Section: 2.0 Starting the IDV for the first time

2.0 Starting the IDV for the first time

Once the IDV has been installed, you can start it from the command line.

Starting the IDV using the runIDV script.

Open a terminal window (if you do not have one open already) and change to the directory where the IDV was installed. (e.g., /home/idv/IDV_6.3)
Print out the runIDV script.
On Unix/Mac:
On Windows:
You should see a printout that ends like this:
On Unix:
```
command="java -Xmx${idv_memory}m -Didv.enableStereo=false -jar ${dirname}/idv.jar $*"
    
```
and then some code to find the version of java to use.
On Windows:
```
jre\bin\java -Xmx%idv_memory%m -Didv.enableStereo=false -jar idv.jar %*
    
```
The script sets up the environment for the IDV to run. Details

The IDV has many command line arguments which can be passed to the runIDV script. To get a listing, run the following command:

./runIDV -help

You should see a printout like this:

        -help  (this message)
        -properties  <property file>
        -installplugin  <plugin jar file to install>
        -plugin  <plugin jar file, directory, url for this run>
        -noplugins  (don't load plugins)
        -cleardefault  (Clear the default bundle)
        -nodefault  (Don't read in the default bundle file)
        -default  <.xidv file>
        -bundle  <bundle file or url>
        -oneinstanceport  <port number>
                 (Check if another version of the IDV is running. If so pass command line 
                  arguments to it and shutdown)
        -nooneinstance  (Don't do the one instance port)
        -nopref  (Don't read in the user preferences)
        -userpath  <user directory to use>
        -sitepath  <url path to find site resources>
        -nogui  (Don't show the main window gui)
        -data  <data source> (Load the data source)
        -display  <parameter> <display>
        -islinteractive  <scriptfile> (run the isl file in interactive mode);
        -islfile <scriptfile>  (Run the IDV Jython script in batch mode)
        -image  <image file name> (create a jpeg image and then exit)
        -movie  <movie file name> (create a quicktime movie and then exit)
        -imageserver  <port number or .properties file> 
                   (run the IDV in image generation server mode. Support http requests on the given port)
        -Dpropertyname=value  (Define the property value)
        -catalog  <url to a chooser catalog>
        -connect  <collaboration hostname to connect to>
        -server  (Should the IDV run in collaboration server mode)
        -port  <Port number collaboration server should listen on>
        -chooser  (show the data chooser on start up) 
        -printjnlp  (Print out any embedded bundles from jnlp files)
        -setfiles  <datasource pattern> <semi-colon delimited list of files> 
                     (Use the list of files for the bundled datasource)
        -currenttime  <dttm> (Override current time for ISL processing)
        -listresources  (list out the resource types)
        -debug  (Turn on debug print)
        -debugmessages  (Turn on language pack debug)
        -recordmessages  <Language pack file to write missing entries to>
        -trace  (Print out trace messages)
        -traceonly  <trace pattern> (Print out trace messages that match the pattern)

For this workshop, we are going to only use the -installplugin argument to load some workshop specific configuration files from a plugin. (You will learn more about plugins later in the workshop).
To start the IDV for the workshop the first time, type (Cut and Paste tip ) :
While the IDV is starting, you will see the following splash screen:
When the IDV starts for the first time, you will see 3 windows:
- IDV Help Tips window. An optional window with tips on using the IDV.
  
  For now, close the IDV Help Tips window by clicking the Close button. We'll look at this in a later exercise.
- Dashboard window. Used for selecting data to analyze and visualize.
- Unidata Workshop IDV window. This is the main window for displaying data visualizations.
Now we are ready to explore the user interface.

Unidata IDV Workshop for version 6.3 > Starting the IDV/GUI Basics