SSMLBuilder

Yet another SSML Builder, that uses the Razor Engine to render the SSML output

Why did I create this builder?

Personally, I don't like coding down stuff in an imperative manner, when it comes to reports or other similar UI'ish stuff. Microsoft offers the Razor engine to develop powerful web-frontends with a mix of HTML and C#. The best thing about razor is that it is not restricted to the use inside an ASP.NET application.

Since SSML is more or less XML with a fixed subset of tags, I figured, why not try to build my SSML Builder using the powerful Razor Engine

Special thanks to

I would like to thank @toddams and all those who took part in the development of the RazorLight implementation that I am basing this builder on. For more information, go and visit: https://github.com/toddams/RazorLight

How does it work?

Basically, you first have to build a .cshtml-View we know from ASP.NET application. That view will later be compiled into the SSML.

Here is a simple example:

@inherits SSMLBuilder.SSMLPage<SSMLBuilderTests.Game>
<speak>
    <p>
        The clock is ticking down
        5<break time='0.3s' />
        4<break time='0.3s' />
        3<break time='0.3s' />
        2<break time='0.3s' />
        1<break time='0.8s' />

        @if (Model.PlayerAmount == 5 || Model.PlayerAmount == 6)
        {
            <p>
                We started with less than 7 people.
                <break time='5s' />
                3<break time='0.3s' />
                2<break time='0.3s' />
                1<break time='0.3s' />
            </p>
        }
        else
        {
            <p>
                We started with more than 6 people.
                <break time='5s'/>
                3<break time='0.3s'/>
                2<break time='0.3s'/>
                1<break time='0.3s'/>
            </p>
        }
        
        This is the end
    </p>
</speak>

When you finished, you can throw the view into the builder, append a model and finally let the razor engine do it's magic:

var templateKey = "SSMLBuilderTests.SSMLViews.TestView.cshtml";
var assembly = GetType().GetTypeInfo().Assembly;
var resource = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream(templateKey);
var ssmlResult = await SSMLRazorBuilder.BuildFromAsync(resource, templateKey, new Game { PlayerAmount = 5 });

The result in this example will look like this:

<speak>
    <p>
        The clock is ticking down
        5<break time='0.3s' />
        4<break time='0.3s' />
        3<break time='0.3s' />
        2<break time='0.3s' />
        1<break time='0.8s' />

            <p>
                We started with less than 7 people.
                <break time='5s' />
                3<break time='0.3s' />
                2<break time='0.3s' />
                1<break time='0.3s' />
            </p>
        
        This is the end
    </p>
</speak>

I used a dynamic model in this example. Feel free to use whatever type you like.

Verification

Be sure to always verify the SSML after the razor engine, since I cannot guarantee that your razor view is SSML-conform.

You can find my SSMLVerifier here.