voice mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/308 Personal name recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4509 Unified messaging with single point of access to voicemail and other mail or messaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53 Centralised arrangements for recording incoming messages , i.e. mailbox systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5307 for recording messages comprising any combination of audio and non-audio components
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/12 for working between exchanges having different types of switching equipment, e.g. power-driven and step by step or decimal and non-decimal

Abstract

A unified web-based voice messaging system provides voice application control between a web browser and an application server via an hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) connection on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The application server, configured for executing a voice application defined by XML documents, selects an XML document for execution of a corresponding voice application operation based on a determined presence of a user-specific XML document that specifies the corresponding voice application operation. The application server, upon receiving a voice application operation request from a browser serving a user, determines whether a personalized, user specific XML document exists for the user and for the corresponding voice application operation. If the application server determines the presence of the personalized XML document for a user-specific execution of the corresponding voice application operation, the application server dynamically generates a personalized HTML page having media content and control tags for personalized execution of the voice application operation; however if the application server determines an absence of the personalized XML document for the user-specific execution of the corresponding voice application operation, the application server dynamically generates a generic HTML page for generic execution of the voice application operation. Hence, a user can personalize any number of voice application operations, enabling a web-based voice application to be completely customized or merely partially customized.

Claims

1. A method in an application server for executing a voice application, the method comprising:

receiving a Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) request requesting a prescribed voice application operation for a user; and

executing a user-specific XML document that specifies the prescribed voice application operation personalized for the user for generation of a web page having media content corresponding to the prescribed voice application operation.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the presence of the user-specific XML document based on a user identity for the user and the requested prescribed voice application operation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining step includes accessing an external database, configured for storing data for respective users, for retrieval of the user-specific XML document.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining step further includes:

accessing a first XML document configured for storing user-specific application state and attribute information; and

determining whether the first XML document for the corresponding user specifies the presence of the user-specific XML document for the requested prescribed voice application operation.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of accessing an external database includes accessing an Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) database for retrieval of the user-specific XML document.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of accessing an external database includes accessing a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) database for retrieval of the user-specific XML document.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

retrieving from the external database an index of the user-specific XML documents in response to an initial HTTP request requesting a login of the corresponding user based on the user identity; and

storing the index into the first XML document.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of determining the presence of the user-specific XML document includes searching the list in the first XML document for the user-specific XML document.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of accessing an external database includes:

outputting an HTTP get request for the user-specific XML document to a server configured for management of the external database; and

receiving a response to the HTTP get request from the server, the response including one of the user-specific XML document and a denial of the HTTP get request.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising outputting an HTTP put request to the server for storage of a new user-specific XML document for the corresponding user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of outputting an HTTP put request includes posting the HTTP put request to a uniform resource locator specifying a host name of the server, and a directory within the server for the user.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of outputting an HTTP get request includes posting the HTTP get request to a uniform resource locator specifying a host name of the server, and a directory within the server for the user.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions for executing a voice application, the sequences of instructions including instructions for performing the steps of:

receiving an HTTP request requesting a prescribed voice application operation for a user; and

executing a user-specific XML document that specifies the prescribed voice application operation personalized for the user for generation of a web page having media content corresponding to the prescribed voice application operation.

14. The medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions for determining the presence of the user-specific XML document based on a user identity for the user and the requested prescribed voice application operation.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining step includes accessing an external database, configured for storing data for respective users, for retrieval of the user-specific XML document.

16. The medium of claim 15, wherein the determining step further includes:

accessing a first XML document configured for storing user-specific application state and attribute information; and

determining whether the first XML document for the corresponding user specifies the presence of the user-specific XML document for the requested prescribed voice application operation.

17. The medium of claim 16, wherein the step of accessing an external database includes accessing an Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) database for retrieval of the user-specific XML document.

18. The medium of claim 16, wherein the step of accessing an external database includes accessing a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) database for retrieval of the user-specific XML document.

19. The medium of claim 15, wherein the step of accessing an external database includes:

outputting an HTTP get request for the user-specific XML document to a server configured for management of the external database; and

receiving a response to the HTTP get request from the server, the response including one of the user-specific XML document and a denial of the HTTP get request.

20. The medium of claim 19, further comprising instructions for outputting an HTTP put request to the server for storage of a new user-specific XML document for the corresponding user.