VBVoice Changelog

What's new in VBVoice 10.1

Sep 11, 2017

Flexible modes for deploying visual and voice menus; deploy directly or cutomize the visual channel first, the choice is yours
Visual IVR flows much like a voice call; no need for the end user to press "enter" when entering their information
Visual IVR menus can offer more than one method of data input in the same menu, e.g. selecting from a list of menu option or inputting a name into a text box if the desired option does not appear
Visual IVR end users can listen to a voice prompt if desired when using the visual channel
Dynamic menus can be turned on and off at runtime without recompiling and redeploying the application
All VBVoice support assemblies for .net are now stored in one library

New in VBVoice 8.0 (Aug 15, 2013)

Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Support for Development:
Supporting the latest offerings from Microsoft will allow developers to start experiencing the newest Windows platforms while developing their VBVoice applications. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows are supported.
Note: Support in the latest Windows platform is only added for development environment. Also note that Running as Administrator is still always recommended.
Support for Development in Visual Studio 2012
Developing in Visual Studio 2012 gives the capabilities to build a modern style application as well as support any legacy styles.
Visual Studio 2012 also allows VBVoice developers to use the editing and debugging features of the new IDE, build IVR applications with the most modern customer experience, and build on the latest Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.
Note: Running as Administrator is recommended for Visual Studio and is especially important if the application is to be debugged.
Load Improvements:
These improvements in the VBVoice 8 toolkit allow for an increase in load capacity on a single application. The new implementation will now scale to 36 simultaneous ASR or TTS sessions.
Support for Virtual Machines:
VBVoice 8 has the ability to run a complete VBVoice solution on the cloud and in hosted virtual machine environments.
.NET Online Help and Online Release Notes Integration:
This release makes it easier for developers of VBVoice applications to find and seek the help they are looking for in an online version of the help tools and notes.
Log Files Compliant with Universal Date Format:
Application log file names now contain a full date, including year. The VBVLog files are going to be named vbvYYYY-MM-DD.vlg and the NLog files are going to be named vbvYYYY-MM-DD_*.vln. Log files can now be accumulated in the same directory for several years and can easily be sorted by chronological order.
Installation Package Automatically Removes Existing VBVoice Installation:
When installing a VBVoice 8 package, the installer will automatically remove (on prompt) any existing VBVoice version or component.

New in VBVoice 7.0 (Jan 4, 2011)

Pronexus VBVoice 7 synchronizes all Pronexus’ offerings with the latest operating systems from Microsoft, namely Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. Support for these operating systems includes developing applications using the latest Visual Studio versions (2010, 2008, 2005) and running applications on Dialogic HMP and SR6.0PCI.
Windows 7 support:
Since Microsoft has released Windows 7 as their most current supported operating system, we have added support for it and are discontinuing support for Windows Vista. As the move to Windows 7 is generally accepted, Windows Vista support is no longer maintained by Dialogic.
Starting with this release, Pronexus will not do any new development for Vista and will not support running VBVoice applications on Vista. Instead we are committed to fully supporting Windows 7.
Development in Windows 7 is done using Visual Studio 2005, 2008 and 2010. Other versions are not supported on Windows 7. However, VBVoice applications developed with Visual Basic 6 can also be run on Windows 7.
Windows Server 2008 support:
The latest Microsoft server operating system, Windows Server 2008 is now supported on the same development IDEs and cards (drivers) as Windows 7.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010:
The recently released version of Visual Studio 2010 adds numerous features and facilitates faster development. Now you can develop VBVoice applications in VB.NET and C# using Visual Studio 2010, targeting .NET frameworks from 2.0 to 4.0.
Dialogic HMP 3.0 support for Windows 7 and Server 2008:
Dialogic added recently support for HMP 3.0 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. Vista has never been supported for HMP and is not going to be. There are different drivers for Windows 7 and Windows XP even though they have the same Service Update number
Dialogic SR6 support for Windows 7 and Server 2008:
Dialogic added recently support for cards for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. There are different drivers for Windows 7 and Windows XP even though they have the same Service Update number.
Dropped support for Dialogic HMP 2.0:
HMP 2.0 had been discontinued by Dialogic and Pronexus will no longer provide support for it as of this release. Customers using HMP 2.0 have the option to upgrade to HMP 3.0 or continue using older versions of VBVoice.
Dropped support for Windows Vista:
Dialogic Drivers for Windows Vista are not being actively developed or maintained since the Windows 7 release. Developing VBVoice applications on Vista is still possible in this release but is not supported.
New INI settings for G.711 codec order for HMP:
In order to select the order of codecs used by Dialogic HMP in the SDP, new values have been
added for Codec# setting:
g711u – only G.711 u-Law is present the SDP
g711A - only G.711 A-Law is present the SDP
g711u,g711A
g711A,g711u both u-Law and the A-Law are in the SDP in the chosen order.
New default behaviour for runtime checking of changing initial properties:
Changing initial properties, global per control (not per channel) after the voice system has been started is a potential cause for errors (memory violations, wrong functionality) and therefore not recommended or supported. It has never been recommended but until this release, it has not been enforced.
Resolved issues:
Runtime Manager – Invalid license strings or large number of license strings cause memory violations
The Runtime Manager rolls over if the Runtime Manager Service fails. If the machine running the Runtime Manager goes down or loses the network connection, it does not roll over to the redundant server.
Power outage during uninstall cause uninstall to fail continuously.
Fax on SR6.0, DMV cards – random receive fax failures
Runtime Manager – Change of the IP of the machine running the runtime manager requires a reboot.
MRCP client memory violation on load
Memory violation on load in slave applications using Nuance ASR

