Develop Reference

Multi-Client Server in Java, Maybe threads not running properly or i dont know , cant find out why

I'm programming a server in java that broadcasts the Date() function each second to the clients. The problem is that it worked for only one client but as soon as I started making modifications for multi-client support it broadcasts the Date() only once and then stops, as if the function is being called only once. I can not find what I'm doing wrong so I will just paste the code and hopefully someone will spot the mistake. I searched online but only to end up more confused than I started. For Client program I use the tellnet terminal app for windows.
public class Server
{
private ServerSocket SERVER;
private int PORT;
private Socket CLIENT;
public Server()
{
PORT = 8818;
try
{
SERVER = new ServerSocket(PORT);
System.out.println("Server started on port: " + PORT);
}
catch(IOException e)
{
System.out.println(e.getMessage());
}
}
public void On() throws IOException
{
while(true)
{
CLIENT = SERVER.accept();
new ClientHandler(CLIENT).start();
}
}
}
#~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
public class ClientHandler extends Thread
{
private Socket CLIENT;
private OutputStream out;
public ClientHandler(Socket CLIENT)
{
System.out.println("Accepted Connection from: " + CLIENT.getInetAddress());
this.CLIENT = CLIENT;
}
public void run()
{
try
{
out = CLIENT.getOutputStream();
out.write(("Time now is: " + new Date() + "\n").getBytes());
sleep(1000);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println(CLIENT.getInetAddress() + " has left the session");
try
{
out.close();
CLIENT.close();
}
catch(IOException j)
{
System.out.println("Unexpected Error");
System.exit(-1);
}
}
}
}

Your modifications nearly worked - below is a running version with only minor modifications from your code.
A part of your modifications you unintentionally removed the while loop in the run function, which means the Date() function is in fact only called once. To see this, remove the while loop in run() and after the Date is printed (in the telnet window) the message "Done with the run function." is printed.
I added an identifier to each client which is printed with the date. The static cnt class field makes sure that each client has a different id.
I started separate clients in separate command prompt terminals using
telnet localhost 8818 such that they were running at the same time. At the bottom is the output from the 3rd client.
I did switch the code to camelCase convention (start variables with a lower case letter and capitalizing each new word) since all CAPS is usually reserved for constants and the change made the code easier to read for me.
public class Server
{
private ServerSocket server;
private int port;
private Socket client;
public Server()
{
port = 8818;
try
{
server = new ServerSocket(port);
System.out.println("Server started on port: " + port);
}
catch(IOException e)
{
System.out.println(e.getMessage());
}
}
public void on() throws IOException
{
while(true)
{
client = server.accept();
new ClientHandler(client).start();
}
}
}
public class ClientHandler extends Thread {
private Socket client;
private OutputStream out;
private int id;
private static int cnt=0;
public ClientHandler(Socket client) {
System.out.println("Accepted Connection from: " + client.getInetAddress());
this.client = client;
id=cnt;
cnt++;
}
public void run() {
try {
out = client.getOutputStream();
while (true) {
out.write(("Client " + id + ": Time now is: " + new Date() + "\n").getBytes());
sleep(1000);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println(client.getInetAddress() + " has left the session");
try {
out.close();
client.close();
} catch (IOException j) {
System.out.println("Unexpected Error");
System.exit(-1);
}
}
System.out.println("Done with the run function.");
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
Server s = new Server();
s.on();
}
}

