<field>

A <field> element declares an input field in a form.

Syntax

<field cond="expression"
       expr="expression"
       modal="boolean"
       name="var"
       slot="var"
       type="grammartype" />

Attributes

cond

An expression that must evaluate to true after conversion to boolean in order for the form item to be visited. The form item can also be visited if the attribute is not specified.

expr

The initial value of the form item variable; default is ECMAScript undefined. If initialized to a value, then the form item will not be visited unless the form item variable is cleared.

modal

If this is false, then all active grammars are turned on while collecting this field. If this is true, then only the field's grammars are enabled: all others are temporarily disabled. Default value is false.

name

The form item variable in the dialog scope that will hold the result. The name must be unique among form items in the form. If the name is not unique, then a badfetch error is thrown when the document is fetched.

slot

The name of the grammar slot used to populate the variable. This attribute is useful in the case where the grammar format being used has a mechanism for returning sets of slot/value pairs and the slot names differ from the form item variable names. The default value is the variable name.

type

The type of field, i.e., the name of a builtin grammar type. Platform support for builtin grammar types is optional. If the specified builtin type is not supported by the platform, an error.unsupported.builtin event is thrown.

Grammar Type	Description
boolean	Inputs include affirmative and negative phrases appropriate to the current language. DTMF 1 is affirmative and 2 is negative. The result is ECMAScript true for affirmative or false for negative. The value will be submitted as the string "true" or the string "false". If the field value is subsequently used in <say-as> with the interpret-as value "vxml:boolean", it will be spoken as an affirmative or negative phrase appropriate to the current language.
date	Valid spoken inputs include phrases that specify a date, including a month day and year. DTMF inputs are: four digits for the year, followed by two digits for the month, and two digits for the day. The result is a fixed-length date string with format yyyymmdd, e.g. "20000704". If the year is not specified, yyyy is returned as "????"; if the month is not specified mm is returned as "??"; and if the day is not specified dd is returned as "??". If the value is subsequently used in <say-as> with the interpret-as value "vxml:date", it will be spoken as date phrase appropriate to the current language.
digits	Valid spoken or DTMF inputs include one or more digits, 0 through 9. The result is a string of digits. If the result is subsequently used in <say-as> with the interpret-as value "vxml:digits", it will be spoken as a sequence of digits appropriate to the current language. A user can say for example "two one two seven", but not "twenty one hundred and twenty-seven". A platform may support constructs such as "two double-five eight".
currency	Valid spoken inputs include phrases that specify a currency amount. For DTMF input, the "*" key will act as the decimal point. The result is a string with the format UUUmm.nn, where UUU is the three character currency indicator according to ISO standard 4217 [ISO4217], or mm.nn if the currency is not spoken by the user or if the currency cannot be reliably determined (e.g. "dollar" and "peso" are ambiguous). If the field is subsequently used in <say-as> with the interpret-as value "vxml:currency", it will be spoken as a currency amount appropriate to the current language.
number	Valid spoken inputs include phrases that specify numbers, such as "one hundred twenty-three", or "five point three". Valid DTMF input includes positive numbers entered using digits and "*" to represent a decimal point. The result is a string of digits from 0 to 9 and may optionally include a decimal point (".") and/or a plus or minus sign. ECMAScript automatically converts result strings to numerical values when used in numerical expressions. The result must not use a leading zero (which would cause ECMAScript to interpret as an octal number). If the field is subsequently used in <say-as> with the interpret-as value "vxml:number", it will be spoken as a number appropriate to the current language.
phone	Valid spoken inputs include phrases that specify a phone number. DTMF asterisk "*" represents "x". The result is a string containing a telephone number consisting of a string of digits and optionally containing the character "x" to indicate a phone number with an extension. For North America, a result could be "8005551234x789". If the field is subsequently used in <say-as> with the interpret-as value "vxml:phone", it will be spoken as a phone number appropriate to the current language.
time	Valid spoken inputs include phrases that specify a time, including hours and minutes. The result is a five character string in the format hhmmx, where x is one of "a" for AM, "p" for PM, "h" to indicate a time specified using 24 hour clock, or "?" to indicate an ambiguous time. Input can be via DTMF. Because there is no DTMF convention for specifying AM/PM, in the case of DTMF input, the result will always end with "h" or "?". If the field is subsequently used in <say-as> with the interpret-as value "vxml:time", it will be spoken as a time appropriate to the current language.

Children

<audio>, <catch>, <enumerate>, <error>, <filled>, <grammar>, <help>, <link>, <noinput>, <nomatch>, <option>, <prompt>, <property>, and <value>.

Parents

<form>

Variables

none

Example

The following example illustrates using form fields.

<field name="maincourse">
  <prompt>
      Please select an entree. Today, we are featuring <enumerate/>
  </prompt>

  <option dtmf="1" value="fish"> swordfish </option>
  <option dtmf="2" value="beef"> roast beef </option>
  <option dtmf="3" value="chicken"> frog legs </option>

  <filled>
    <submit next="/cgi-bin/maincourse.cgi"
        method="post" namelist="maincourse"/>
  </filled>
</field>

Version Information

Supported in: VoiceXML 1.0, VoiceXML 2.0, and VoiceXML 2.1.