IDV Scripting

7.1 IDV Scripting

The IDV can be scripted to create and manipulate images and movies. The scripting is accomplished using Jython or through an XML file: IDV Scripting Language (ISL). The ISL file can be opened from a running IDV or one can be passed to the IDV as a command line argument:

runIDV capture.isl

A Jython script can be invoked as a command line argument:

runIDV -islfile capture.py

You can also run the IDV in interactive mode using an ISL script to set up the state of the IDV (e.g., loading data, displays, etc.) with the -islinteractive argument:

runIDV capture.isl -islinteractive

The the IDV can run in "offscreen" mode (see more) with an ISL or with Jython. The user interface won't be shown. However, the IDV still needs to be run with an active window system (e.g., X, MS Windows) for it to run. If running under a Linux/Unix machine and you don't have an X server running you need to run the IDV under the X virtual frame buffer: xvfb.

The usual mode of use of the ISL is to load in an IDV bundle which defines the data and displays that you want captured. In Jython, this is a call to the loadBundle() method. As a convenience, when you go to save a bundle (e.g., using the File->Save As menu), you can specify a .isl file suffix. When you do this the IDV will write out both the bundle file and an example ISL file. It will first prompt you for some basic ISL information:

Image 1: Save As ISL Dialog

You can, for example, include the text of the bundle file directly within the ISL file (so you only have one file to deal with). You can also specify how many iterations of the loop to do and whether to create an image and/or a movie. When using Jython, you would simply use the feature of the Jython language to accomplish list.

In the rest of this section we will cover:

7.1.0	ISL Overview
7.1.1	Basic ISL Tags
7.1.2	File ISL Tags
7.1.3	ISL Data and Displays
7.1.4	Data Source Types
7.1.5	ISL Images and Movies
7.1.6	Writing Text Files
7.1.7	Changing Bundle Properties
7.1.8	Scripting with Jython
7.1.9	Tag Index
7.1.10	Display Properties

Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer > Miscellaneous