NIO chat application not working properly for multiple clients

I've been working on a NIO-based chat application of quite trivial logic: any message sent by any client should be visible to the rest of the users.
Right now, I'm sort of in the middle of the work, I've got pretty complete classes of the clients (and their GUI part) and the server but I've stumbled on a problem I couldn't find any solution on anywhere. Namely, if I run an instance of the server and one instance of the client, in my consoles (one for client, one for the server) I see a nice, expected conversation. However, after adding additional client, this newly created client doesn't get responses from the server - the first still has a valid connection.
I'm not thinking about broadcasting messages to all the clients yet, now I'd like to solve the problem of the lack of proper communication between each of my clients and the server since, I think that broadcasting shouldn't be so big a deal if the communication is fine.
I'd like to also add that I've tried many other ways of instantiating the clients: in one thread, firstly instantiating the clients then applying methods on them, I've event tried using invokeLater from SwingUtilities, since that's the proper way to boot up GUI. Sadly, neither worked.
What should I change to achieve proper communication between clients and the server? What am I doing wrong?
This is the log from client console:
Awaiting message from: client2...
Awaiting message from: client1...
after creating the clients - before any action
1 Message: client1 :: simpleMess1
2 started pushing message from: client1
3 Server response on client side: ECHO RESPONSE: client1 :: simpleMess1
4 Message: client2 :: simpleMessage from c2
5 started pushing message from: client2
6
7 -- No response from client2. AND next try from client2 shows no log at all (!)
8
9 Message: client1 :: simple mess2 from c1
10 started pushing message from: client1
11 Server response on client side: ECHO RESPONSE: client1 :: simpleMess1
And the log from server side console:
1 Server started...
2 S: Key is acceptable
3 S: Key is acceptable
4
5 -- after creating the clients before any action
6 S: Key is readable.
The console output clearly shows that the server receives acceptable keys from both clients but it suggest also that only one SocketChannel has a SelectionKey of readable type, but I've got no clue why. Moreover, I think that the order of creating the clients doesn't matter because as I tested: the client that talks properly with the server is always the one that starts communication as first.
Below I'm posting my Server and Client classes code, hoping You'll Guys help me sort it out.
Firstly, Server class:
import java.nio.channels.SelectionKey;
import java.nio.channels.Selector;
import java.nio.channels.ServerSocketChannel;
import java.nio.channels.SocketChannel;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
import java.nio.CharBuffer;
import java.nio.charset.Charset;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.Set;
public class Server {
private ServerSocketChannel serverSocketChannel = null;
private Selector selector = null;
private StringBuffer messageResponse = new StringBuffer();
private static Charset charset = Charset.forName("ISO-8859-2");
private static final int BSIZE = 1024;
private ByteBuffer byteBuffer = ByteBuffer.allocate(BSIZE);
private StringBuffer incomingClientMessage = new StringBuffer();
Set<SocketChannel> clientsSet = new HashSet<>();
public Server(String host, int port) {
try {
serverSocketChannel = ServerSocketChannel.open();
serverSocketChannel.configureBlocking(false);
serverSocketChannel.socket().bind(new InetSocketAddress(host, port));
selector = Selector.open();
serverSocketChannel.register(selector, SelectionKey.OP_ACCEPT);
}
catch (Exception exc) {
exc.printStackTrace();
System.exit(1);
}
System.out.println("Server started...");
serviceConnections();
}
private void serviceConnections() {
boolean serverIsRunning = true;
while (serverIsRunning) {
try {
selector.select();
Set keys = selector.selectedKeys();
Iterator iter = keys.iterator();
while (iter.hasNext()) {
SelectionKey key = (SelectionKey) iter.next();
iter.remove();
if (key.isAcceptable()) {
System.out.println("\tS: Key is acceptable");
SocketChannel incomingSocketChannel = serverSocketChannel.accept();
incomingSocketChannel.configureBlocking(false);
incomingSocketChannel.register(selector, SelectionKey.OP_READ);