New in VBVoice 5.6.2 (Jan 4, 2011)

This service pack is mainly a maintenance release; it is also adding some new features for HMP and changes in Nuance speech recognition support.
Custom SIP headers
On HMP, using SIP protocol, Dial Control could now add custom SIP headers to INVITE or REFER messages by using a new runtime property named CustomSipHeader:
CustomSipHeader (channel as short) as String
The default value is an empty string (nothing to be sent).
The length of the custom header should be smaller then 255.
It is a per channel property, it must be set in the Enter event and will be ignored if left empty or having an invalid format (missing ":").
If set to a valid string, it will create a custom header field which will be added to the INVITE or REFER messages sent by Dial control.
Nuance 8.5 support:
Nuance has discontinued Nuance 8.0 ASR; to replace it, support for Nuance 8.5 has been added. Existing Nuance 8.0 customers could still run on Nuance 8.0 but all new applications should be using Nuance 8.5. Using Nuance 8.5 does not require any change to the application.
Tap Record - new default values:
There are new default values for TapRecord’s maximum silence and maximum time termination conditions; now they are set to 0, disabling termination on silence or maximum time. Maximum silence could now be set to 0 in code in order to disable termination on silence.
Resolved issues:
LineGroup – The method ListenToChannel is creating a full duplex bridge instead of one: direction routing
LineGroup – HMP, for SIP the CallerName is not showing the right caller name
TapRecord – cannot set the maximum silence to 0 (do not terminate on silence)
Fax on DM3 cards (card type = Intel or IntelHMP) – a channel is blocking in ReceiveFax: control in some conditions caused by the drivers and never recovers
ReceiveFax control in Windows Vista and Windows 2008 Server - memory violation when: using a filename containing wildcards
Runtime manager fails to start on some multi processor machines
Runtime manager – memory violation when using dongles
VBVLog – the value in exit of PlayGreeting is not displayed correctly if Digit property was: set in code to a negative value.
Fax termination reason - when a disconnect or stop request happens during receive fax: the status will return vbfStausFailed instead of vbfStatusAborted

New in VBVoice 5.6.1 (Jan 4, 2011)

