Setting Up the Grammar Development Tools

With the exception of Simulator Results Analyzer, each of the Microsoft Grammar Development Tools connects to a speech recognition engine to perform its work, even if a given tool does not actually perform speech recognition as part of its functioning. When using one of the Grammar Development Tools, you must provide it with information about which speech recognition engine to use and how to configure the connection to the engine.

You can store settings for connecting to a speech recognition engine in a configuration (RecoConfig) file. The RecoConfig file identifies the environment that hosts one or more speech recognition engines and provides parameters that you can use to select and configure a speech recognition engine. An environment that hosts speech recognition engines is called a provider.

You must either specify a RecoConfig file on the command line when you launch a tool or create a default configuration file named "RecoConfig.xml". The default configuration file must be located either in the current directory (the directory for the command line), or in the directory that contains the tool. Any of the Grammar Development Tools will automatically connect to the recognition provider and speech recognition engine specified in the default RecoConfig file, unless you specify another RecoConfig file on the command line. With the exception of Simulator Results Analyzer, none of the Grammar Development Tools will function without a RecoConfig file.

If you typically use the same speech recognition engine, for example, the local engine on your computer, then you can simply create one RecoConfig file in one of the default locations, and not need to specify it on the command line. You may need to create multiple RecoConfig files under the following circumstances:

• You alternate among using different recognition providers or speech recognition engines.

• You need to pass in cookies with requests for recognition.

• You work in multiple languages.

Based on your anticipated usage, create at least one RecoConfig file before you first use one of the Grammar Development Tools.

In This Section

• Speech Recognition Engine Configuration File Settings. Information about which settings you can specify.

• Speech Recognition Engine Configuration File Examples. An example that you can use as a starting point to create your own RecoConfig files.