clientsSet.add(incomingSocketChannel);
continue;
}
if (key.isReadable()) {
System.out.println("\tS: Key is readable.");
SocketChannel incomingSocketChannel = (SocketChannel) key.channel();
serviceRequest(incomingSocketChannel);
continue;
}
}
}
catch (Exception exc) {
exc.printStackTrace();
continue;
}
}
}
private void serviceRequest(SocketChannel sc) {
if (!sc.isOpen()) return;
incomingClientMessage.setLength(0);
byteBuffer.clear();
try {
while (true) {
int n = sc.read(byteBuffer);
if (n > 0) {
byteBuffer.flip();
CharBuffer cbuf = charset.decode(byteBuffer);
while (cbuf.hasRemaining()) {
char c = cbuf.get();
if (c == '\r' || c == '\n') break;
incomingClientMessage.append(c);
}
}
writeResp(sc, "ECHO RESPONSE: " + incomingClientMessage.toString());
}
}
catch (Exception exc) {
exc.printStackTrace();
try {
sc.close();
sc.socket().close();
}
catch (Exception e) {
}
}
}
private void writeResp(SocketChannel sc, String addMsg)
throws IOException {
messageResponse.setLength(0);
messageResponse.append(addMsg);
messageResponse.append('\n');
ByteBuffer buf = charset.encode(CharBuffer.wrap(messageResponse));
sc.write(buf);
}
//second version - with an attempt to acomlish broadcasting
private void writeResp(SocketChannel sc, String addMsg)
throws IOException {
messageResponse.setLength(0);
messageResponse.append(addMsg);
messageResponse.append('\n');
ByteBuffer buf = charset.encode(CharBuffer.wrap(messageResponse));
System.out.println("clientsSet: " + clientsSet.size());
for (SocketChannel socketChannel : clientsSet) {
System.out.println("writing to: " + socketChannel.getRemoteAddress());
socketChannel.write(buf);
buf.rewind();
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
final String HOST = "localhost";
final int PORT = 5000;
new Server(HOST, PORT);
}
catch (Exception exc) {
exc.printStackTrace();
System.exit(1);
}
}
}
and the Client class:
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.net.UnknownHostException;
public class Client {
private ClientView clientView;
private String hostName;
private int port;
private String clientName;
private Socket socket = null;
private PrintWriter printWriterOUT = null;
private BufferedReader bufferedReaderIN = null;
public Client(String hostName, int port, String clientName) {
this.hostName = hostName;
this.port = port;
this.clientName = clientName;
initView();
}
public void handleConnection() {
try {
socket = new Socket(hostName, port);
printWriterOUT = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream(), true);
bufferedReaderIN = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream()));
waitForIncomingMessageFromClientView();
bufferedReaderIN.close();
printWriterOUT.close();
socket.close();
}
catch (UnknownHostException e) {
System.err.println("Unknown host: " + hostName);
System.exit(2);
}
catch (IOException e) {
System.err.println("I/O err dla");
System.exit(3);
}
catch (Exception exc) {
exc.printStackTrace();
System.exit(4);
}
}
public void initView() {
clientView = new ClientView(clientName);
}
public void waitForIncomingMessageFromClientView() {
System.out.println("Awaiting message from: " + clientName + "...");
while (true) {
if (clientView.isSent) {
System.out.println("Message: " + clientView.getOutgoingMessage());
pushClientViewMessageToServer();
clientView.setIsSent(false);
}
}
}
public void pushClientViewMessageToServer() {
String clientViewMessage = clientView.getOutgoingMessage();
System.out.println("started pushing message from: " + clientView.getClientName());
try {
printWriterOUT.println(clientViewMessage);
String resp = bufferedReaderIN.readLine();
System.out.println("Server response on client side: " + resp);
}
catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
Thread thread1 = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
Client c1 = new Client("localhost", 5000, "client1");
c1.handleConnection();
}
});
thread1.start();
Thread thread2 = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
Client c2 = new Client("localhost", 5000, "client2");
c2.handleConnection();
}
});
thread2.start();
}
}
I'll apprecaite any help from You Guys.
EDIT:
the second version of writeResp method attempting to broadcast echo to all the clients produces such log:
Server started...
clientsSet: 2
writing to: /127.0.0.1:63666
writing to: /127.0.0.1:63665
clientsSet: 2
writing to: /127.0.0.1:63666
writing to: /127.0.0.1:63665
It seems like there are two clients and I'm wondering why they don't get proper reply from the server.