This service pack is adding support for new operating systems and development environments, removes some limitations from the initial release and adds a couple of new features. It also incorporates new enhancements and fixes which increase stability for high density applications, especially for SIP on HMP.
Windows Vista and Windows 2008 Server Support:
As it became more difficult to buy Windows XP machines, the need for Vista support became more stringent. Development is now supported for these two operating systems using Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008; running applications is not supported for some cards and VoIP because of limited Dialogic driver support. Visual Studio 2003 is not supported.
Dialogic drivers:
Dialogic is supporting only a limited number of boards and currently there is no support for HMP. Check with Pronexus support for cards not in the list of tested boards.
Runtime Manager:
In order to modify the settings of the Runtime Manager or monitor the license status using a GUI, a new application has been added. This application, called Runtime Manager Config, allows the users to interact with the running service like they used to do for previous Windows versions Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server) . It is a separate application which should be run only if needed. It could be launched from the Start Menu. The Runtime Manager Service start/stop should be done through Service Manager. Start Runtime Manager Config only after the service has started and close it after the service has stopped. The installation of this application is done automatically by VBVoice installer depending on the
operating system. VBVoice does not install this application on systems running previous versions of Windows (Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server).
Other changes:
The location of some files has changed; the log files are saved in ProgramData\Pronexus; as this is hidden by default this could cause inconveniences which have different solutions: unhide hidden folder, disable UAC.
Visual Studio 2008:
Standard, Professional:
Visual Studio 2008 integrates tighter with Windows Vista, and uses the 3.5 .NET Framework.
When running the C# and VB.NET sample projects, they need to be converted first to the new
Visual Studio 2008 project/solution format. The code is still functional.
VBVoice templates are installed for both C# and VB.NET projects in Visual Studio 2008.
Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions:
Only limited testing has been done so they are not fully supported but could be used. The VBVoice project templates are not installed by VBVoice installer and manual references should be used in order to add the VBVoice controls to the toolbox, the same way recommended for Visual Studio 2005 Express.
Microsoft Speech Server support:
Microsoft Speech Server (MSS) could now be used for both speech recognition and text-tospeech by using the Aumtech MRCP Connector; this connector acts as a MRCP server and exposes ASR/TTS functionality through the MRCP standard.
MRCP v2 enhancements:
Most of the limitations from the release have been removed (see Removed limitations below). We tested our implementation with Nuance Speech Server and Aumtech MRCP Connector based on Microsoft Speech Server) in applications with up to 50 simultaneous sessions.
Dialogic Springware JCT cards (using card type = Dialogic):
Besides Dialogic DM3 cards and Dialogic HMP (using card type = Intel or IntelHMP) we added support for Dialogic Springware JCT cards (using card type = Dialogic). ASR is supported only for cards and media loads having CSP enabled for all the voice resources.
Using multiple MRCP servers:
This will help scaling and load balancing.
The servers are set in VBVoice.ini and Pronexus MRCP client will create sessions using a round
robin algorithm:
[MRCP]
AsrServersAddresses=:,:,...etc
TtsServersAddresses=:,:,...etc
A range of ports used by TTS for RTP could be set
New properties to allow setting a server at runtime
Two properties have been added to Linegroup control to allow setting the MRCP server address
and port at run time. These properties should be called before VBVoice tries to create an MRCP session; an ASR
session is created right after the call was answered or when the first VoiceRec control was hit, depending on the GrabEnginePerCall setting. Using LineGroup's Ring event would make sure that the right value is used.
Text to be spoken as XML:
Now the application could pass the text to be spoken (SPEAK text) as XML. Some servers earlier version of Aumtech) require using XML body in SPEAK messages to support international languages.
Tap Monitor:
When a TapRecord is used to record a conversation, the conversation could be monitored from any other channel and by multiple channels. This is done by using a PlayGreeting control with a special phrase type. The monitor channel has a slight delay from the current speech.
TTS play enhancements on DM3 cards for non-MRCP based engines:
In order to improve responsiveness of TTS play, especially for long texts, a new play mode has been implemented, using Dialogic streaming capabilities. This is applicable only to DM3 cards using card type Intel or IntelHMP.
The old mode is still supported and must be used for Dialogic Springware boards (card type Dialogic)
RealSpeak 4.5 support - automatic detection of version (4.0 or 4.5):
RealSpeak 4.5 adds support for more voices and provides support for more languages than RealSpeak 4.0. These two versions cannot be installed and used simultaneously but are both supported in this service pack.
In order to use the automatic install, RealSpeak should be installed before installing VBVoice.
The VBVoice installer will then detect the RealSpeak’s version and will install the appropriate support.
If another version of RealSpeak is installed later, a new VBVoice installation is needed.
Location of some binaries changed:
Starting from this service pack, system32 is not used anymore for Pronexus’ binaries; a subdirectory of Pronexus’ install location is used instead. If an install is performed on a machine which had a previous version of VBVoice installed, make sure you uninstall the previous version and no old files are left in system32.
Dialogic HMP 2.0 discontinued:
Dialogic has discontinued support for HMP 2.0. As a result, Pronexus will be not able to support HMP 2.0 and is not going to do any new development based on HMP 2.0. The current service pack is still supporting HMP 2.0 but no testing has been done.
We recommend considering an upgrade to HMP 3.0 if having any issues. This is the last VBVoice version supporting Dialogic HMP 2.0.
Dialogic HMP 3.0:
A couple of issues have been fixed by Dialogic since the release and our current service pack HMP support is now based on Service Update 241. This is the only version supported; any other service update could be used only if advised so by Pronexus Support.
Resolved issues:
Non-MRCP TTS - There is a 4 second delay before starting playing texts that would take more than 4 seconds to play. In other words, when playing a text that needs more than 4 seconds to play, an extra 4 seconds of silence is introduced at the beginning. Shorter texts however are played shortly after they audio is generated by the server, having shorter delays. This has been resolved only for DM3 cards card type = Intel or IntelHMP:
HMP - system does not stop clean after a long run on high density; the application should be closed from task manager. A reboot is recommended in this case:
Memory violation in the Runtime Manager on certain license configurations.
Disconnect not processed if happened right before start of TTS play – the call continues and disconnect is ignored:
TapRecord – in some conditions, if the recording failed to start, the temporary recording file was not deleted, causing failures of subsequently tap recordings on the same channel

