1. First of all bring up a terminal window and create a sub-directory: /home/idv/isl
2. Change directory to the /home/idv/isl directory.
3. Copy the following to your isl directory. Right click on link and do 'Save Link As'

   <isl debug="true">
        <!-- This is an XML comment -->
        <echo message="Hello world"/>
   </isl>

   basic1.isl
4. From the terminal run the IDV with the basic1.isl as the command line argument:

   runIDV /home/idv/isl/basic1.isl
   

5. Let's loop this now by adding a group tag. Copy this file:

   <isl debug="true">
        <echo message="Here is my loop:"/>
        <group loop="5" sleep="1">
            <echo message="Hello world"/>
        </group>
        <echo message="Done"/>
   </isl>
   

   basic2.isl
6. Let's define some properties with the property tag. Properties are referenced as ${propertyname}.

   <isl debug="true">
        <property name="message1" value="This is  property message1"/>
        <property name="message2" value="This is  property message2"/>
        <echo message="Here is my loop:"/>
        <group loop="5" sleep="1">
            <echo message="Here is message 1: ${message1}"/>
            <echo message="Here is message 2: ${message2}"/>
            <echo message="There is a built-in loopindex property: ${loopindex}"/>
        </group>
   
   
        <echo message="\n\nThere are also built-in time properties"/>
        <echo message="The islpath points to where the isl is: ${islpath}"/>
        <echo message="There are date/time properties, e.g.: ${yyyy}_${MM}_${dd} ${H}:${mm}:${s}"/>
   
   
   </isl>
   

   basic3.isl

Unidata IDV Workshop for version 5.7 > Advanced Topics > Scripting with IDV