while (true) {
int n = sc.read(byteBuffer);
if (n > 0) {
byteBuffer.flip();
CharBuffer cbuf = charset.decode(byteBuffer);
while (cbuf.hasRemaining()) {
char c = cbuf.get();
if (c == '\r' || c == '\n') break;
incomingClientMessage.append(c);
}
}
There is a major problem here. If read() returns -1 you should close the SocketChannel, and if it returns -1 or zero you should break out of the loop.

Continuously read objects from an ObjectInputStream in Java

I have a problem using an ObjectInputStream and I have been struggling with it for 2 days now. I tried to search for a solution but unfortunately found no fitting answer.
I am trying to write a client/server application in which the client sends objects (in this case a configuration class) to the server. The idea is that connection keeps alive after sending the object so it is possible to send a new object if necessary.
Here are the important parts of my client code:
mSocket = new Socket("192.168.43.56", 1234);
mObjectIn = new ObjectInputStream(mSocket.getInputStream());
mObjectOut = new ObjectOutputStream(mSocket.getOutputStream());
mObjectOut.writeObject(stubConfig);
mObjectOut.flush();
In the above code, I left out some try/catch blocks to keep the code readable for you.
The server side looks as follows:
mHostServer = new ServerSocket(port);
mSocket = mHostServer.accept();
// create streams in reverse oreder
mObjectOut = new ObjectOutputStream(mConnection.getOutputStream());
mObjectOut.flush();
mObjectIn = new ObjectInputStream(mConnection.getInputStream());
while (mIsSocketConnected)
{
StubConfig = (StubConfiguration)mObjectIn.readObject();
}
What I want to achieve is that as long at the socketconnection is alive, the server is listening for incoming config objects.
When I run my program however, I got an EOFException in the while loop at server side. I receive the first config object without any problems in the first iteration of the while loop but after that I get an EOFException every time readObject() is called.
I am looking for a way to solve this. Can anyone put me in the good direction?
EDIT: What I read about the EOFException is that it is thrown when you want to read from a stream when the end of it is reached. That means that for some reason the stream ended after the object has been send. Is there a way to reinitialize the streams or so??

EOFException is thrown by readObject() when the peer has closed the connection. There can never be more data afterwards. Ergo you can't have written multiple objects at all: you closed the connection instead.

try using this
Server side
1.Server running on a separate thread
public class ServeurPresence implements Runnable {
public final static int PORT = 20000 ;
public final static String HOSTNAME = "localhost" ;
public static enum Action {CONNEXION, MSG, DECONNEXION,USER, FINCLASSEMENT};
ServerSocket serveur ;
static List<String> names ;
*/
public ServeurPresence()
{
System.out.println("Start Server...");
try
{
serveur = new ServerSocket(PORT) ;
new Thread(this).start();
//javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() { public void run() { createAndShowGUI();} } );
}
catch (IOException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
/**
* #param args
*/
public static void main(String[] args)
{
new ServeurPresence();
}
#Override
public void run()
{
System.out.println("server runs");
while(true)
{
try {
Socket sock = serveur.accept();
ServiceClientsThread thread= new ServiceClientsThread(sock);
thread.start();
}
catch (IOException e)
{
System.out.println("Error with socket");
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
2. A Thread to handle each Client:ServiceClientThread
import java.io.DataInputStream;
import java.io.DataOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class ServiceClientsThread extends Thread{
private Socket sock ;
ServiceClientsThread(Socket sock)
{
//super();
this.sock=sock;
}
#Override
public void run()
{
DataInputStream is ;
DataOutputStream os ;
String name =null ;
try {
is = new DataInputStream(sock.getInputStream()) ;
os = new DataOutputStream(sock.getOutputStream()) ;
ServeurPresence.Action act ;
do {
// read Action
act = ServeurPresence.Action.valueOf(is.readUTF()) ; // read string -> enum
System.out.println("action :"+act);
switch (act) {
case CONNEXION :
name = is.readUTF(); //read client name
System.out.println("Name :"+name);
os.writeUTF("Hi");//send welcome msg
break ;
case MSG :
String msg = is.readUTF();
os.writeUTF("OK");//response
break ;
case DECONNEXION :
System.out.println(name+" is logged out");
break ;
}
} while (act!=ServeurPresence.Action.DECONNEXION) ;
// the end
is.close();
os.close();
sock.close();
} catch (IOException e)
{
System.out.println("Error with "+name+" socket");
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
3. Client side
import java.io.DataInputStream;
import java.io.DataOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.net.UnknownHostException;
public class Client {
/**
*
*/
Client(String name)
{
System.out.println("Start Client...");
try {
Socket sock = new Socket(ServeurPresence.HOSTNAME,ServeurPresence.PORT) ;
DataOutputStream os = new DataOutputStream(sock.getOutputStream()) ;
DataInputStream is = new DataInputStream(sock.getInputStream()) ;
System.out.println("Send "+name+" to server");
// CONNECTION : Action then value
os.writeUTF(ServeurPresence.Action.CONNEXION.name()) ; // send action : write enum -> String
os.writeUTF(name) ; // send the name
//read server welcome msg
String msg = is.readUTF();
System.out.println("Welcome msg: "+msg);
/* Your actions here : see example below */
try
{
Thread.currentThread().sleep(4000);
os.writeUTF(ServeurPresence.Action.MSG.name()) ; // send action : write enum -> String
os.writeUTF("My message here") ; // send msg
Thread.currentThread().sleep(4000);
msg = is.readUTF();//server response message
}
catch (InterruptedException e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
/************************************************/
//CLOSE
os.writeUTF(ServeurPresence.Action.DECONNEXION.name()) ; // send action
System.out.println("Log out");
os.close();
sock.close();
}
catch (UnknownHostException e)
{
System.out.println(ServeurPresence.HOSTNAME+ " unknown");
e.printStackTrace();
}
catch (IOException e)
{
System.out.println("Impossible to connect to "+ServeurPresence.HOSTNAME+ ":"+ServeurPresence.PORT);
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
4. In your case use readObject()/writeObject() instead of readUTF()/writeUTF() to write your config objects