New in VBVoice 5.6.0 (Jan 4, 2011)

This release is mainly adding new features to Speech Recognition (ASR), Text-To-Speech (TTS) and widens the range of Dialogic supported boards. It also incorporates cumulative and new fixes which increase stability on high density applications using either IP or TDM boards.
MRCP v2 Support:
All major Speech Recognition (ASR) and Text-To-Speech (TTS) manufacturers moved from different proprietary integration SDKs to a standards-based one. The standard used, called Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP), is allowing an integration with ASR and TTS which does not depend on a certain manufacturer. This offers application developers the opportunity to use any MRCP engine they prefer without having to modify or design them for a proprietary interface engines in the first place.
We tested our implementation with the industry leader Nuance Speech Server in applications with up to 30 simultaneous sessions. Separate servers for ASR and TTS may be used, allowing the application to use an engine from a manufacturer for ASR and another for TTS.
Currently, MRCP is supported only for Dialogic DM3 cards and Dialogic HMP (using card type = Intel or IntelHMP)
In order to use MRCP, a separate process, called VBVMrcpClient.exe, found in VBVoice’s install directory, must be started before starting the system. It should be stopped after the VBVoice system has stopped or VBVoice application has been terminated.
This process is serving as a client of an MRCP server and communicates with a VBVoice application through TCP; it is using 4 ports, defined in MRCP section of vbvoice.ini.
Dial Control - Call progress (tone) analysis in connected state
Applicable only to card types Intel and IntelHMP.
The Dial control is now able to perform call progress analysis (answering machine detection, fax tones, positive voice detection) in connected state. This is useful in the case the call is answered by a PBX which is then calling an extension and provides in-band information. If any digits needed to be dialed before the tone analysis, an unsupervised dial control could be used.
To use this mode, in connected state, a supervised dial with a null string as number to dial should be used (dial “S”). The control must have either answering machine detection or fax detection enabled.
The duration of call progress is determined by the NoAnswer property of the Dial control. The maximum time used for answering machine detection could be customized using an ini setting:
[PBX]
DetectAnswerTime
With a default of 6000 ms.
HMP – Enabling TCP SIP signaling
New Dialogic PCI-Express cards support in System Release 6:
Dialogic has released PCI-Express versions of most of their cards in a Service Update of System Release 6.0.
New Dialogic PCI-Express cards support in HMP 3.0:
Dialogic has released the PCI-Express versions of the thin blades (TDM cards to be used with HMP) only in HMP 3.0. See the list of cards which have been tested.
Dialogic HMP 2.0 and HMP 3.0 changes:
Dialogic is going to discontinue support for HMP 2.0 in the beginning of year 2009. As a result, Pronexus will be not able to support HMP 2.0 for issues caused by the drivers. Starting from this release, for Dialogic HMP (both 2.0 and 3.0), there is mandatory for each IP channel to have both RTP and IP Call Control licenses.
Resolved issues
Cardtype Intel or IntelHMP – PlayGreeting could now be used before VBVoice answers: the call. When NoOffhook is set to 1 in Linegroup’s Ring event, the callflow exits the linegroup control but the call is not answered yet. A PlayGreeting could be used before the application answers the call to play ringback tones or any other message.
Record control – Runtime property MaxSil(channel) was not working, the initial value was: used instead
If a call, originally in the CallQueue, was connected to an agent and then returned to the: CallQueue again afterwards, the QueueCount was not incremented.

