Integration and interoperability of state tables

State tables can optionally call servers to provide other functions. A server is a program that acts as a bridge between Blueworx Voice Response and other software components. Blueworx Voice Response supports two types of servers:

• A 3270 server lets you access information on remote computers that use the 3270 data stream. If you already have 3270 applications that access information needed by your Blueworx Voice Response applications, you can create a 3270 server to obtain this information. To develop the server and run it, use Blueworx Voice Response 3270 terminal emulation. A 3270 server consists of screen definitions and scripts. See Blueworx Voice Response for AIX: 3270 Servers for detailed information.
• A custom server is a C language or C ++ language program with which you can provide access to data or applications on any type of computer, including the Power System on which Blueworx Voice Response is running. Although your information might be held in a database on a host that uses the 3270 data stream, you might find it more convenient to write a custom server to access it rather than create a 3270 server. Other functions for which custom servers can be used include external fax, speech recognition, or text-to-speech servers, and integration with CTI products (see How voice applications access other resources).

  Some features, such as support for Cisco Intelligent Contact Management (ICM) software and MRCP-V1.0 and V2.0-compliant speech technologies for speech recognition and text-to-speech are implemented using custom servers.

  See Blueworx Voice Response for AIX: Custom Servers for detailed information.

You can integrate state tables with VoiceXML and Java applications by using the StateTable bean in a Java application. You might want to do this if you have legacy applications, or if you want to use a custom server to extend the capabilities of the Blueworx Voice Response system.

You can also start Java and VoiceXML applications from a state table by using the InvokeStateTable action to invoke the JavaApplication state table. If the Java and VoiceXML environment is running, control can then be passed to a Java application. See Blueworx Voice Response for AIX: Application Development using State Tables for more information.