Try this and let me know how it goes:
while (1==1)
{
StubConfig = (StubConfiguration)mObjectIn.readObject();
Thread.sleep(100); //Saves CPU usage
}

Very late answer, but just for future reference. I have been having problems sending Objects via sockets because the method flush() is not working properly.
I solved this problem just by switching flush() to reset().

Java: Multithreading & UDP Socket Programming

I am new to multithreading & socket programming in Java. I would like to know what is the best way to implement 2 threads - one for receiving a socket and one for sending a socket. If what I am trying to do sounds absurd, pls let me know why! The code is largely inspired from Sun's tutorials online.I want to use Multicast sockets so that I can work with a multicast group.
class Server extends Thread
{
static protected MulticastSocket socket = null;
protected BufferedReader in = null;
public InetAddress group;
private static class Receive implements Runnable
{
public void run()
{
try
{
byte[] buf = new byte[256];
DatagramPacket pkt = new DatagramPacket(buf,buf.length);
socket.receive(pkt);
String received = new String(pkt.getData(),0,pkt.getLength());
System.out.println("From server#" + received);
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
catch (IOException e)
{
System.out.println("Error:"+e);
}
catch (InterruptedException e)
{
System.out.println("Error:"+e);
}
}
}
public Server() throws IOException
{
super("server");
socket = new MulticastSocket(4446);
group = InetAddress.getByName("239.231.12.3");
socket.joinGroup(group);
}
public void run()
{
while(1>0)
{
try
{
byte[] buf = new byte[256];
DatagramPacket pkt = new DatagramPacket(buf,buf.length);
//String msg = reader.readLine();
String pid = ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().getName();
buf = pid.getBytes();
pkt = new DatagramPacket(buf,buf.length,group,4446);
socket.send(pkt);
Thread t = new Thread(new Receive());
t.start();
while(t.isAlive())
{
t.join(1000);
}
sleep(1);
}
catch (IOException e)
{
System.out.println("Error:"+e);
}
catch (InterruptedException e)
{
System.out.println("Error:"+e);
}
}
//socket.close();
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
{
new Server().start();
//System.out.println("Hello");
}
}