New in VBVoice 5.5.2 (Jan 4, 2011)

New in VBVoice 5.5.1 (Jan 4, 2011)

New in VBVoice 5.5 (Jan 4, 2011)

Dongles:
RTM supports now the use of a hardware key (dongle) which allows the freedom of moving licenses from a machine to another without going back to Pronexus support. To benefit from this feature, customers need to have a free USB port on the machine running the license manager, and those who are using redundant RTMs only need a free USB port on the primary RTM machine.
WorkerThread - New Control:
All VBVoice events' code is executed in the primary thread; in order to keep the system responsive this code should be as fast as possible. Blocking for a certain time would affect all other channels because they are waiting for their events' code to be executed. WorkerThread is helping to get your lengthy code executed in a separate thread and avoid blocking the primary thread.
The WorkerThread Control offers the application a way to run certain lengthy code (like accessing database or waiting synchronously for a resource) in a separate thread (worker thread), leaving the primary thread free to execute Windows and other VBVoice events. While waiting for completion of the action from the worker thread, the channel is doing voice processing in a way similar to the Delay control, playing music or waiting silently.
When having performance issues (long delays in processing calls), use the Event Time Monitoring feature to help locating poorly designed application code, which spends too much time in events. Then move that code in a WorkerThread control.
Dialogic HMP 3.0 support:
HMP 3.0 has an increased performance, scaling up to 500 lines on IP. While keeping HMP 2.0 support, new support for HMP 3.0 has been added. Pronexus Voice Interface Installer would determine which HMP version is installed and will install the right voice interface library. The same cardtype (IntelHMP) is being used for both 2.0 and 3.0
CallQueue improvements:
New mode of operation:
Pronexus modified the CallQueue control to add a new mode of operation. A new run-time property, called AutoTransfer, was added to the control. When set to False, the control will not transfer a queued call when an agent becomes available. Instead the call will exit the CallQueue and the application can perform the transfer or do whatever custom behavior is needed. Setting AutoTransfer to True will result in the legacy behavior; the call will be transferred to the agent before exiting the CallQueue control.
The intended use is that the CallQueue’s CallMonitorMode property is False (manual call monitoring). This requires that the application use the CallQueue methods AddAddress and RemoveAddress to maintain a list of agents in the control. Also the application must invoke the AgentAvailable method as agents change state. When an agent is available, set AgentAvailable to True (and a call will be released from the CallQueue control). When an agent is busy, set AgentAvailable to False.
New configuration-based CallQueue behaviour on DTMF termination:
When the user terminates with DTMF a queued call, the CallQueue control behaviour is based on a configuration setting. The setting is read from the VBVoice.ini configuration section [CallQueue], "RemoveCallFromQueueOnDTMF" key with two possible values: 0 (default) and 1.
On the default value (False), the call exits through "DTMF" node but is being kept in the queue – this is the legacy behaviour.
When the value is set to 1 (True), the call exits through "DTMF" node and is removed from the queue.
New look and feel, improved icons
A new look, new icons have been adde:d in order to improve user experience. Tooltips for the controls in the toolbox have been added in VS 2005. VBVoice controls are added automatically to the toolbox in a separate tab.
HMP SIP – custom From and Contact fields:
For a SIP outbound call, From and Contacts fields could be customized using Dial control’s CallingNumber property. If the string set in CallingNumber has the following format:“From=sipFromAddress;Contact=sipContactAddress” these addresses will be used for the outbound call instead of the default ones.
On HMP, the maximum length for CallingNumber has been extended to 127 characters.
Resolved issues:
Modularity – Play TTS does not terminate on digits when called in slave
Wrong termination reason for a Delay control terminated by disconnect
The installer automatically takes care of adding the VBVoice toolbox controls to the toolbox in Visual Studio .Net (2003 and 2005)
BridgingMaster and BridgingSlave examples don't work
The dissolve method of the conference control does not work
Conference is not working in VB6, creating a new conference fails
Pronexus OLE DB provider ChannelStatistics doesn't work from VisualStudio 2005
CallerID not being retrieved on Denali analog lines
HMP – On stop call or disconnect, SendFax blocks (the call never leaves the control) and the line become unusable
HMP – disconnect during fax receive causes the line to become unusable, not receiving any new calls
Limitations removed:
Multiple SIP registrations on HMP – tested and working
Dial Control – For HMP, NumToDial and CallingNumber length has been increased to 127 (from 30) characters in order to accommodate longer SIP addresses
Linegroup – ChannelService property is now implemented for Dialogic Springware cards (cardtype=Dialogic). Note that this property is calling the API function which sets the line in service/out of service in async mode and it does not guarantee the line is in the desired