First thing is first: your classes should start with a capital letter per the Java Naming Conventions:
Class names should be nouns, in mixed case with the first letter of
each internal word capitalized. Try to
keep your class names simple and
descriptive. Use whole words-avoid
acronyms and abbreviations (unless the
abbreviation is much more widely used
than the long form, such as URL or
HTML).
Second:
Try to break down the code into coherent sections and organize them around some common feature that you're dealing with... perhaps around the functionality or the model you're programming.
The (basic) model for the server is that the only thing it does is receive socket connections... the server relies on a handler to handle those connections and that's it. If you try to build that model it would look something like this:
class Server{
private final ServerSocket serverSocket;
private final ExecutorService pool;
public Server(int port, int poolSize) throws IOException {
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(port);
pool = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(poolSize);
}
public void serve() {
try {
while(true) {
pool.execute(new Handler(serverSocket.accept()));
}
} catch (IOException ex) {
pool.shutdown();
}
}
}
class Handler implements Runnable {
private final Socket socket;
Handler(Socket socket) { this.socket = socket; }
public void run() {
// receive the datagram packets
}
}
Third: I would recommend that you look at some existing examples.
Multi-threaded Client/Server Applications:
http://www.ase.md/~aursu/ClientServerThreads.html
Doug Lea:
http://www.developer.com/java/ent/article.php/3645111/Java-5s-BlockingQueue.htm (thanks to John)
http://gee.cs.oswego.edu/dl/cpj/index.html (still can't find the exact example, but it's there somewhere... if you feel brave look over his allcode.java file).
Concurrency in Practice examples:
http://www.javaconcurrencyinpractice.com/listings.html
Java Concurrency Tutorials:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/essential/concurrency/
Updated per comments:
OK Ravi, there are some big issues with your code and some minor issues with it:
I assume that the Receive class is your client... you should pull that out as a separate program (with its own main class) and run your server and multiple clients at the same time. Spawning a new "client thread" from your server for every new UDP package you send is a disturbing idea (big issue).
When you make your client application, you should make it run the receiving code in its own while loop (minor issue), e.g.:
public class Client extends Thread
{
public Client(/*..*/)
{
// initialize your client
}
public void run()
{
while(true)
{
// receive UDP packets
// process the UDP packets
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
{
// start your client
new Client().start();
}
}
You should only need just one thread per client and one thread per server (you technically don't even a separate thread in there since main has its own thread), so you might not find the ExecutorService that useful.
Otherwise your approach is correct... but I would still recommend that you check out some of examples.

Wanting to create threads in an application is not absurd! You won't need exactly 2 threads, but I think you're talking about 2 classes that implement the Runnable interface.
The threading API has gotten better since Java 1.5 and you don't need to mess with java.lang.Thread anymore. You can simply create a java.util.concurrent.Executor and submit Runnable instances to it.
The book Java Concurrency in Practice uses that exact problem - creating a threaded socket server - and walks through several iterations of the code to show the best way to do it. Check out the free sample chapter, which is great. I won't copy/paste the code here, but look specifically at listing 6.8.

It's a good thing Eclipse's history works even for a day back :) Thanks to that, I am able to give both Ravi a working example and Lirik his answer on leakage.
Let me first start of by stating that I have no clue what is causing this leak, but if I leave it long enough, it will fail on a OutOfMemoryError.
Second, I left the working code commented out for Ravi for a working basic example of my UDP server. The timeout was there to test how long my firewall would kill the receivers end (30 seconds). Just remove anything with the pool, and you're good to go.
So here is, a working but leaking version of my example threaded UDP server.
public class TestServer {
private static Integer TIMEOUT = 30;
private final static int MAX_BUFFER_SIZE = 8192;
private final static int MAX_LISTENER_THREADS = 5;
private final static SimpleDateFormat DateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-dd-MM HH:mm:ss.SSSZ");
private int mPort;
private DatagramSocket mSocket;
// You can remove this for a working version
private ExecutorService mPool;
public TestServer(int port) {
mPort = port;
try {
mSocket = new DatagramSocket(mPort);
mSocket.setReceiveBufferSize(MAX_BUFFER_SIZE);
mSocket.setSendBufferSize(MAX_BUFFER_SIZE);
mSocket.setSoTimeout(0);
// You can uncomment this for a working version
//for (int i = 0; i < MAX_LISTENER_THREADS; i++) {
// new Thread(new Listener(mSocket)).start();
//}
// You can remove this for a working version
mPool = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(MAX_LISTENER_THREADS);
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
// You can remove this for a working version
public void start() {
try {
try {
while (true) {
mPool.execute(new Listener(mSocket));
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
} finally {
mPool.shutdown();
}
}
private class Listener implements Runnable {
private final DatagramSocket socket;
public Listener(DatagramSocket serverSocket) {
socket = serverSocket;
}
private String readLn(DatagramPacket packet) throws IOException {
socket.receive(packet);
return new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new ByteArrayInputStream(packet.getData())), MAX_BUFFER_SIZE).readLine();
}
private void writeLn(DatagramPacket packet, String string) throws IOException {
packet.setData(string.concat("\r\n").getBytes());
socket.send(packet);
}
#Override
public void run() {
DatagramPacket packet = new DatagramPacket(new byte[MAX_BUFFER_SIZE], MAX_BUFFER_SIZE);
String s;
while (true) {
try {
packet = new DatagramPacket(new byte[MAX_BUFFER_SIZE], MAX_BUFFER_SIZE);
s = readLn(packet);
System.out.println(DateFormat.format(new Date()) + " Received: " + s);
Thread.sleep(TIMEOUT * 1000);
writeLn(packet, s);
System.out.println(DateFormat.format(new Date()) + " Sent: " + s);
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
if (args.length == 1) {
try {
TIMEOUT = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
} catch (Exception e) {
TIMEOUT = 30;
}
}
System.out.println(DateFormat.format(new Date()) + " Timeout: " + TIMEOUT);
//new TestServer(4444);
new TestServer(4444).start();
}
}
btw. #Lirik, I witnessed this behavior first in Eclipse, after which I tested it from the command line. And again, I have NO clue what is causing it ;) sorry...

2 threads is fine. One reader another writer. Remember that with UDP you should not spawn new handler threads (unless what you're doing takes a long time), I recommend throwing the incoming messages into a processing Queue. The same for the send, have a send thread that blocks on an incoming Queue for UDP send.

Using Threads to Handle Sockets

I am working on a java program that is essentially a chat room. This is an assignment for class so no code please, I am just having some issues determining the most feasible way to handle what I need to do. I have a server program already setup for a single client using threads to get the data input stream and a thread to handle sending on the data output stream. What I need to do now is create a new thread for each incoming request.
My thought is to create a linked list to contain either the client sockets, or possibly the thread. Where I am stumbling is figuring out how to handle sending the messages out to all the clients. If I have a thread for each incoming message how can I then turn around and send that out to each client socket.
I'm thinking that if I had a linkedlist of the clientsockets I could then traverse the list and send it out to each one, but then I would have to create a dataoutputstream each time. Could I create a linkedlist of dataoutputstreams? Sorry if it sounds like I'm rambling but I don't want to just start coding this, it could get messy without a good plan. Thanks!
EDIT
I decided to post the code I have so far. I haven't had a chance to test it yet so any comments would be great. Thanks!
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.DataOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.concurrent.BlockingQueue;
import java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue;
public class prog4_server {
// A Queue of Strings used to hold out bound Messages
// It blocks till on is available
static BlockingQueue<String> outboundMessages = new LinkedBlockingQueue<String>();
// A linked list of data output streams
// to all the clients
static LinkedList<DataOutputStream> outputstreams;
// public variables to track the number of clients
// and the state of the server
static Boolean serverstate = true;
static int clients = 0;
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException{
//create a server socket and a clientSocket
ServerSocket serverSocket = null;
try {
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(6789);
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("Could not listen on port: 6789");
System.exit(-1);
}// try{...}catch(IOException e){...}
Socket clientSocket;
// start the output thread which waits for elements
// in the message queue
OutputThread out = new OutputThread();
out.start();
while(serverstate){
try {
// wait and accept a new client
// pass the socket to a new Input Thread
clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
DataOutputStream ServerOut = new DataOutputStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream());
InputThread in = new InputThread(clientSocket, clients);
in.start();
outputstreams.add(ServerOut);
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("Accept failed: 6789");
System.exit(-1);
}// try{...}catch{..}
// increment the number of clients and report
clients = clients++;
System.out.println("Client #" + clients + "Accepted");
}//while(serverstate){...
}//public static void main
public static class OutputThread extends Thread {
//OutputThread Class Constructor
OutputThread() {
}//OutputThread(...){...
public void run() {
//string variable to contain the message
String msg = null;
while(!this.interrupted()) {
try {
msg = outboundMessages.take();
for(int i=0;i<outputstreams.size();i++){
outputstreams.get(i).writeBytes(msg + '\n');
}// for(...){...
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println(e);
} catch (InterruptedException e){
System.out.println(e);
}//try{...}catch{...}
}//while(...){
}//public void run(){...
}// public OutputThread(){...
public static class InputThread extends Thread {
Boolean threadstate = true;
BufferedReader ServerIn;
String user;
int threadID;
//SocketThread Class Constructor
InputThread(Socket clientSocket, int ID) {
threadID = ID;
try{
ServerIn = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(clientSocket.getInputStream()));
user = ServerIn.readLine();
}
catch(IOException e){
System.out.println(e);
}
}// InputThread(...){...
public void run() {
String msg = null;
while (threadstate) {
try {
msg = ServerIn.readLine();
if(msg.equals("EXITEXIT")){
// if the client is exiting close the thread
// close the output stream with the same ID
// and decrement the number of clients
threadstate = false;
outputstreams.get(threadID).close();
outputstreams.remove(threadID);
clients = clients--;
if(clients == 0){
// if the number of clients has dropped to zero
// close the server
serverstate = false;
ServerIn.close();
}// if(clients == 0){...
}else{
// add a message to the message queue
outboundMessages.add(user + ": " + msg);
}//if..else...
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println(e);
}// try { ... } catch { ...}
}// while
}// public void run() { ...
}
public static class ServerThread extends Thread {
//public variable declaration
BufferedReader UserIn =
new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
//OutputThread Class Constructor
ServerThread() {
}//OutputThread(...){...
public void run() {
//string variable to contain the message
String msg = null;
try {
//while loop will continue until
//exit command is received
//then send the exit command to all clients
msg = UserIn.readLine();
while (!msg.equals("EXITEXIT")) {
System.out.println("Enter Message: ");
msg = UserIn.readLine();
}//while(...){
outboundMessages.add(msg);
serverstate = false;
UserIn.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println(e);
}//try{...}catch{...}
}//public void run(){...
}// public serverThread(){...
}// public class prog4_server

I have solved this problem in the past by defining a "MessageHandler" class per client connection, responsible for inbound / outbound message traffic. Internally the handler uses a BlockingQueue implementation onto which outbound messages are placed (by internal worker threads). The I/O sender thread continually attempts to read from the queue (blocking if required) and sends each message retrieved to the client.
Here's some skeleton example code (untested):
/**
* Our Message definition. A message is capable of writing itself to
* a DataOutputStream.
*/
public interface Message {
void writeTo(DataOutputStream daos) throws IOException;
}
/**
* Handler definition. The handler contains two threads: One for sending
* and one for receiving messages. It is initialised with an open socket.
*/
public class MessageHandler {
private final DataOutputStream daos;
private final DataInputStream dais;
private final Thread sender;
private final Thread receiver;
private final BlockingQueue<Message> outboundMessages = new LinkedBlockingQueue<Message>();
public MessageHandler(Socket skt) throws IOException {
this.daos = new DataOutputStream(skt.getOutputStream());
this.dais = new DataInputStream(skt.getInputStream());
// Create sender and receiver threads responsible for performing the I/O.
this.sender = new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
while (!Thread.interrupted()) {
Message msg = outboundMessages.take(); // Will block until a message is available.
try {
msg.writeTo(daos);
} catch(IOException ex) {
// TODO: Handle exception
}
}
}
}, String.format("SenderThread-%s", skt.getRemoteSocketAddress()));
this.receiver = new Thread(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
// TODO: Read from DataInputStream and create inbound message.
}
}, String.format("ReceiverThread-%s", skt.getRemoteSocketAddress()));
sender.start();
receiver.start();
}
/**
* Submits a message to the outbound queue, ready for sending.
*/
public void sendOutboundMessage(Message msg) {
outboundMessages.add(msg);
}
public void destroy() {
// TODO: Interrupt and join with threads. Close streams and socket.
}
}
Note that Nikolai is correct in that blocking I/O using 1 (or 2) threads per connection is not a scalable solution and typically applications might be written using Java NIO to get round this. However, in reality unless you're writing an enterprise server which thousands of clients connect to simultaneously then this isn't really an issue. Writing bug-free scalable applications using Java NIO is difficult and certainly not something I'd recommend.